This book is a revision of a University of Durham Ph.D. dissertation completed under the supervision of Lewis Ayres. Crawford self-consciously follows in the footsteps of his doktorvater and others like Behr and Anatolios who, writing in this century, view the biblical interpretation of the fourth-century “pro-Nicenes” more favorably than did the twentieth-century scholarly tradition typified by R. P. C. Hanson. In contrast to that twentieth-century dismissal of pro-Nicene exegesis as unhistorical and even incompetent, Crawford argues that pro-Nicene theology is based on two movements, a revelatory movement from the Father, through the Son, and in the Spirit, and an exegetical/transformative movement in which the Christian is enabled by the Spirit to contemplate the Son in scripture, so as to be led to a vision of the Father (3–4). The Son takes central place in both of these movements, and Crawford aims to demonstrate the way the movements anchor pro-Nicene interpretation and produce its evident christocentricity.

Crawford further contends that this theology of scripture can be seen best through the study of individual theologians, and he justifies his surprising choice to focus on Cyril of Alexandria (rather than a fourth-century figure) on the grounds that he was among the most prolific of early exegetes, that he has not been served well in modern scholarship, and most important, that he “stood as the self-conscious heir of the robust, pro-Nicene theologies that developed in the latter half of the fourth century” (5).

Crawford develops his argument through five major chapters that survey Cyril's exegetical oeuvre. Chapters 2–5 deal with the revelatory movement. Chapter 2 addresses Cyril's theology of revelation, as Crawford argues that the saving operations of the Trinitarian persons are inseparable and that nevertheless revelation proceeds with a definite order, from the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit (42). Chapter 3 focuses on the Holy Spirit as the origin of scripture and on the unity of the entire Bible. Noteworthy in this chapter is Cyril's understanding that the unity of scripture as a book about Christ comes from its authorship by the Spirit who is consubstantial with Christ (114). Chapter 4 deals with the Christological mediation of scripture and emphasizes the distinction between the way the Son has spoken through the prophets in the Old Testament and the way he speaks in the Gospels. For Cyril, the Gospels occupy a unique place in the canon because in them, Jesus speaks directly, and thus in them we have an unmediated revelation of the Trinity through the incarnate Son (143). Chapter 5 concerns the role of scripture in the economy of salvation. In addition to Cyril's well-known emphases on the Spirit and the Eucharist as vehicles of divine presence, he also conceives of scripture as “a further means by which the church accesses the divine life of Christ” (176). Having thus completed his explication of the revelatory movement, Crawford turns in chapter 6 to the exegetical movement. Cyril believes any exegete can understand the historical sense of scripture, but only an exegete indwelt and illumined by the Holy Spirit can grasp scripture as a book about Christ that leads to a vision of the Father. Thus, Cyril's spiritual exegesis is not an arbitrary attempt to find Christ in every nook and cranny of the Bible, but rather a description of what happens to believers as the Spirit leads them to Christ and thus to the Father through their reading of the Bible (224).

The book shows an impressively comprehensive knowledge of a vast corpus of writings. Crawford gives the expected attention to Cyril's major works on Psalms, Isaiah, the Minor Prophets, John, and the Pauline epistles, and dips significantly into less studied works like De adoratione and the Homiliae in Lucam. There are no significant discussions of the Glaphyra in Penateuchum in the text of the book, but even this work garners ample mention in the footnotes. Crawford also shows a substantial grasp of the main pre-Nicene and pro-Nicene writers who forged the tradition that Cyril is extending. He comments on the way Origen, Athanasius, Didymus, Jerome, and others interpret the biblical texts on which Cyril also comments, and he clearly demonstrates both the continuity between Cyril and his predecessors, and more importantly, the interpretive elements that Cyril uniquely brings to the table. The book's range alone—both in Cyril's own writings and in those who went before him—makes it an important addition to scholarly works that have tended to be much narrower in focus.

The book's importance, however, goes beyond its breadth. Crawford makes a persuasive case that Cyril's treatment of scripture is coherent when understood within the world of his own assumptions, and that he is able to make a unique contribution to our retrieval of pro-Nicene theology. Such a retrieval, Crawford argues, should consist not merely of deducing Nicene theological propositions from scripture but of recognizing a vision of the Trinitarian nature of the divine-human relation (234). The Father reveals himself through the Son in the Spirit, and believers indwelt by the Spirit are united to the Son so as to behold the Father. Scripture stands at the intersection of these two movements, and thus scripture is integral to the transformation of believers (240). This understanding constitutes a significantly different concept than modern exegetes usually hold about what scripture is and what it does as we read it. Crawford's clear and thoughtful explication of this fundamental conception of the Bible goes a long way toward making the faith, the biblical interpretation, and the theology of the pro-Nicene church comprehensible to modern readers. The book thus does a great service to the scholarly community.