The Handbook of Patristic Exegesis

I remember when the hardback version of this came out more than a decade ago, when it seemed a landmark event indeed. We had it reviewed in Logos: A Journal of Eastern Christian Studies, and the reviewer suitably recognized what a crucial collection this was to any serious library of patristic studies. Though the paperback version is still expensive, it is far cheaper than the hardback, and the price, I daresay, reflects the heft of this volume and the massive work that went into compiling it. So, early in the new year, a paperback version will be published of Charles Kannengiesser, ed., Handbook of Patristic Exegesis (SBL Press, 2016), 1580pp.

About this tome the publisher tells us:

This essential volume presents a balanced and cohesive picture of the Early Church. It gives an overall view of the reception, transmission, and interpretation of the Bible in the life and thought of the Church during the first five centuries of Christianity, the so-called patristic era. The handbook offers the context and presuppositions necessary for understanding the development of the interpretative traditions of the Early Church, in its catechesis, its liturgy and as a foundation of its systems of theology. The handbook presents a comprehensive overview of the history of patristic exegesis.