Review of: Daniélou J. Tainstvo budushchego: issledovaniya o proiskhozhdenii bibleyskoi tipologii [Sacramentum Futuri: Studies on the Origins of Biblical Typology] / transl. V. N. Genke, ed. A. G. Dunayev. Moscow: 2013. 448 p.

Abstract

Cardinal Jean Danielou (1905-1974), a world-renowned Catholic theologian and professor at the Faculty of Theology at the Catholic Institute in Paris, The Mystery of the Future1 deals with the emergence and development of a typological interpretation of the so-called Six Books of the Bible (from Genesis to Joshua). It consists of five studies, each tracing the history of a single exegetical theme from its biblical prehistory in the Old and New Testaments and in Judaism, both Palestinian and Alexandrian, and then in the writings of the Church Fathers to about 400 BC. The task the author had set himself with regard to these several topics was to establish the links between the typological exegesis of the New Testament, on the one hand, and the exegesis of the great teachers of the fourth century, on the other, in order to find out whether there was a continuity and what it consisted in. J. Danielou has made a significant contribution to the study of ancient Christian exegetics. Although this book was written more than half a century ago, it remains an unrivalled and much sought-after study in terms of its intention and composition and its breadth of outlook.