The revival of interest in patristic exegesis during the past twenty years has opened up many exciting avenues of study, and is contributing in no small measure to the increasing cooperation and mutual understanding of scholars from the different Christian traditions. Through the study of the way in which the early church used and interpreted scripture, fresh insight is being gained into the way in which doctrine developed in the church.

While this present work concentrates on the way in which the Fathers interpreted St John's Gospel, I am not unaware that other books and key passages of scripture (e.g. Philippians ii. 6 ff., Colossians i. 15 ff., Proverbs viii. 22 ff.) also played an important role. Nevertheless I believe that it was St John's Gospel, with its Logos-concept in the Prologue and its emphasis on the Father-Son relationship, that raised in a most acute way the problems which led the church to formulate her doctrines of the trinity and of the person of Christ.

In this study attention is fixed mainly on the trinitarian problem, although it has been necessary at many points to look at the strictly christological problem as well. Naturally whatever we may say about the relationship between Jesus Christ and God has implications for our doctrine of the person of Christ.