MHAG is an extraordinary, if little known, work. One of its more interesting features is that, while most contemporary theology is often the work of “specialists” in such particularized fields as “biblical theology,” “ascetical” or “mystical theology,” “dogmatic theology,” “moral theology,” “liturgical theology,” “missiology,” and so forth, MHAG is difficult to classify because it covers all these fields in fully integrated fashion. Fr. Quay makes no effort to specialize in any one area of theology, and he is also very comfortable relating theology to other disciplines such as physics, fetal psychology, and anthropological and cultural studies. He carries his considerable learning easily. Never stuffy or “academic” in tone, MHAG flows effortlessly, clearly the fruit of heartfelt belief, thorough thought, meticulous and prayerful research, and abiding commitment to the objective content of the Catholic faith....Fr. Quay sets for himself a weighty task. In short, that task is nothing less than to explicate the nature and process of salvation in Christ and within the Church. The basic principle which Quay endeavors to render intelligible is that of the doctrine of “recapitulation.” This concept, particularly familiar to those who know the writings of St. Irenaeus, is moreover what underlies the New Testament and patristic understanding of salvation. Quay describes it as “a process intended to shape the entire life of the Christian” (MHAG, p. 7). He “unpacks” the idea further:

God intends that, through the action of His grace, each Christian

(a) relive in Christ, during the first portion of his life, all that God led His people through from the fall of Adam to Christ’s death and resurrection, and,

(b) thereafter, live as a son of God in Christ in the full freedom of the Holy Spirit, so as to glorify the Father in the Church by making Him known to all men through the Spirit’s power. (Ibid.)

Quay will spend the next 420-plus pages explaining as thoroughly as possible what the process of recapitulation means for the people of Israel, for Jesus Christ, for the individual follower of Christ, for the Church as Christ’s Body and Bride, and for the many cultures of mankind as God’s Kingdom grows. In this endeavor Quay shows himself to be at the forefront of what is currently called in Catholic circles “Neo-Patristic Theology.” Applying the methodology and insights of early Christian biblical interpretation to the contemporary context, he never loses sight of what is genuinely valuable in historical-critical biblical research or the secular sciences.

...The Old Testament in its uniquely Christian spiritual sense, Quay tells us, provides the God-ordained map of the spiritual terrain that those who are in Christ are intended to traverse. The Old Testament shows us the practical road of discipleship, one that we cannot bypass without real peril to our souls.

Quay thus answers the perennial challenge of the second-century heretic Marcion, who dispensed with the Old Testament and the God of the Jews as being at odds with the compassionate God revealed by Jesus, by countering that the Old Testament and the centuries of the development of Judaism were precisely the means by which God prepared a people for his Incarnation. Not only that, but this same development, chronicled throughout the entirety of the Old Testament in its various literary genres, is what we see recapitulated within a brief space of time in Christ’s own life as revealed in the Gospels. In Jesus we have the centuries of Judaism taken up, lived fully and in fulfillment of all the Old Testament types and shadows, and carried towards its true goal of salvation for the human race. Not only does Quay show us the historical value of the Old Testament, but he also goes on to show us its absolute necessity for every follower of Christ:

The Old Testament, understood recapitulatively, is the sole pedagogue (Gal. 3:23–26) that forms the Christian for the fullness of the life of the Spirit, the freedom in charity of the sons of God. (MHAG, p. 413)

Without the Old Testament it would be unlikely, to say the very least, that we could ever comprehend or follow the path laid out for us by the Lord Jesus Christ, or attain any authentic and critical self-knowledge through him.

The goal for the Christian’s life and for the Church as a whole is to grow into the same love that is shared by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In the early portion of MHAG, Quay provides perhaps one of the most stimulating and enlightening discussions of the inner life of the Trinity available. This alone is worth the price of the book, together with its invaluable exegesis of the Johannine meaning of glory, which in turn draws on the illuminating insights of St. Gregory of Nyssa. (Along the way, and still reflecting the thought of St. Gregory, Quay provides a very helpful resolution to the vexed filioque controversy—one which should be the last word on the subject and satisfactory to both Eastern and Western Christians.)