Augustine And Allegory In Brief

Morocco-trekearth 

I found this brief section in my PhD work that did not make the dissertation before or after the PhD Viva.

Augustine And Allegory In Brief

Augustine’s hermeneutic included the idea that one should be mentally clear in regard to issues of God in order to receive guidance.[1]  This would support Robertson’s idea that Augustine’s hermeneutical assumptions began with a trust in divine guidance over scientific means of understanding the Biblical text.[2]  Robertson explains that Augustine did use an allegory method in his exposition of Scripture, but this was done in order to find the fullest possible interpretations of Scripture.[3]  Grenz, Guretzki, and Nordling define allegory as a method of Biblical interpretation where ‘hidden’ or ‘deeper’ understandings are sought.[4]  This favours a ‘spiritual’ meaning over literal ones.[5]  Klein, Blomberg, and Hubbard explain that this was the popular hermeneutical method within the era of the Church Fathers.[6] 

New Testament scholar, Klyne Snodgrass (1991) explains allegorical approaches would assign a spiritual meaning to specific texts, in particular ones difficult to interpret.[7]  Christian theology was often imposed on texts of the Old Testament, and this approach was common in the Christian Church until the Reformation.[8]  Although Augustine, for example, understood satanic beings as actual entities, this does not mean he used a literal hermeneutic in his overall theological approach, as Robertson points out Augustine uses the allegory method.[9]

AUGUSTINE (388-395)(1964) On Free Choice of the Will, Translated by Anna S.Benjamin and L.H. Hackstaff, Upper Saddle River, N.J., Prentice Hall.

AUGUSTINE (398-399)(1992) Confessions, Translated by Henry Chadwick, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

AUGUSTINE (400-416)(1987)(2004) On the Trinity, Translated by Reverend Arthur West Haddan, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series One, Volume 3, Denver, The Catholic Encyclopedia.

AUGUSTINE (421)(1998) Enchiridion, Translated by J.F. Shaw,  Denver, The Catholic Encyclopedia.

AUGUSTINE (426)(1958) The City of God, Translated by Gerald G. Walsh, Garden City, New York, Image Books.

AUGUSTINE (427)(1997) On Christian Doctrine, Translated by D.W. Robertson Jr., Upper Saddle River, N.J., Prentice Hall.

AUGUSTINE (427b)(1997) On Christian Teaching, Translated by R.P.H. Green, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

GRENZ, STANLEY J., DAVID GURETZKI AND CHERITH FEE NORDLING  (1999) Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms, Downers Grove, Ill., InterVarsity Press.

ROBERTSON, F.W. (1887)(1956) ‘Sermons: First Series’, in Thiessen, Henry C. Introductory Lectures in Systematic Theology, Grand Rapids, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

SNODGRASS, KLYNE (1991) ‘The Use of the Old Testament in the New’, in David Alan Black and David S. Dockery (eds.), New Testament Criticism and Interpretation, Grand Rapids, Zondervan Publishing House.

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[1] Augustine (427)(1997: 13).

[2] I reason hermeneutically a scholar does not need to choose between a regimented scientific methodology, and trusting in divine guidance. 

[3] Robertson (1958)(1997: xi).

[4] Grenz, Guretzki, and Nordling (1999: 8).

[5] Grenz, Guretzki, and Nordling (1999: 8).

[6] Klein, Blomberg, and Hubbard (1993: 32).

[7] Snodgrass (1991: 413).

[8] Snodgrass (1991: 413).

[9] Robertson (1958)(1997: xi).