 |
| 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.
[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).
