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Augustine And Allegory In Brief
Preface
Photo: Morocco, trekearth.com
Originally published 20140704, this is a brief section in my PhD work that did not make the final thesis version, before or after the PhD Viva. Not all my Augustine work made the final PhD version. I think it will be an intellectual challenge to update this limited work for an article entry on academia.edu for 20240807.
Augustine And Allegory In Brief
Edited from PhD
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).
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August 2024
Veritas: Jurnal Teologi Dan Pelayanan 2021
Cited
file:///E:/DT%20101%20G2/Back%20Up/04-rule-of-love.pdf
VERITAS: JURNAL TEOLOGI DAN PELAYANAN 20, no. 2 (December 2021): 207–218 pISSN: 1411-7649; eISSN: 2684-9194 DOI: https://doi.org/10.36421/veritas.v20i2.499
Rule of Love and Rule of Faith in Augustine’s Hermeneutics: A Complex Dialectic of the Twofold Rules
Steven Yong
Cited
'Abstract: Since the sixteenth-century Reformation, literal interpretation of the Bible has been deemed the best hermeneutical method to unearth the biblical writers’ original meaning. For the Reformers, allegorical interpretation was denigrated for reading an extraneous, or spiritual, meaning into any text. Although Augustine was among the first who champions a literal interpretation of the Scripture—as he outlined in his De doctrina christiana—until recent decades, Augustine is still being perceived as inconsistent in following his hermeneutical method as it is attested in his interpretation of the Good Samaritan. In his interpretation, Augustine seems to have allegorized the parable, thus his method was accused of being inconsistent. Is it really the case? This article attempts to contest such an accusation by showing that Augustine’s method of interpretation cannot simply be categorized as either entirely literal or allegorical. Augustine never professes as a literalist, an exegete who only applies what is now known as a historical-critical method. On the other hand, he did not recklessly legitimate the application of allegorical reading to any text. Taken as a whole, Augustine’s hermeneutics revolves around a complex dialectic of regula dilectionis (the rule of love) and regula fidei (the rule of faith) that allows both interpretations to be considered to be true.'
Note that De doctrina christiana is also known as, in English, 'On Christian Doctrine', and 'On Christian Teaching', both titles were used within my PhD work
