medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear Frans,
This is fascinating. Thanks for your translation. Do you know of a
recent analysis of the exegesis of Job?
Cheers,
Jim
On 17/03/2011 12:23 PM, Frans van Liere wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> Meg, You you rpobably thinking of more practical example, such as the fourfold
> sense of the story of Job, exemplified in Hugh's De scripturis et scriptoribus
> sacris, ch. 3: (mytranslation, from PL 176)
>
> We give here one example of this threefold understanding. There was a man in
> the land of Us, named Job, who first was rich, but came to such misery that,
> sitting in the dung heap, he scratched even his healthy body with a potsherd.
> The historical sense is clear. Now we come to the allegory, in which we
> consider by the things that are signified by these words other things to be
> signified, and by one fact another fact. Job, whose name means “mourning”,
> signifies Christ, who first was coequal to the Father in the richess of his
> glory, but descended to our misery, and sat humbled on the dung heap of this
> world, sharing in all our defects for the sake of sin. Now we will ask what by
> this fact is signified that must happen, or is worthy to be done. Job can stand
> for whatever just or penitent soul, who in his memory makes up a dung heap out
> of all the sins he has committed and, not for a short time but perseveringly,
> sits on it and does not cease to weep while meditating on it. Those things that
> happened according to the letter that signifiy such spiritual things are called
> “sacraments”.
>
>
>
> Frans van Liere
> History Department, Calvin College
> 1845 Knollcrest Circle SE
> Grand Rapids MI 49546
>
>>>> James Ginther<[log in to unmask]> 3/16/2011 8:29 PM>>>
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> Prof Brown makes an important point here: while the fourfold sense was
> acknowledged throughout the Middle Ages, it was not employed uniformly. The
> early medieval approach differed considerably from the scholastic approach.
> I have worked more with the latter, and even then amongst the theologians
> of the schools there are significant differences. The distich translated
> here is often credited as coming from the pen of Augustine of Dacia (ca.
> 1260), but Robert Grosseteste has his own formulation specifically for the
> exegesis of the Psalms (and informed by the Tyconian Rules). The drawback
> of the Cassian example is that it is just an example and not representative
> of how the various senses were deployed in actual exegesis. For example,
> while the tropological sense (sensus moralis) was certainly tied to what you
> do (quid agas), theologians like Hugh of St-Cher spoke of it as "in persona
> animae fidelis" and that often permitted him to discuss what we would call
> aspects of philosophical psychology. Others, such as Grosseteste and
> Bonaventure, spoke of allegory not as just what you believe, but
> specifically about Christology and/or Ecclesiology.
>
> There is also the other issue of what exactly were the four senses. There
> general agreement but some significant outliers (Augustine muddied the
> waters by talking about an etiological sense--much to the chagrin of the
> scholastic synthesizers), and Hugh of St-Victor only spoke of three senses.
>
>
> So I would just suggest that the examples given may not completely present
> the state of play for exegesis in a given time.
>
> If you are interested in later medieval exegesis, Christopher Ocker's book
> on Biblical Poetics does a very nice job in delineating the complexity of
> that period. And at the risk of shameless self-promotion, I have a long
> entry on exegesis in my Westminster Handbook to Medieval Theology (partially
> viewable on Google Books).
>
> Jim
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 7:08 PM, George Brown<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>>
>> Besides Cassian, Gregory the Great in the *Moralia in Job* and Bede in
> *Deschematibus
>> et tropis describe the fourfold formula. In my A Companion to Bede, p. 25,
>> I have more on the theory of symbol applied to Christian salvific history
>> where I also cite the medieval distich that served as a memory aid:*
>> *Litera gesta docet, quid credas allegoria,*
>> *Moralis quid agas, quo tendas anagogia.*
>> *[The letter teaches event, allegory what you should believe./ Morality
>> teaches what you should do, anagogy what mark you should be aiming at. *
>> *And I refer to Henri de Lubac's Exégèse médiévale: le quatre sens de
>> l'Écriture (one volume of which has been translated into English). *
>> GHB
>>
>> On Mar 16, 2011, at 4:13 PM, Paul Chandler wrote:
>>
>> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>> You're probably thinking of the famous passage in John Cassian's
>> Conferences, 14.8.4:
>>
>> The four figures that have been mentioned converge in such a way that, if
>>> we want, one and the same Jerusalem can be understood in a fourfold
> manner.
>>> According to history it is the city of the Jews. According to allegory it
> is
>>> the Church of Christ. According to anagogy it is that heavenly city of God
>>> 'which is the mother of us all.' According to tropology it is the soul of
>>> the human being, which under this name is frequently either reproached or
>>> praised by the Lord.
>>>
>> (trans. Boniface Ramsey, ACW 57: 510)
>> An older translation is here:<
>> http://www.ccel.org/ccel/cassian/conferences.iii.v.viii.html> -- Paul
>>
>>
>>
>> On 17 March 2011 06:03, Cormack, Margaret Jean<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>>> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>>>
>>> Hi,
>>> Can anyone give me a good example illustrating the four levels of
>>> biblical interpretation? I had a website link which, foolishly,
>>> I never copied onto a 'real' file - and so lost! I have an example using
>>> 'light' from Thomas Aquinas, but recall seeing one
>>> with Jerusalem - and am wondering if there is an example with the
>>> sacrifice of Isaac as well?
>>> Thanks in advance,
>>> Meg
>>>
>>
>> --
>> Paul Chandler, O.Carm.
>> Holy Spirit Seminary | PO Box 18 (487 Earnshaw Road) | Banyo Qld 4014
>> | Australia
>> office: (07) 3246 9888 | home: (07) 3246 9894
>> [log in to unmask]
>> ********************************************************************** To
>> join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to:
>> [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to:
>> [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message:
>> leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report
>> problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
>> [log in to unmask] For further information, visit
>> our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
>>
>>
>> Prof. Em. George Hardin Brown, FMAA, FSA
>> Department of English, 450 Serra Mall
>> Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-2087
>> Home: 451 Adobe Place, Palo Alto, CA 94306-4501
>> Phones: Mobile: 650-269-9898; Fax: 650-725-0755; Home: 650-852-1231
>>
>> ********************************************************************** To
>> join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to:
>> [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to:
>> [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message:
>> leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report
>> problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
>> [log in to unmask] For further information, visit
>> our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
>>
>
>
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
|