Catholic view of biblical interpretation
My brother, Kirill, continues to supply with some unique alternative views on the topics I am studying. This time, he quotes a Catholic view on biblical interpretation as described in Cathechism of Catholic Church:
The senses of Scripture
According to an ancient tradition, one can distinguish between two senses of Scripture: the literal and the spiritual, the latter being subdivided into the allegorical, moral and anagogical senses. The profound concordance of the four senses guarantees all its richness to the living reading of Scripture in the Church.
The literal sense is the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture and discovered by exegesis, following the rules of sound interpretation: “All other senses of Sacred Scripture are based on the literal.”
The spiritual sense. Thanks to the unity of God’s plan, not only the text of Scripture but also the realities and events about which it speaks can be signs.
1. The allegorical sense. We can acquire a more profound understanding of events by recognizing their significance in Christ; thus the crossing of the Red Sea is a sign or type of Christ’s victory and also of Christian Baptism.
2. The moral sense. The events reported in Scripture ought to lead us to act justly. As St. Paul says, they were written “for our instruction”.
3. The anagogical sense (Greek: anagoge, “leading”). We can view realities and events in terms of their eternal significance, leading us toward our true homeland: thus the Church on earth is a sign of the heavenly Jerusalem.
A medieval couplet summarizes the significance of the four senses:The Letter speaks of deeds; Allegory to faith;
The Moral how to act; Anagogy our destiny.”
I shall post some reflections (and personal critisisms) of this view in one of my future posts. For now, just a few comments:
1) The literal meaning of the text the Cathechism is talking about is not the same as the original writer’s intended meaning, I was talking about in my original post.
2) “All other senses of Sacred Scripture are based on the literal.” is a very vague statement. From the description of the allegorical sense, it seems by “being based” they mean “looks like” or “resembles”.
Otherwise, there are some nuggets in these statements that when polished will become absolutely true.