Allegorical Readers and Cultural Revision in Ancient AlexandriaAllegorical readings of literary or religious texts always begin as counterreadings, starting with denial or negation, challenging the literal sense: "You have read the text this way, but I will read it differently." David Dawson insists that ancient allegory is best understood not simply as a way of reading texts, but as a way of using non-literal readings to reinterpret culture and society. Here he describes how some ancient pagan, Jewish, and Christian interpreters used allegory to endorse, revise, and subvert competing Christian and pagan world views. This reassessment of allegorical reading emphasizes socio-cultural contexts rather than purely formal literary features, opening with an analysis of the pagan use of etymology and allegory in the Hellenistic world and pagan opposition to both techniques. The remainder of the book presents three Hellenistic religious writers who each typify distinctive models of allegorical interpretation: the Jewish exegete Philo, the Christian Gnostic Valentinus, and the Christian Platonist Clement. The study engages issues in the fields of classics, history of Christianity and Hellenistic Judaism, literary criticism and theory, and more broadly, critical theory and cultural criticism. |
From inside the book
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... persons who helped in some way in the early stages of the project , I must single out Susan Garrett , Dale Martin , Wayne Meeks , Alan Scott , and Kathryn Tanner . Each responded helpfully to various drafts and ideas and pro- vided much ...
... persons who helped in some way in the early stages of the project , I must single out Susan Garrett , Dale Martin , Wayne Meeks , Alan Scott , and Kathryn Tanner . Each responded helpfully to various drafts and ideas and pro- vided much ...
Page 15
... persons because of an analogy they bear to one another . Because it is said to preserve the historical reality of both the initial " type " and its corresponding " antitypes , " typology is said to differ from allegory , which dissolves ...
... persons because of an analogy they bear to one another . Because it is said to preserve the historical reality of both the initial " type " and its corresponding " antitypes , " typology is said to differ from allegory , which dissolves ...
Page 31
... person deliberately saying something intelligible makes a meaningful utterance ; a parrot repeating the words does not . Expression was meaningful when it sig- nified what the Stoics called lekta ( " things meant " or " meanings ...
... person deliberately saying something intelligible makes a meaningful utterance ; a parrot repeating the words does not . Expression was meaningful when it sig- nified what the Stoics called lekta ( " things meant " or " meanings ...
Page 56
... persons at all . ( Nat . d . 3.62-63 ) The final pernicious result of such interpretation was to dignify harmful things with the names of gods and even to create forms for their wor- ship- " witness the temple to Fever on the Palatine ...
... persons at all . ( Nat . d . 3.62-63 ) The final pernicious result of such interpretation was to dignify harmful things with the names of gods and even to create forms for their wor- ship- " witness the temple to Fever on the Palatine ...
Page 58
... person the name that works neatly into the verse . ( Ben . 1.3.10 ) Seneca's judgment that names are selected because they work " neatly into the verse " owes virtually nothing to the Old Stoic confidence in the correspondence between ...
... person the name that works neatly into the verse . ( Ben . 1.3.10 ) Seneca's judgment that names are selected because they work " neatly into the verse " owes virtually nothing to the Old Stoic confidence in the correspondence between ...
Contents
23 | |
24 | |
38 | |
52 | |
PHILO THE REINSCRIPTION OF REALITY | 73 |
Jewish Allegory and Hellenism | 74 |
Representation and Textualization | 83 |
The World within the Text | 113 |
CLEMENT THE NEW SONG OF THE Logos | 183 |
Logos Theology as Allegorical Hermeneutic | 186 |
The Antecedent Voice of Cultural Classics | 199 |
Sectarianism and Dometicated Gnōsis | 219 |
AFTERWORD | 235 |
NOTES | 241 |
BIBLIOGRAPHY | 297 |
GENERAL INDEX | 319 |
VALENTINUS THE APOCALYPSE OF THE MIND | 127 |
Allegorical Interpretation as Composition | 129 |
Mystical Vision and Allegorical Revision | 145 |
Christian Initiation and the History Within | 170 |
SCRIPTURE PASSAGES CITED | 333 |
ANCIENT PASSAGES CITED | 335 |
Other editions - View all
Allegorical Readers and Cultural Revision in Ancient Alexandria David Dawson No preview available - 1992 |
Common terms and phrases
Adam aeons Alexandrian allegorical interpretation allegorical reading ancient Aristeas Aristobulus authority Basilides biblical Cambridge catachresis character Christ claim Clement Clement of Alexandria contrast Cornutus Cornutus's Criticism cultural deities distinction divine logos Early Christian edited Egypt Epidr etymology expression Father frag fragment Genesis gnōsis Gnostic Gnostic myth Gospel of Truth Greek Harvard Univ Hebrew scripture Hellenism Hellenistic Heraclitus Heraclitus's hermeneutical Hesiod History Homer human insights intratextual Jesus Jewish Christianity Jews John Judaism Justin language Layton lexical linguistic literal literary Literature Loeb Classical Library meaning metaphor Middle Platonists Moses narrative nonliteral readings Numenius original pagan Pantaenus passage Pentateuch personification Philo philosophical Plato Plutarch poets Press Protr readers reading of scripture reality realm revision revisionary reading rhetorical Roman sense Septuagint soul speaks Stoic Strom symbol textual Theology things tion tradition translation typology Valentinian Valentinus Valentinus's voice wisdom words writing York Zeus