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. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1992. Allegorical 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 alle |
From inside the book
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... received a great deal of concrete aid in the fi- nal stages of writing and revision . The entire manuscript has benefited greatly from Richard Luman's learned suggestions for changes in style and substance . Anne McGuire offered a very ...
... received a great deal of concrete aid in the fi- nal stages of writing and revision . The entire manuscript has benefited greatly from Richard Luman's learned suggestions for changes in style and substance . Anne McGuire offered a very ...
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... received consistently excellent help from the staffs of the Classics , Divinity , and Sterling Memorial libraries of Yale University , as well as from Haverford College's Magill Library and Bryn Mawr College's Canaday Library . Finally ...
... received consistently excellent help from the staffs of the Classics , Divinity , and Sterling Memorial libraries of Yale University , as well as from Haverford College's Magill Library and Bryn Mawr College's Canaday Library . Finally ...
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... received the name Briareos [ Briareōs ] because it raises [ airein ] what one might call the food [ bora ] , as it were , of the parts of the universe . ( Epidr . 17.27.7-18 ) Cornutus devotes every page of the Compendium to similar ...
... received the name Briareos [ Briareōs ] because it raises [ airein ] what one might call the food [ bora ] , as it were , of the parts of the universe . ( Epidr . 17.27.7-18 ) Cornutus devotes every page of the Compendium to similar ...
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... received preconcep- tions , formulated conceptions , related them to one another , and ex- pressed them by various names and words . For example , echoing com- mon Stoic social theory , Cornutus links the presence of conceptions ...
... received preconcep- tions , formulated conceptions , related them to one another , and ex- pressed them by various names and words . For example , echoing com- mon Stoic social theory , Cornutus links the presence of conceptions ...
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... received thus [ pany eikotōs ] , since all the things that come into being in accordance with the previously de- scribed process of motion disappear again by the same process as the cycle proceeds " ( Epidr . 6.6.20-6.7.4 ) .31 Cornutus ...
... received thus [ pany eikotōs ] , since all the things that come into being in accordance with the previously de- scribed process of motion disappear again by the same process as the cycle proceeds " ( Epidr . 6.6.20-6.7.4 ) .31 Cornutus ...
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