the mystical theology of valentin weigel - DataSpace at Princeton ...

as a martyr. Moreover, Holy Scripture, though many people call it “revelation,” is
frustratingly unclear (or at least obscure in parts), as the reams of commentary, centuries
of controversy and manuals on scriptural interpretation suggest. 93 Though the decisions
Christians make should lead to actions that bear witness to Christ, just exactly what they
must witness to is contained in a written text. 94 In order to determine how to act, one
must first determine how to interpret. In other words, the need for one yardstick generates,
in its turn, the need for a yardstick to measure the first yardstick.
Any number of such hermeneutical yardsticks has been proposed in the two
millennia since Christ’s death. Augustine, 95 for instance, suggested that, the “rule of
93 Augustine admits that Scripture is unclear, but then stresses the benefits of Scripture’s obscurity in the
City of God, redefining Scripture’s obscurity as bounty and plenitude. Augustine writes: “There is
something to be gained from the obscurity of the inspired discourses of Scripture. The differing
interpretations produce many truths and bring them to the light of knowledge; and the meaning of an
obscure passage may be established either by the plain evidence of the facts, or by other passages of less
difficulty. Sometimes the variety of suggestions leads to the discovery of the meaning of the writer;
sometimes this meaning remains obscure, but the discussion of the difficulties is the occasion for the
statment ofsome other truths.” (Augustine, City of God, Book 11:19.) St. Augustine, Concerning the City of
God against the Pagans, trans. Henry Bettenson (London: Penguin Books, 2003), 450. McGinn comments
that “Gregory [likewise] admitted that sometimes the literal sense was erroneous or self-contradictory and
therefore should be abandoned.” Bernard McGinn, The Growth of Mysticism (New York: Crossroad
Publishing Company, 1994), 42. See also Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann, Apokalypse und Philologie:
Wissensgeschichten und Weltentwürfe der Frühen Neuzeit, ed. Anja Hallacker and Boris Bayer (Göttingen:
V&R unipress, 2007), 53-78.
94 Of course, the relationship between ethics and interpretation is only pressing for those who believe the
content of a written text to be binding—as was the case for many or most forms of Christianity, Judaism
and Islam. Modern (secular) ethics, as a discipline, might refer to a legal code, or might refer to the books
written by other philosophers, but neither set of texts has an equivalently authoritative status as the Bible
did for most 16 th century Christians, and therefore the connection between reading and action might not
seem immediately obvious.
95 Augustine has great confidence in the ability of human readers to interpret Scripture, with gracious
divine support, of course. His De doctrina christiana presents “certain rules for interpreting the scriptures
which...can usefully be passed on to those with an appetite for such study to enable them to progress not
just by reading the work of others who have illuminated the obscurities of divine literature, but also by
finding illumination themselves.” (Augustine, De doctrina, 3.) Augustine is careful to insist on the
distinction between finding illumination through rule-guided interpretation and finding illumination
“without any human expositor.” (Ibid, 9.) and without rules, inspired directly (as they claim) by God. By
means of the rules for interpretation Augustine sets forth, a reader can “unerringly arrive at the hidden
meaning for himself or at least avoid falling into incongruous misconceptions.” (Ibid, 11.) Scripture is
chiefly characterized by its astonishing abundance (“mirabili abundantia”), which, like the loaves and fish
that were distributed amongst the faithful, is only augmented by dividing it amongst many interpreters.
(Ibid, 13.) For Augustine, interpretation enriches and augments, it does not encrust and obscure. Augustine,
De Doctrina Christiana, trans. R. P. H. Green (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995). Amongst the better known
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