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

Alternatively, the so-called four-fold method of hermeneutics—where any line or
image might bear up to four layers of meaning, the literal, the allegorical, the tropological
(i.e. moral) and the anagogical (i.e. relating to the afterlife in Heaven)—allowed multiple
meanings to co-exist harmoniously, such that an obscure passage might be rendered
meaningful by abstracting from the literal meaning. 99 Gregory, on the other hand,
proposed that Scripture would reveal its meaning according to the needs of the exegete’s
audience. 100 Alternatively, Aquinas argued that the interpretation of the text depended on
whether one considered the author’s original intention (which was how Aquinas defined
the literal sense) or God’s intention, as the ultimate author of both Scripture and the
history contained in it (the spiritual sense). The literal interpretation was the only one that
could be used as a proof text, although he allowed that the spiritual sense could be used
for edification and spiritual improvement. 101
Martin Luther proposed a radically different hermeneutic, because for Luther,
Scripture was not obscure, in fact. 102 Or at least, its obscurities were incidental, the result
of poor translation and bad editing practices. To this end, Luther commended Erasmus’
99 For the history of four-fold hermeneutic see Henri de Lubac, Exégèse médiévale: les quatre sens de
l'écriture (Paris: Desclee de Brouwer, 1993), especially vol. 1 for its origins. See also Gerald Bonner,
"Augustine as Biblical Scholar," in The Cambridge History of the Bible: From the Beginnings to Jerom,
541-563 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970), 554-557.
100 Smalley, 32-33. Smalley writes that Greogry was responding to a need for spiritual guidance at a time
“when civilization seemed to be condemned” as the Roman empire was under threat from the “barbarian”
armies.
101 Aquinas, Part 1, Question 1, Article 10, Response. Quoted in G. W. H. Lampe, Dom Jean Leclercq,
Beryl Smalley, S. J. P. vam Dijk and Erwin I. J. Rosenthal, "The Exposition and Exegesis of Scripture," in
The Cambridge History of the Bible: The West from the Fathers to the Reformation, ed. G. W. H. Lampe,
155-279 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969), 216.
102 In De servo arbitrio from 1525, Luther writes: “In Deo esse multa abscondia, quae ignoremus, nemo
dubitat, sicut ipsemet dicit de die extremo...Sed esse in scriptura quaedam abstrusa et non omnia exposita,
invulgatum est quidem per impios Sophistas...Hoc sane fateor, esse multa loca in scripturis obscura et
abstrusa, non ob maiestatem rerum, sed ob ignorantiam vocabulorum et grammaticae, sed quae nihil
impediant scientiam omnium rerum in scripturis. Quid enim potest in scripturis augustius latere reliquum,
postquam fractis signaculis et voluto ab hostio sepulchri lapide, illud summum mysterium proditum est,
Christum filium Dei factum hominem...Res igitur in scripturis contentae omnes sunt proditae, licet
quaedam loca adhuc verbis incognitis obscura sint.” WA18, 606:12-31. See also Henning Schröer,
Hermeneutik I, Vol. 15, in Theologische Realenzyklopädie (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1986), 115.
37