Interpretation and Allegory: Antiquity to the Modern Period

530 Pages·2003·34.51 MB·English

by  Jon Whitman

INTERPRETATION AND ALLEGORY
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INTERPRETATION
AND ALLEGORY
Antiquity to the Modern Period
EDITED
WITH INTRODUCTORY ESSAYS BY
JON WHITMAN
Library of Congress Cataloginpin-Publication Data
Interpretation and allegory : antiquity to the modern period / edited with
introductory essays by Jon Whitman.
p. cm.
Originally published: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2000, in series: Brill's studies
in intellectual history.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-391-04186-X
l. Hermeneutics-History. 2. Allegory. I. Whitman, Jon, 1949-
ISBN 0-391-04186-X
0 Copyright 2000 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written
permission from the publisher.
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use is granted by Brill provided that
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Fees are subject to change.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
To my wge, Ahuva,
and
to my daughter, Naomi Eliora
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CONTENTS
Preface .......................................................................................... xi
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1. A Retrospective Forward: Interpretation, Allegory,
and Historical Change ............................................................ 3
Jon Whitman
PART ONE
ANTIQUITY TO THE LATE MIDDLE AGES
2. Present Perspectives: Antiquity to the Late Middle Ages
[Prologue to chapters 3-1 l] ........................................................
Jon Whitman
A Antique interpretation of formative texts: 'units'
of analysis ....................................................................................
i Ancient Homeric interpretation [chapter 31 ......................
ii Alexandrian allegorization of Jewish Scripture
[chapter 41 ............................................................................
ma.. Rabbinic interpretation in its midrashic forms
[chapter 51 ............................................................................
iv Early Christian typology [chapter 61 ..................................
B Medieval philosophic designs: 'textures'
of interpretation ..........................................................................
v Philosophic modes in medieval Islam
[chapter 71 ................................................................................
vi Jewish approaches to philosophic allegory
[chapters 8-91 ..........................................................................
vii Christian allegorization of ancient philosophic
writing [chapter 101 ..............................................................
viii Philosophic attitudes toward signification
in Christian Scripture [chapter l l] ....................................
Vlal..l CONTENTS
A. Antique Interpretation of Fornative Texts
3. Language, Text, and Truth in Ancient Polytheist
Exegesis ................................................................................ 7 3
Robert Lamberton
4. Plato's Soul and the Body of the Text in Phi10
and Origen ......................................................................... 89
David Dawson
5. Theology and Exegesis in Midrashic Literature .............. 109
Man Hirshman
6. Allegory and Reading God's Book: Paul and Augustine
on the Destiny of Israel ...................................................... 125
Pauh Fredn'ksen
B. Medieval Philosophic Designs
7. The Utilization of Allegory in Islamic Philosophy .......... 153
Ayred L. Ivry
8. On Maimonides' Allegorical Readings of Scripture ........ 18 1
Warren <m Haruy
9. Philosophic Allegory in Medieval Jewish Culture:
The Crisis in Languedoc (13 04-6) .................................... 189
Creg Stem
10. Philosophy, Commentary, and Mythic Narrative
in Twelfth-Century France ................................................ 2 11
Winthrop Wetherbee
1 1. Quadmplex Sensus, Multiplex Modus: Scriptural Sense
and Mode in Medieval Scholastic Exegesis ...................... 231
A.J. Minnis
k
CONTENTS
PART TWO
THE LATE MIDDLE AGES TO THE MODERN PERIOD
12. Present Perspectives: The Late Middle Ages to the
Modern Period [Prologue to chapters 13-20] ........................
Jon Whitman
Late medieval and Renaissance sign systems:
'grammars' of transformation ................................................
i Kabbalistic codes [chapter 131 ......................................
ii Mythographic programs [chapter 141 ............................
iii Hieroglyphic formulations [chapter 1.51 ........................
iv Emblematic transactions [chapter 161 ............................
Eighteenth- to twentieth-century theories of allegory:
'temporalities' of discourse ....................................................
v Eighteenth-century conceptions of mythology
[chapter 171 ........................................................................
vi Romantic approaches to 'allegory,'
'symbol,' and mythology [chapter 181 ............................
vii Early twentieth-century reassessments
of 'allegory' [chapter 191 ................................................
...
vm Poststructuralist critiques of figuration
[chapter 201 ......................................................................
C. Late Medieval and Renaissance Sign Systems
..........
13. Allegory and Divine Names in Ecstatic Kabbalah
Moshe Idel
14. Boccaccio: The Mythographer of the City ......................
Guseppe F. Maczotta
15. Renaissance Hieroglyphic Studies: An Ove~ew. ...........
Charles Dem@sy
16. Sixteenth-Century Emblems and Imprese as Indicators
of Cultural Change ............................................................
Peter M. Daly