Allegory and the rule of faith

If God speaks in Scripture, then the text can contain more than its human author had in mind. This conviction opened the way to very rich readings, and sometimes very free ones.

Irenaeus and Origen: looking for the hidden meaning

Irenaeus of Lyon (second century) is the first Christian writer to read several New Testament writings allegorically. His reason is simple: it is not only a man who speaks in these texts, it is the Word of God and his Spirit. For him, whether or not a passage is understood, it remains the word of God.

Origen (third century) goes further. The Scriptures, he writes, “were written by the Spirit of God, and have a meaning, not such only as is apparent at first sight, but also another, which escapes the notice of most”. For him, allegory gives access to this deeper meaning, and such reading is possible only within the Church.

Clement of Alexandria adds an important idea: the tradition of the Church contains an unwritten method for interpreting Scripture, which he calls the “ecclesiastical rule”.

The rule of faith, a safeguard

How can a free reading be kept from drifting? Irenaeus proposes the rule of faith (Tertullian would call it regula fidei). It is the content of the confession of faith that every catechumen recited by heart before baptism: one God the creator, Christ incarnate, dead and risen, the Spirit, salvation.

This rule sums up the whole meaning of the Gospel. Even someone who cannot read the Scriptures is saved by the faith it expresses. And any interpretation that contradicts it is set aside.

Augustine: understanding, passing on, loving

In On Christian Doctrine, Augustine distinguishes two stages: finding the meaning of a text, then helping others understand it. One must look for what the biblical author meant, but this search depends on the light God gives, not only on the reader’s intelligence.

Augustine adds a decisive criterion: all of Scripture aims at the love of God and of neighbour (Matthew 22:37-39). An interpretation that does not make this love grow has not understood the text. He goes so far as to say that whoever abides in faith, hope and love needs Scripture only to instruct others.

The four senses of the Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages these insights were systematised. Each passage was read according to four senses, summed up in a formula attributed to the Dominican Augustine of Dacia (thirteenth century):

“The letter teaches what happened, allegory what you should believe, the moral sense what you should do, anagogy what you should strive towards.”

Take Jerusalem: in the literal sense it is a city; in the allegorical sense, the Church; in the moral sense, the faithful soul; in the anagogical sense, the heavenly city.

This method nourished centuries of prayer and preaching. But it carried a risk: letting the spiritual meaning drift away from what the text actually says. It is precisely here that the humanists and the Reformers would react.