In recent years, several scholars of the Reformation have worked to complicate the notion of early Protestantism as a singular and liberating hermeneutic movement. In particular, critics like James Simpson and Ramie Targoff have targeted Tudor Bible scholarship as stifling and restrictive. Looking at Elizabethan psalm explications, I see neither a purely liberating nor a purely restrictive hermeneutic culture, but instead a combination of the literal and the figurative, of poetics and theology. Examining three different psalm explications by Martin Luther, John Hooper, and Thomas Wilcox, I find a wide variety of approaches to the Psalms, which suggests a relative interpretive freedom even among the Elizabethan Protestant elite. This analysis leads me to conclude that even early in the development of Protestant England there was no such thing as a unified Protestantism, but instead a patchwork of methods that trace back to humanism and Catholicism as well as emerging theories of literalism and poetics. / text

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In this thesis I argue, against much recent scholarship on early Christian exegesis, that the traditional distinction between the two exegetical schools of Alexandria and Antioch, the allegorists and the literalists respectively, ought to be maintained. Despite much overlap in terms of the school members’ training in grammar and rhetoric (one of the major arguments put forward by those who wish to do away with the two schools), a critical distinction lies in the ways the exegetes of the two early Christian centres used Scripture for the spiritual development of their audiences. This I demonstrate through a close analysis of the exegetical treatments of five passages from the Gospel of John by four authors, two Alexandrians, Origen and Cyril, and two Antiochenes, John Chrysostom and Theodore of Mopsuestia. I attend to my authors’ use of a shared exegetical principle that Scripture is inherently “beneficial” or “useful,” and therefore it is the exegete’s duty to draw out Scripture’s benefits, whether from the literal narrative or by moving beyond the letter to the non-literal plane. Examination of this principle allows us to understand these authors’ rationale—namely, the spiritual development of their audiences—for providing either a literal or a non-literal reading, rather than simplistically designating Alexandrians as “allegorists” and Antiochenes as “literalists.” I demonstrate that other than one brief instance, the Antiochenes remain at the literal level of the text to draw out Scripture’s benefits, whereas in every case the Alexandrians draw out benefit from the literal and the non-literal levels of the text. Moreover, I argue that one of the distinctive features of Alexandrian exegesis was that one of the most important benefits provided by the biblical text was its direct application to these authors’ contemporary church settings, situations, and even to the individual Christian souls. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / In this thesis I seek to provide an answer to the question of whether there were two distinct schools of scriptural interpretation in the two major centres of Alexandria and Antioch in the church of late antiquity. Traditionally scholars have characterized the Alexandrian exegesis as allegorical or spiritual and Antiochene as historical or literal. In recent decades, scholars have sought to do away with the distinction, tending to focus on the school members’ shared training in rhetoric and grammar. I argue that the traditional distinction ought to be maintained, but I draw attention to a critical distinction between the two schools, namely, the ways in which the exegetes of the two centres apply Scripture to their respective church settings. I demonstrate this by comparing the interpretations of five passages from the Gospel of John by two Alexandrian authors, Origen and Cyril, and two Antiochenes, John Chrysostom and Theodore of Mopsuestia.

To Know Worship and Love is the religious instruction curriculum produced and mandated for use by the Archdiocese of Melbourne. The primary series comprises a Teaching Companion and Student Text for every level of education, Preparatory to Year 6. This study undertakes examination of the series to determine if biblical metaphors for God which contain a physical vehicle are used and presented within it in accord with the accepted exegetical practices of the Church. The study begins by examining Church documents that pertain to both religious instruction and Scripture to determine a set of principles which should guide the use of Scripture. Notable among the six principles elucidated is the expectation that the use of Scripture should reflect accepted exegetical practices of the Church. These are defined as those which enable a clear understanding of the literal sense of Scripture, as ascertained through use of the Historical-Critical method. In order to come to a sound understanding of the literal sense of metaphors, the study reviews how they work and what results from their use. Such a review is important for two reasons. First, in the finding that metaphors for God prompt the formation of a concept of God, the need for their valid interpretation in religious instruction is stressed. Second, it enables the articulation of eight specific requirements for the interpretation of biblical metaphors for God. Subsequent examination of the series against what is required reveals that of the eight requirements, only one is provided within the series. No unit or activity identifies the sixty-three biblical metaphors cited in the series and no unit teaches students how they work to communicate meaning. No unit provides information of the vehicles used within their historical setting and no unit explains the historical circumstances which gave rise to the dominance of certain metaphors. In order to explain why biblical metaphors for God are presented so poorly in To Know Worship and Love, the use of Scripture generally in the series is examined against the six principles drawn from Church documents. The finding that the series does not observe the principles which should guide the use of Scripture, in particular, the finding that the series does not use accepted exegetical practices of the Church, provides significant insight into the inadequate presentation of metaphors. The study concludes by making three recommendations. First, it recommends that a process of rewriting To Know Worship and Love must be undertaken immediately. Second, it recommends that the use and placement of Scripture in religious instruction programmes in the future adhere to the six principles of the Church outlined in this study. Third, it recommends that the clear and accurate teaching of what metaphors and how they work be made a priority in religious instruction programmes.

Since the middle of the twentieth century, partly through the wide influence of Abraham Heschel’s work on the prophets and prophesy in Ancient Israel, an image of the prophet as an ‘outsider’ has emerged. This image contrasts, in critical ways, with an image of ‘the prophet’ that appears central in Spinoza’s Theologico-Political Treatise. Spinoza’s Treatise, however, is an inaugural text for the historical-critical study of prophesy in ancient Israel; and it casts a long shadow over Heschel’s view of prophesy. I identify three areas of tension between their images of prophets. The contrasts reveal that Heschel, and other twentieth century theorists of prophesy invest prophetic authority and authenticity in religious experience whose transformative power is a function of its ‘breaking through’ oppressive social/religious institutions and norms ‘from the outside.’ Spinoza, by contrast, accounts for prophetic authority via ‘immanence’: the location of prophets within a tradition of law and common ‘usage’ with the political institutions which they criticise and challenge. I argue, finally, that Spinoza’s image can accommodate the prophetic ‘outsider’ and rebel, and in a way that suggests that prophesy must now be conceived as encompassing social critique within the context of the arts.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

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Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

[pt] A tese Exegese bíblica em diálogo com estudos literários apresenta uma nova perspectiva sobre os estudos exegéticos de textos bíblicos a partir de pressupostos teóricos atuais nos estudos de literatura. O acento é colocado sobre questões investigadas pela Estética da Recepção e do Efeito, objetivando a elaboração de categorias novas para o entendimento de processos de leitura. A tese visa, ainda, à formulação de uma historiografia do ato interpretativo cristão, em função de premissas desenvolvidas para a leitura e a construção de sentido de textos literários, transpostas para o campo disciplinar exegético, hoje igualmente aberto ao diálogo e ao questionamento de interpretações fundadas em pressupostos essencialistas. Neste sentido, novas posturas hermenêutico- literárias, levando-se, em consideração, a historicidade de atos interpretativos, são articuladas com o entendimento e a configuração da exegese bíblica, como fenômeno literário cristão e como gênero meta-textual. As premissas heurísticas desenvolvidas por Wolfgang Iser, em vista de uma antropologia literária, oferecendo ao imaginário e aos processos interpretativos novas formas de produção de sentido - em particular na apreciação da obra hermenêutica de Santo Agostinho e no discurso hermenêutico antigo e medieval - representam neste projeto as diretrizes epistemológicas, teóricas e estéticas centrais. / [en] The thesis The Biblical Exegesis in dialogue with the Literary Studies presents a new perspective over the exegesis studies of biblical texts from actual theoretical presuppositions of the literary studies. The differential aspect comes from questions under research by the Aesthetics of Reception and Effect, which aim the elaboration of new categories for the understanding of the reading processes. The study also aims at formulating a historiography of the Christian interpretative act along with premises developed for reading and understanding of literary texts, which are transposed to the exegesis field. Since this latter has been equally open to dialogue and questioning of interpretations based in essentialist presuppositions. In such a sense, considering the history of the interpretative acts, new hermeneutical-literary approaches are articulated with the understanding and the biblical exegesis configuration as a Christian literary phenomenon and as a meta-textual genre. The heuristic premises developed by Wolfgang Iser, which offer new ways of meaning production to the imaginary and the interpretative processes - particularly in the appreciation of the hermeneutic work of St. Augustine and in the ancient and medieval hermeneutic discourse - towards a literary anthropology represent the epistemological, theoretical and aesthetical guidelines of this project.

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