Thomas
Aquinas--The Nature and Domain of Sacred Doctrine
The primary
contribution of Aquinas to literary criticism is the concept of
the fourfold typology. The assumption that typology rest
on is one that sees the world as a system of signs:
1) God made the world;
2) The world is God's book; and
3) The book is made of symbols.
The
concept of the world as God's book is directly related to that
of the Bible as God's book. Just as the Bible is a unity made up
of diverse elements, so the world is an internally consistent
unity made up of diverse elements. Both scripture and the
natural world can be read typologically. The typological system
is essentially binary: there is a literal meaning--what actually
happens at the level of the words themselves--and an allegorical
meaning. This allegorical meaning is split into three parts. The
first part is called (confusingly enough) allegory: this is the
level of correspondence between scripture and the physical
world. The second element is the moral level: this is the
behavioral and ethical message of scripture. The third part is
the anagogic level: this is the interpretation of scripture
which points to the end of the present world and the eternal
glory which lies beyond this world. Essentially the typology
looks like this:
1) Literal--what
actually happens at the level of the words themselves.
2) Allegorical--correspondence between scripture and the
physical world.
3) Moral--the behavioral and ethical message of
scripture.
4) Anagogic--the interpretation of scripture which points
to the end of the present world and the eternal glory which lies
beyond this world. |