Allegory
Allegory is defined as "a representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material forms; figurative treatment of one subject under the guise of another." The purpose of allegory is to provide a parallel example that is understandable to a subject that is not as easily understood.
Synonyms for allegory are parable, moral, symbolism, and story. Some of the more famous allegories are John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Plato's Allegory of the Cave, and the writings of C.S. Lewis, especially The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Gulliver's Travels is a classic allegory about British political life during a particular time in history. The Christian book Revelation is an allegory written in a form called "apocalyptic" meaning end of time. Revelation has stirred a number of Christian pop culture books called the Left Behind series. An unusual book that recently made the best seller's list is The Shack; a story that challenges many classical concepts of God and offers some some disturbing ones. Movies tell a story and many have the nature of allegory like James Cameron's Avatar.
Now I offer these last three because they are typical of the use of allegory in religious and early scientific circles. Socrates used allegory as a means to interpret the Greek system of gods in moving toward a rational 'science' of the universe. Two centuries later Philo of Alexandria would use allegory in a similar fashion to Plato as a way of interpreting and paralleling Jewish concepts of God and creation with that of the Greek philosophers.
Jewish leaders from the sect of the Pharisees were faced with the survival of their religion after the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. Instead of Temple worship being the central focus they re-focused Judaism to a religion based on the Torah. In making the ancient book come alive they found new interpretations for modern times by seeing in the old stories 'allegory'. The resulting tradition became known as midrash, the interpretation of scriptures for what was happening in their today-world.
More effectively and a few decades ahead of the Pharisees were the Christians who by the middle of the first century were allegorizing the Jewish text of the Bible as a means of understanding the mission and person of Jesus. Some scholars reference the whole of the Gospels as an allegory based on the Jewish Bible where texts are lifted from their context in order to explain the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Such texts from the Psalms, Isaiah, and even early Genesis were deemed as prophetic in that they gave a foreshadowing of what was to come. In the first century Christians found comfort in allegorically interpreting what they considered to be previously hidden meaning in texts promising a Messiah like Jesus.
A classical example is Isiah's suffering servant (53) written several hundred years before the time of Jesus to describe the suffering of God's people captive in Babylon has become the consummate allegory of Jesus. "He was wounded for our transgression, he was bruised for our inequities, the chastisement of our peace was laid upon him and by his stripes we are healed." So steeped are today's Christians in this allegorical interpretation that we would never question that this text is anything other than a proclamation of Jesus when it's original intent was about the quite suffering and triumph of Israel while surviving in Babylon.
Allegory serves the same purpose as metaphor when speaking about the unspeakable. The totality of God is beyond our understanding so we characterize parts of God in an effort to understand those limited qualities that are available for us to grasp. When we say God is our Rock, our Fortress, or even our Father it is not meant to be taken literally but symbolically communicating a limited attribute of an unlimited quantity.
The danger in such parallels is when their partial definition becomes a concrete, unshakable definition. For example, in the past several decades we have moved to be less masculine in use of metaphorical language. Even though we know God is beyond gender many still bristle with the idea that God is not male even though the Bible occasionally uses feminine metaphors to describe God.
Instead of seeing the metaphor or allegory in the Bible stories we take them literally. Conflict arises when our experience of life does not match what the Bible describes simply because the descriptions are limited by knowledge current at the time of the writing. And the real conflict is trying to decide which texts can then not be taken literally? Do we stone the offenders, refuse to wear cotton-polyester clothing, not use crop rotation as a means to feed the masses, or force women to be silent in church because an ancient text says so?
But then if we rationalize away the importance of one text, where do we stop? At stake is the very nature of that which we deem sacred. How then can we view texts as sacred, holy, and therefore sufficient to provide us with what we need? More coffee anyone?
Synonyms for allegory are parable, moral, symbolism, and story. Some of the more famous allegories are John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Plato's Allegory of the Cave, and the writings of C.S. Lewis, especially The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Gulliver's Travels is a classic allegory about British political life during a particular time in history. The Christian book Revelation is an allegory written in a form called "apocalyptic" meaning end of time. Revelation has stirred a number of Christian pop culture books called the Left Behind series. An unusual book that recently made the best seller's list is The Shack; a story that challenges many classical concepts of God and offers some some disturbing ones. Movies tell a story and many have the nature of allegory like James Cameron's Avatar.
Now I offer these last three because they are typical of the use of allegory in religious and early scientific circles. Socrates used allegory as a means to interpret the Greek system of gods in moving toward a rational 'science' of the universe. Two centuries later Philo of Alexandria would use allegory in a similar fashion to Plato as a way of interpreting and paralleling Jewish concepts of God and creation with that of the Greek philosophers.
Jewish leaders from the sect of the Pharisees were faced with the survival of their religion after the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. Instead of Temple worship being the central focus they re-focused Judaism to a religion based on the Torah. In making the ancient book come alive they found new interpretations for modern times by seeing in the old stories 'allegory'. The resulting tradition became known as midrash, the interpretation of scriptures for what was happening in their today-world.
More effectively and a few decades ahead of the Pharisees were the Christians who by the middle of the first century were allegorizing the Jewish text of the Bible as a means of understanding the mission and person of Jesus. Some scholars reference the whole of the Gospels as an allegory based on the Jewish Bible where texts are lifted from their context in order to explain the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Such texts from the Psalms, Isaiah, and even early Genesis were deemed as prophetic in that they gave a foreshadowing of what was to come. In the first century Christians found comfort in allegorically interpreting what they considered to be previously hidden meaning in texts promising a Messiah like Jesus.
A classical example is Isiah's suffering servant (53) written several hundred years before the time of Jesus to describe the suffering of God's people captive in Babylon has become the consummate allegory of Jesus. "He was wounded for our transgression, he was bruised for our inequities, the chastisement of our peace was laid upon him and by his stripes we are healed." So steeped are today's Christians in this allegorical interpretation that we would never question that this text is anything other than a proclamation of Jesus when it's original intent was about the quite suffering and triumph of Israel while surviving in Babylon.
Allegory serves the same purpose as metaphor when speaking about the unspeakable. The totality of God is beyond our understanding so we characterize parts of God in an effort to understand those limited qualities that are available for us to grasp. When we say God is our Rock, our Fortress, or even our Father it is not meant to be taken literally but symbolically communicating a limited attribute of an unlimited quantity.
The danger in such parallels is when their partial definition becomes a concrete, unshakable definition. For example, in the past several decades we have moved to be less masculine in use of metaphorical language. Even though we know God is beyond gender many still bristle with the idea that God is not male even though the Bible occasionally uses feminine metaphors to describe God.
Instead of seeing the metaphor or allegory in the Bible stories we take them literally. Conflict arises when our experience of life does not match what the Bible describes simply because the descriptions are limited by knowledge current at the time of the writing. And the real conflict is trying to decide which texts can then not be taken literally? Do we stone the offenders, refuse to wear cotton-polyester clothing, not use crop rotation as a means to feed the masses, or force women to be silent in church because an ancient text says so?
But then if we rationalize away the importance of one text, where do we stop? At stake is the very nature of that which we deem sacred. How then can we view texts as sacred, holy, and therefore sufficient to provide us with what we need? More coffee anyone?
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