Recherche – Detailansicht
Ausgabe: | April/2018 |
Spalte: | 327–328 |
Kategorie: | Bibelwissenschaft |
Autor/Hrsg.: | Lau, Dieter |
Titel/Untertitel: | Origenes’ tropologische Hermeneutik und die Wahrheit des biblischen Wortes. Ein Beitrag zu den Grundlagen der altchristlichen Bibelexegese. |
Verlag: | Frankfurt a. M. u. a.: Peter Lang 2016. 266 S. = Lateres. Texte und Studien zu Antike, Mittelalter und früher Neuzeit, 10. Geb. EUR 59,95. ISBN 978-3-631-67211-2. |
Rezensent: | Anders-Christian Jacobsen |
Dieter Lau has written an important book about Origen of Alexandria’s hermeneutic. L. claims (26) that even though much has been written about this, Origen’s use of tropology has not been sufficiently investigated. My first reaction to this claim was that this could not be true. However, L.’s book has convinced me otherwise. In his sometimes very technical approach to Origen’s hermeneutic, he manages to describe in detail some important aspects of this that gives a deeper understanding of this topic than is reached in many other less detailed and less technical descriptions of Origen’s hermeneutic.
As the title of the book says, it focuses on tropology, which according to L. is the key rhetorical term in Origen’s figurative exegesis. The intention of the book and the importance of an investigation of Origen’s use of tropology is explained in the introduction (15–30).
In the first chapter (31–76), Origen’s tropological terminology is described. The terminology is categorized in tropes signifying similarity (metaphor, allegory), tropes signifying continuity (metonymy, synecdoche), and tropes signifying contrariety (antiphrasis). L. also makes clear that Origen only very sparsely explains his use of tropology theoretically. His use of this methodology must, there-fore, be studied by analyzing examples of his concrete use of the technique and the terminology. Already in the first chapter, L. addresses the question about the relation between tropology and allegory – the term, which is used most often to describe Origen’s hermeneutic. The relation is that allegory is a sub-category of tropology. Finally, L. also explains that his findings show that Origen’s use of tropology grew from the early phase of his authorship to the later.
In the second chapter (77–94) with the heading Methodologie der origenischen Hermeneutik, L. demonstrates how important tropol-ogy is for Origen’s hermeneutic because the tropology is the ›tool‹ that Origen uses to connect the grammatical-rhetorical, the philosophical-metaphysical, and the theological aspects of his biblical exegesis. Further, the tropological method is what connects the visible and the noetical aspects of reality.
The third part of the book (95–124) deals with how Origen identifies the use of tropes in the biblical texts. L. points to two principles: the Bezugswelt (the aspect of reality to which a biblical passage relates) and the Inkompatibilität (the incompatibility between what the text says and the reality it seems to relate to). Sometimes, a biblical passage relates to the spiritual/noetic reality, sometimes to the visible corporeal reality. When a biblical passage relates to the visible and corporeal reality, the exegete must consider whether or not the passage has a tropological meaning. When a biblical pas-sage expresses something, which is incompatible with a true understanding of the theme under scrutiny (for example that God walks), the exegete must consider whether the passage has a tropological meaning.
In chapter four (125–184), L. investigates the ontological and logical principle behind Origen’s use of tropology. He finds the basis for Origen’s use of tropology in his Platonically inspired conception of the world/the reality as consisting of two parts – the vi-sible world and the invisible world of the ideas. Origen agrees with Plato that the visible and corporeal world’s function is to be used as a staircase, which humans can use to enter the invisible world of ideas. For the exegesis of the Bible, this means that the Bible must be interpreted in a way that supports this process of progress from the corporeal world to the invisible world. This happens when the literal meaning of the biblical texts is read tropologically – leading from the corporeal and concrete understanding of the text to an understanding of the spiritual or noetic meaning of the text. The possibility of such a reading of the biblical texts rests on the assumption that the corporeal reality is similar to the noetic reality. According to Origen, this is the case. He insists that this similarity is ontological and not only a similarity in language or thinking.
In chapter five (185–201), L. continues his search for how Origen thinks that his tropological exegesis, which is based on the assumption of an ontological similarity between the corporeal and the noetic reality, can lead to recognition of the truth. L. concludes that, in the end, Origen’s trust in the possibility of reaching the truth about the noetic reality through the tropological exegesis is based on his confidence in the truth of the Bible, which at the literal level re-veals the truth in part and as enigmas (1Cor 13:12), but which by the correct interpretation can lead to the full truth.
Even if this book is just one out of a huge number of books and articles on Origen’s biblical exegesis, it reveals aspects and details that are not often discussed in Origen research. Especially the focus on the technical and rhetorical aspects of Origen’s exegesis is helpful.