Four Ways of Knowing

Last week I wrote about paradox and the truth that lies beneath opposites.  This week I want to explore different ways of understanding or knowing what lies at the heart of things.

How we understand the bible is a current critical issue among Christians and is behind many of the arguments and disagreements and worse that have arisen between different groups ̶ even within the same denomination such as Anglican.  The ongoing disagreement within the Anglican Communion around Same-sex marriage/blessing is at it foundation about how we understand the bible.  People on all sides of the issue can support their position by proof text i.e. taking biblical quotes that support their positions.  There are without doubt passages that give what appears to be direct support for opposing same-sex marriage. 

Those who support it can point to the idea that scripture is inspired by God but is not infallible.  They also point to context in which the scripture was written using in part the Historical Critical method which is s taught in many theological schools.  The also suggest the direction of the bible is pointing to a broader understanding of the relationships between people which is based on a different understanding of marriage which is in part based on new understanding and development of psychology.

It seems at times that the divisions which have developed are too deep to bridge and I do not want to argue either side of this argument.  Rather, I want to take a step back and look at an old way of understanding which has to a great extent been forgotten in this modern era.  Currently I have been reading, or I should day attempting, to make my way through The Figure of Beatrice by Charles Williams.  This is a wonderful exploration of the character of Beatrice in the works of Dante, especially the Divine Comedy.  It is by no means an easy read.  However, I alternate my reading with emersion in Detective Stories.  I am a late convert to this genre and have become an inveterate consumer of these stories while I am at the cottage. 

But I digress; Charles Williams writes about the four ways of in understanding employed by Dante which can be used to understand his work and especially the Comedy.  These were not unique to Dante but were in use in the late middle ages.  To quote Williams:

At the beginning of the second treatise, just before the theme of the Lady of the Window, Dante explains the four senses in which books may be understood.  They are the literal, the allegorical, the moral and the anagogical.  The first goes no further than the letter as it stands.  The second is the literal sense translated into and applied to things of the intellect, and as it were, abstract life; the third is the literal sense applied to the moral life; the fourth, the literal sense applied to what may be called the spiritual life. 

These concepts can be difficult to grasp for those of us who are not used to these different ways of understanding a concept or work.  Fortunately, Dante give an example as quoted by Williams:

He (Dante) takes the sentence: ‘When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a strange people; Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion.’  He says of this: ‘If we consider the literal sense alone, the thing signified is the going out of the children of Israel from Egypt in the time of Moses; If the allegorical, our redemption through Christ; of the moral, the conversion of the soul from the grief and misery of sin to a state of the grace; if the anagogical, the passage of the sanctified soul from the bondage of corruption of this world to the liberty of everlasting glory,’

This may or may not help clarify the meaning of the example used but it shows how an example may be read in many different ways.  This does not clarify any issue to allow us to say, ‘ah, yes now I can use this to beat the other side into submission.’  Indeed, the example, could be used by either side of the same-sex marriage debate to support their position.  My purpose is not to support or oppose.  My hope is that it will show that more than one understanding can reside in the books of life and perhaps even reveal a deeper truth. 

Indeed, one of the guidelines for understanding dreams is that if you immediately think you know the meaning of a dream you are likely mistaken.  There are deeper meanings to be revealed for you when you explore it.  Indeed, there can be truth on many different levels.   In these times when divisions seem to be becoming deeper and wider, we all should take a step back and see if there is a message and a meaning which will reveal the truth beneath the surface that we perceive.  God does work in mysterious ways which are not always or often revealed to us without exploration. 

I invite you to explore the different ways in which your journey is revealing the truth to you.