Narrative and Analogical Truths

          Christian Theology is heavily rooted in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. To be clear, Catholic Scriptural Scholarship is not simply reading and believing what is written in the Bible. Catholic Scriptural Scholarship involves a much more nuanced understanding of the literary traditions which form the scriptures. Indeed, Catholic theology does claim Sacred Scripture to proclaim Truth, but this sense of Truth differs from perhaps what one refers to as fundamentalist reading of Scripture, which claims that what is written in Scripture is “fact” and Truth. Catholic scholarship tends to not assume all things in the Bible to be historical or empirical fact. Catholic Scriptural Scholarship looks at Sacred Scripture as possessing Narrative Truths, Analogical Truths, and Anagogical Truths. This can be thought of in terms of literary studies, that is, in terms of a regular story one might read. As one reads a story, the text can be read on a literal or a narrative level. The story has certain details that are true in context of the story itself. For example, in the Genesis Creation Story, if one reads it literally or narratively, there are characters, a setting, a conflict, dialogue, and a resolution. These are the literal facts of the story, and, as such, one can say these details are Narratively True, the same way the literal details of a story (fiction or non-fiction) are True in the margins of the text. These details, because they can be written and read by the human intellect, remain, in essence, materialist in their epistemological Truth. The details in Sacred Scripture, therefore, are essential in that they suggest or point to deeper Truths. The concept of Narrative Truth reveals to the scholar that the materialist details of the world are more than just accident in that they contain in them hints or signs of more complex and ever objective Truths. My students should remember this lesson from when we first talked about Genesis.

The Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven and St. Nicholas in Galway, Co. Galway, Ireland. While some of the stories in Scripture cannot be taken simply for their face value, their narrative Truth, the Resurrection remains a central fact of Christian belief. If the Resurrection never happened, then Christianity has no meaning. (photo P. Smith)

Within the context of the human intellect, Sacred Scripture also reveals to the reader analogical Truths. That is, the narrative Truths of Sacred Scripture can be interpreted, within the capacity of the human intellect, to mean something deeper that is not expressly mentioned in the text, itself. For example, the narrative details of the Genesis story tell the reader that God creates humanity, invites humanity into communion with Him, sets expectations for that community, punishes humanity for not meeting those expectations, and continues to Love humanity despite the transgression of those expectations. These narrative Truths can be considered analogically as guidelines for familial and social structures. Though it is not expressly indicated in Genesis, an analogical reading of the text reveals a primer for social contract and a just society. This interpretation, among many others, is apparent when one reads Sacred Scripture analogically. Because analogical Truth can be comprehended by human intellect, it remains a material Truth. My students usually get this. If they had a good poetry teacher at any point in their life or if they ever read the lyrics to most any popular song, they get the idea of metaphor or analogy. It’s the next level of reading, the anagogical level, that is harder to understand.