Anagogical Truth

It is important in Catholic theology and Scriptural Study to read Sacred Scripture narratively and analogically as these are ways we can comprehend Scripture, to an extent. Again, referring to the potential of material epistemology to know Truth and to point to deeper Truth, understanding the narrative and analogical Truths is essential in that they suggest deeper Truths. The term used to refer to Truths that are more Transcendent and therefore beyond human comprehension is anagogical Truth. While anagogical Truth cannot be directly observed or comprehended, by observing narrative and analogical Truths and by noting trends or themes that exist on both the narrative and analogical level, one can surmise Truths that exist on a Transcendent level. In this way, Catholic theology understands Sacred Scripture to present narrative and analogical Truths in terms of material epistemology as a means for pointing the human intellect toward transcendent Truths. These transcendent Truths, beyond observable knowledge, can only be fully comprehended by phronesis or an encounter, in this case, with the God presented in Sacred Scripture.

St. Colman's Catholic Church in Claremorris, Co. Mayo, Ireland. Even in the small towns in Ireland, like Claremorris (population 4800), the Catholic Churches were built to "point to" the grandeur of God, must the same way narrative and analogical Truths are meant to "point to" anagogical Truths.

In considering the materialist world and material epistemology, the observable world presents narrative and analogical Truths. It is by these Truths that one can be directed toward greater Truths which can only be comprehended by an acquiescent encounter with the divine. “Remember when we talked about psychology and sociology and philosophy and how they all seem to suggest the importance of relationship?” I ask my students sarcastically. We have been studying this stuff for several days. “We saw through those material or episteme-driven sciences the theme or idea of relationship as being important. We do not know exactly how important or how it looks outside of the Pit, but we can tell that it is important. This is an anagogical Truth: humans are meant to be in relationship with each other”.

The concept that one can begin to encounter God through the material world, and by that encounter begin to know the Truth of One’s Authentic self, is called Sacramentality. If creation is the result of an over-surplus of divine Love expressed between the persons of the Trinity, then it is within the boundaries of creation that one can encounter the Truth that is the source of that Creation. Sacramentality is, essentially, observing the created worlds’ narrative and analogical Truths with a lens that looks toward anagogical Truth. With this lens, the created world remains essential in the pursuit of one’s Authentic Self in as much as one continues to look beyond the limitations of human intellect in the pursuit of Truth.

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.

What is Truth? Augustine and the Eternal Echo of God's Verbum

Aristotle and Augustine, together, provide a goal and means for moving toward that goal in terms of developing enduring relationships as an analogical and anagogical Truth of who one is. The Virtue Aristotle describes and the means to habituate Virtue show the individual the manner in which one can develop enduring relationships. Augustine takes those same enduring relationships and argues that the desire to develop such relationships suggest and even deeper or a more primordial drive to know oneself on a transcendent level. The relationships one develops in life, made enduring through habituation and Virtue, point to an even greater relationship with the Transcendent. The result is the eternal shout of one’s Verbum and the perpetual reception of that Verbum in the eternity of God and of all humanity. Perhaps we can say that the “Verbum” we begin to shout and hear in this life is but a shadow or an echo of the eternal Verbum. Indeed, Karl Rahner, the 20^th Century theologian, might say all of Creation is an echo of God’s own Verbum for us to hear. By looking Sacramentally at the material floors and walls of the Pit and the relationships we have in that Pit, maybe we can start to speak and to hear our Verbum.

Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven and St. Nicholas in Galway, Co. Galway, Ireland. The lofty expanse of the Cathedral invites us to consider our own lofty destination...our Authentic Self.

What is Truth? Augustine and the Extra Dimensions of Eternity

The Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven and St. Nicholas in Galway, Co. Galway, Ireland. The lofty dimensions of the Cathedral is not meant so much to make the congregation feel small as it is meant to lift our eyes to higher dimensions in which we can Hope to encounter our Authentic Self and the Divine presence of God. (photo P. Smith)

Augustine is attracted to Christianity, especially in terms of the Trinity, as the Trinity reveals origin, purpose, function, and destiny of the human person in terms of relationship. Augustine’s famous description of the Trinity in terms of Love is the beginning of his deeper understanding of the human person. Augustine describes the Trinity: the Father is the Lover, the Son is the Beloved, and the Holy Spirit is the Love between the Father and the Son. Within the Trinity, the relationship between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, is the Verbum of God perfectly known, the Verbum spoken, and the Verbum perfectly heard. If humanity is made in the image and likeness of this Holy Trinity, this Holy Exchange of Verbum, then all humans are made to yearn for or desire this authentic exchange of Verbum. In this life, you can begin to speak and to hear your Verbum and in this exchange you experience great pleasure as it is the natural inclination of the all humans to want to speak and to hear their Verbum. But the relationship between humans as they strive to express their Authentic Self will always be incomplete as the Verbum remains a reality outside of time and space. Therefore, as Augustine realizes, one must form and foster a relationship with the Transcendent in order to better realize one’s Verbum. It is only in the extra dimensions of eternity where one can fully express their Verbum.

What is Truth? Augustine, Verbum, and Authentic Self

St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Ballyvaughan, Co. Clare, Ireland. The "Verbum" of God is Jesus Christ, and that "Word" speaks the Truth of God for all humanity and for all Creation. (photo P. Smith)

Augustine uses “Verbum” to refer to one’s Authentic Self. That is, Augustine understands that at the core of every human being is a Truth that you yearn to communicate to the world. There is a Truth that you desire to cry out for the self and for “the Other” to hear. Until one can speak this Verbum you will remain restless. Like Aristotle and the Classical philosophers, Augustine realizes the need to encounter the transcendent in order to “know” such an objective voice. Augustine adds the dimension of relationship in order to fully comprehend the concept of Verbum or Authentic Self. Even if you knows your Verbum, if there is no one to hear that Word, then the Verbum has no meaning. My students, at this point, know that Verbum is synonymous with the Authentic Self and the Authentic Self is the same as Loving and being Loved on a transcendent level. If Loving and being Loved is Verbum, then there must be some sort of relationship in order for that Verbum to be heard. You cannot Love in a vacuum. Relationship between individuals, therefore, is essential for you to begin to know your Verbum. In addition, as you hears another person’s Verbum, as you experience Loving or being Loved in more and more transcendent ways, you fulfills part of your own purpose, namely, to assist in the realization of the Other’s Verbum.

What is Truth? Augustine and Verbum

            This is not too much for high school students! If elementary school kids a hundred years studied this in classical schools, our kids can handle this, as well. You just have to be patient. Transitioning into Augustine is easy for me; several of my professors in graduate school were Augustine scholars and I was born on his feast day, so I have a particular affinity for him.

St. Augustine of Hippo at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Atlanta, GA. "Love is the Beauty of the Soul". If we are made to Love and to be Loved and that is our Authentic Self, then, indeed, as Augustine says, that Love is the Truest Beauty of our Authentic Self. (photo P. Smith)

St. Augustine of Hippo, six hundred years after Aristotle, explored the Authentic Self through the lens of Judaism and Christianity. As a rhetorician and a master of human language Augustine, before he even professed a belief in Christianity, wrote extensively on the concept of how one could know one’s Authentic Self and thereby achieve happiness. Above all, Augustine admits, the capacity for one to know one’s Authentic Self is profoundly limited, for, as one discovers who they are at a given moment in time and space, they are already different and what they have discovered is no longer True. The Truth of who one is, therefore, can only be observed from a transcendent or objective perspective. Combined with the classical understandings of telos and phronesis and in recognizing a Judeo-Christian parallel with Aristotelean Virtue and Ethics, Augustine began to dive deeper into Christian understanding of Truth, first in terms of philosophy and material epistemology, and later in terms of relationship and his own personal encounter with the divine. It was his own development of a relationship with the divine that would add to and expand what Augustine refers to as one’s Verbum.

What is Truth? Virtue, Authentic Self, and Beatitude

As one rationally chooses to pursue habituation, Virtue develops in the individual. For Aristotle, Virtue is not necessarily something that exists in the human being as much as it is an idea that can be developed. Virtue, simply put, describes any characteristic that reorients one from non-rational self-involvement to a rational, relationship-based mindset. That is, as we pursue Virtue we shift from fixation on material Truth and the floor and walls of the Pit, and we begin to look at “the Other” and a possible route leading out of the Pit. Virtue makes one more concerned about the well-being of the self and others as it relates to eudaimonia or Beatific Vision and less concerned about the non-rational appetitive mind of the self, which tends to be selfish in nature. The result of the habituation of Virtue in the individual is a relationship-oriented ethic which further fosters harmony within and between the individual and others, the result of which is Peace. 

Trinitarian Abbey in Adare, Co. Limerick, Ireland. The Sacred Heart of Jesus, perhaps more than any other Christological image, represents the Authentic Self and what it means to be "fully human". (photo P. Smith).

Aristotle does not state this directly, but it is in this state of Peace and harmony where we experience little or no anxiety; where we can be free to “speak” and “hear” what Augustine will call our Verbum. This Virtuous state of humanity further allows one to hear the Verbum of others, which, according the Aristotle, makes the Virtuous the most likeable of all characters. The Virtuous experiences eudaimonia or Beatific Vision because they can relate well to their authentic “voice” or “Verbum” and they can relate well to the authentic voice or Verbum of others. The rational mind, Prudence, habituation, Virtue, and ethics, therefore, relate to form an individual and social condition whereby the individual and others can relate in such a way that their Authentic Self can best be expressed. Just as the Trinity is in perfect union within itself and each person of the Trinity can speak their Verbum, when we are in increasingly similar relationships, we approach our Authentic Self. Those increasingly similar relationships can be experienced in time and space; essentially, the Virtuous and enduring relationships we experience in time and space are Sacramental visions of the transcendent Authentic Self.