More on The Four Senses

Following on from https://marclloyd.blogspot.com/2026/09/just-beginning-to-dip-into-patrick.html

 

Some further jottings from chapters one and two of Patrick Schreiner, The Four Sense of Scripture: Learning from Ancient Ways of Reading the Bible (Baker Academic, 2026):

 

Not a wooden or formulaic application of a method as if every text must be put through a procedure. “The four senses are more like parameters than a process, more of a mood than a method.” (p20) “a posture more than a program” (p22)

 

“Many texts can be read according to the four senses; sometimes a tree points back to the tree of life and forward to the cross. But sometimes a tree is just a tree…. the literal sense is always present, and sometimes the other senses are present too.” (p20)

 

“methods flow from metaphysics” (p20)

 

 The fourfold sense cohere with the nature of Scripture, of creation and history, and of language.

 

“Fourfold reading affirms that signs participate in the realities they point to. It entails a theology of history that understands everything as summed up in the mystery of Christ and progressing toward the future of Christ filling all things through his body, the church. Some modern forms of hermeneutics have been divorced from the ontology of the Scriptures and have uncritically swallowed the historical-critical pill. We have separated history from metaphysics, nature from grace, theology from Scripture, and Scripture from real life…. We must return to an enchanted, Christ-saturated way of viewing the world and the Scriptures.” (p21)

 

Four – completeness – more manageable than 7 or 12

 

Irenaeus on the 4 gospels (p21)

 

4 zones of the world, 4 winds, 4 horses, 4 cherubim – 4s in the Bible (p21 and footnote)

 

Augustine on The Good Samaritan – the inn keeper the Apostle (Paul) – see p25

 

The origin of the term “grammatical-historical exegesis” – first used by Karl Augustus Theophilos Keil in 1811  - and meaning – cf. historical critical method (p26) – Pontifical Biblical Commission definition

 

Origen and Aquinas also read the Good Samaritan in ways similar to Augustine (p27)

 

Vanhoozer: “Modern incomprehension of pre-modern reading cultures has less to do with reasoning than with contrasting interpretative intuitions” (p27, quoting Mere Xian Hermeneutics, p79)

 

John Cassian (d. 435) the first to name the four senses in Conference 14.8 NPNF2 11:438

 

“Most of the Reformers employed some form of them [the 4 senses] in their interpretations. However, they also responded to the excesses of the medieval period and tended to argue that all the senses should be brought under the literal sense.” (p30)

 

See p30 for Bible references to distinguishing literal and spirituals senses and allehorical, tropological and anagogical interpretation used in the Bible

 

The 4 sense are essentially 2 senses – literal and spiritual (p31)

 

Literal – littera – historical

Allegorical – allegoria – symbolic

Tropological – tropologia – moral

Anagogical – anagogia – futuristic (p31)

 

The allegorical has sometimes been known as typological, mystical, sacramental, spiritual, thewria (contemplation), hypnoia (deeper sense) (p31)

 

The quadria compared to a house (p33f)

 

Bonaventure – the spiritual senses compared to the theological virtues – The Soul’s Journey to God p91

Faith – allegory

Love – tropological

Hope – anagogical

 

The literal sense pointing back in time

The spiritual pointing forward

The tropological to our inward life

The anagogical to heaven (p35 - fn)

 

The senses and the offices of Christ:

King – speaking of what is true

Prophet – deeper meaning

Priest / Sage – how we are to act

Judge – what is to come (p35 - fn)

 

The four senses of Scripture and the human senses

Origen compared the senses to the senses of the body

Froehlich – literal sense & touch; allegory & seeing; tropology & hearing; anagogy & tasting

Allegory – the heart; tropology – the hands; anagogy – the head (p35 - fn)

 

Alexander of Hales, On Signification p41, sees the spiritual senses as rooted in the Trinity

Allegory pointing to Christ; Tropology – the Spirit’s work in the church; anagogy – the Father in the beatific vision (p35, fn)

 

“The revelation of Christ reveals the truth of the quadriga. Because God has acted in history by sending his Son, we have the literal sense. Because all history is united and glorified in Christ, we have the allegorical sense. Because Christ’s story is ours, we have tropology. Because Christ’s future is ours, we have anagogy.” (p37)

 

“The argument of this book is that fourfold interpretation is a faithful, helpful, historic, and holistic way of reading the Scriptures. This way of reading respects the historical context, views the Bible as a whole, connects to our lives, and points us to the future. It is a hermeneutical house we can live in.” (p40) – the grammatico historical method only provides a foundation (p44)

 

“God… is the primary author, subject matter, context, and aim of the Scriptures.” (p41)

 

Lectio divina and the four senses (p42f)

Reading (lectio) – the literal sense

Reflect (meditation) – the allegorical sense

Respond with speech in the form of prayer (oratio) – the tropological sense

Rest (contemplation) – the anagogical sense

 

“The four senses and lectio divina respect the ontology and telos of the Scriptures [that is, what it is and it’s goal]. Because Scripture is a divine-human product, we attend to both human and divine elements. And because the goal of reading is communion with God, we approach Scripture in a certain posture. The true way to read is to engage with love and wonder. We seek not only to know but also to be known, not only to hear, but also to be heard. It is the way of participation. Like Abraham with the mysterious visitors, we are to show hospitality to God as he graciously comes to us in the pages of the Bible.” (p44)