Date of Award

2013

Type

Thesis

Major

History

Degree Type

Bachelor of Arts in History

Department

History and Geography

Abstract

To follow the example of Jesus and to draw closer to God in a meaningful relationship was the ultimate goal of the monastics. Starting with St. Anthony and spread by St. Athanasius in the fourth century CE, Egyptian monasticism was established in the deserts of North Africa. Around the fifth century, these monastic ideas disseminated within the western monastic world. John Cassian had brought the ideas of the east to Gaul, establishing a monastery, while Jerome translated the works of these desert monastics into Latin.1 These monks employed eastern monastic theology in order to help interpret the Bible, especially the use of allegory and typology, which interpreted that the Old Testament as foreshadowing the New Testament. Monks made commentaries on different books on the Old Testament, demonstrating its prefiguration of the Gospel revealed by Jesus Christ. However, many monks avoided reading or commenting on the Song of Songs, saving it as one of their last books to study. Because of its erotic imagery and sexual content, abbots and monks worried that reading this book would threaten their chastity and thereby threaten their salvation as a whole. Ascetics like Augustine preferred to use the text in parts while explaining other Scriptures or in their own works on the contemplative life. However, earlier ascetics, such as Origen and Ambrose, wrote entire commentaries on their interpretation of the Song of Songs. All these authors agreed that, although the literal meaning is explicit and can be a stumbling block for Christians, the Song of Songs should be read allegorically in order to understand its true meaning. By using this idea of allegorical interpretation, theologians examined the spiritual truths found in the Song of Songs including the relationship between God and the Church, the mystical union between God and an individual soul, or a representation of the Virgin Mary's intimate spiritual relationship with God before the birth of Christ.2 Teachers then taught these allegories to spiritually mature students, who would sustain the allegorical tradition of this book for future generations.

In the sixth century, Gregory the Great delivered his allegorical interpretation in his Commentaries on the Song of Songs. Historians have debated whether Gregory actually wrote the commentary, as this work was not explicitly mentioned in early medieval biographies on Gregory and because of the stylistic differences between his text and the style of his other, more famous, works such as the Dialogues or Moralia. This, in addition to the brevity of the work and the sudden ending, hints that it was not part of Gregory's list of works. Bernard Capelle resolved this conundrum in 1929, when he determined that verses one through eight were authentic, while other parts were just additions to Gregory's work.3 However, the abrupt ending in the middle of the first chapter of the Song of Songs may imply that this is only a surviving fragment.4

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Honors Thesis

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