Allegorizing History: The Venerable Bede, Figural Analysis and Historical Theory [Paperback]

What is history? This question can be taken in many ways, including radically skeptical ones, but in 'Allegorizing History' Timothy J. Furry asks the questions not with that axe to grind but because it has become clear to him, through study of Bede and other ancient Christians, that history is not so simple. To be sure, many, if not all scholars, know that thanks to the work of postmodern philosophers and twentieth-century historical theorists like R.G. Collingwood, Hans-Georg Gadamer, and Hayden White. In this work, Furry shows that there are competing notions and purposes of historical practice, more specifically between Bede and the scholars who have recently studied him. Moreover, he explaisn why this difference matters and what implications result from such competing notions and practices of history, especially in the exegesis of Scripture as well as how exegesis also influences conceptions of history. Following a tradition of historians and theologians who have sought to blur the lines between theology and other disciplines, Furry explores how, if biblical exegesis was not an isolated discipline for ancient and medieval Christians, then its effects should be seen in other arenas. His argument here is that one of these arenas or disciplines is history.

List of Images
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 (Re)Framing History: A Contemporary Historiography of Bede’s Historia
2 Can History Be Figural? A Study of Bede’s Ecclesiastical Historia and De Templo
3 I nterpreting Genesis: Creation and the Relationship between the Literal and Figural Senses
4 Anachronism and the Status of the Past in Bede’s Historia and Figural Exegesis
5 Bede and Frank Ankersmit: The Inevitability of Figural History
Conclusion
Index