Tropological reading or "moral sense" is a

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι� ...

tradition, theory, and practice of interpreting the figurative meaning of the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus ...

. It is part of biblical

exegesis Exegesis ( ; from the Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Biblical works. In modern usage, exegesis can involve critical interpretation ...

Doctrine

According to doctrine developed by the

Church Fathers The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were ancient and influential Christian theologians and writers who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity. The historical per ...

, the

literal Literal may refer to: * Interpretation of legal concepts: ** Strict constructionism ** The plain meaning rule The plain meaning rule, also known as the literal rule, is one of three rules of statutory construction traditionally applied by ...

meaning, or God-intended meaning of the words of the Bible, may be read figuratively as a moral reading for one's personal life. For instance, in the '' Song of Songs'' (also called ''Canticles'' or ''Song of Solomon''), which contains love songs between a woman and a man, the text can also symbolize the love between God and a believer. In the conception of the

, the definitions of "

allegory As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory t ...

" and "tropology" were very close, until

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

where the Church made a clearer distinction between allegorical spiritual meaning, tropological

moral A moral (from Latin ''morālis'') is a message that is conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader, or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim. ...

meaning and styles of interpretation. Alister E. McGrath, ''Christian Theology: An Introduction'', John Wiley & Sons, USA, 2011, p. 132

Etymology

The

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...

word ''τρόπος'' (''tropos'') meant 'turn, way, manner, style'. The term ''τροπολογία'' (''tropologia'') was coined from this word around the second century AD, in

Hellenistic Greek Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...

, to mean 'allegorical interpretation of scripture' (and also, by the fourth century, 'figurative language' more generally).Tropology, n.
,
trope, n.
, ''OED Online''. The Greek word ''τρόπος'' had already been borrowed into

Classical Latin Classical Latin is the form of Literary Latin recognized as a literary standard by writers of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. It was used from 75 BC to the 3rd century AD, when it developed into Late Latin. In some later period ...

as ''tropus'', meaning 'figure of speech', and the Latinised form of ''τροπολογία'', ''tropologia'', is found already in the fourth-century writing of

Saint Jerome Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian priest, confessor, theologian, and historian; he is co ...

in the sense 'figurative language', and by the fifth century in sense 'moral interpretation'. This Latin term was adopted in medieval French as ''tropologie'', and English developed the form ''tropology'' in the fifteenth century through the simultaneous influence of French and Latin.

Notes

References

;Attribution * Biblical exegesis Tropes {{biblical-studies-stub

Doctrine

Etymology

See also

Notes

References