Spirituality Studies (Apr 2024)
Hermeneutics of Scripture and its Relation to Personal Spirituality according to Gregory the Great
Abstract
This study aims to reconstruct the relationship between the reading of a sacred text and the personal spirituality of the Christian in the work of the early Christian author Gregory I (540–604). Gregory was the first monk to become pope and to whom posterity attached the epithet “the Great”. We find the completion of early Christian Latin thought in his work. Gregory left his mark on Latin Western Christianity with a spiritual-monastic vision that suspended dialogue with the secular world. However, we also find ideas that have not been sufficiently analyzed in his work. These involve Gregory’s hermeneutics of the biblical text in its contribution to the personal spirituality of the reader. We consider this part of his thinking as essential for a contemporary biblical exegesis, which does not consider Gregory’s three-fold interaction between scholarly commentary on the sacred text, the commentator’s own religious convictions and service to others. Gregory first emphasizes the necessity of reading the Bible in the process of spiritual maturation, and in the next step he stresses the humility of the reader before the sacred text. Finally, Gregory recalls the interaction between the reading of the sacred text and the life practice of the reader. A comprehensive reading of Gregory’s body of work makes it possible to emphasize the essential point of his spirituality, which is the connection between the reading of the sacred text, the religious background of the reader and service to others. The wealth of his ideas not only enlivens the interaction between scholarly exegesis and lived spirituality, but it can also be useful in a dialogue with other religious systems in their connection to work with their own sanctified and sacred texts.
