Allegorical Readers and Cultural Revision in Ancient Alexandria (review)

If the work of David Dawson is any indication of what happens when those influenced by "reader response" theory attend carefully to ancient texts, the approach is probably here to stay. In this revision of his 1988 Yale dissertation under Bentley Layton, Dawson has produced a probing and compelling study detailing the hermeneutical strategies and rhetorical performances of three Alexandrian allegorists—Philo, Valentinus, and Clement—always with a view to the way these figures strove, through their readings, to preserve or to subvert cherished cultural ideals. Dawson situates each interpreter within his social-historical setting, and guides us to reflect upon the intended impact of their work upon a community of readers. The study begins with a must-read 21-page introduction, including an overview of the ways ancient allegory typically functioned: it could protect cultural ideals by domesticating deviant texts, challenge them by giving cultural classics deviant meanings, or, in a scripture-based community, assign non-scriptural meanings to a scriptural text, thereby altering those meanings and ultimately subordinating them to scripture.

Chapter 1 provides historical context, highlighting the hermeneutical models available to the allegorists, including the culturally conservative etymology of Cornutus and the equally conservative allegorical reading of Homer by Heraclitus. Dawson also notes ancient objections to allegorizing and the approach of the Alexandrian philologists who handled morally troublesome passages by excising them as interpolations. Virtually all of these strategies are employed to some degree by the three figures with whom the body of the book is concerned.

In Chapters 2, 3, and 4, Dawson demonstrates not only that Philo, Valentinus, and Clement of Alexandria stand within a shared hermeneutical tradition—no surprise here—but also that they display remarkable diversity in the way they conceive their task. He portrays their differing approaches as reinscription, revision, and revocalization. Philo's reinscription employs allegory to interpret the cosmos, history, and Alexandrian culture through the hermeneutical lens of the Pentateuch, an approach that strives "to make Greek culture Jewish rather than to dissolve Jewish identity into Greek culture" (74). Philo's exegesis is a tactical maneuver designed to protect the Jewish religion and to define authentic Hellenism. By presenting the Pentateuch as the true source of philosophy, and as the foundation of legitimate political order, Philo simultaneously subverts Moses' detractors, subordinates Greek philosophy, and transforms non-scriptural, Hellenistic meanings into scriptural, Jewish ones.

With Valentinus, the operative metaphor is revision, for he reads and interprets Gnostic mythology, philosophical texts, and scripture through the lens of his own imaginative and mystical vision. Unlike Philo, who cites the Pentateuch explicitly and often, Valentinus casts his dependence on sources in the guise of original composition. As Dawson points out, such an approach can be highly effective, for when readers detect subtle echoes of their cherished sacred texts they can become very sympathetic, all the while remaining oblivious to "how seriously their former favorite story has been undermined, displaced, or absorbed" (130). Dawson detects parallels between this strategy and the revisionary approach at work in the prologue of John's Gospel.

After a detailed reading of the fragments of Valentinus' lost works, Dawson turns to the Gospel of Truth, which he insists only makes sense when Valentinus' thoroughgoing monism is understood: the only reality is the unfathomable Father; all else is emanation from his self-contemplation. But once again only the social context can identify those for whom this remarkable vision would have any appeal. Dawson situates Valentinus' visionary transformation of the essence of Judaism within the aftermath of the destruction of both Alexandrian Judaism and Jewish Christianity. The mythical displaces the historical; apocalyptic hopes are now realized in the mind. One might quibble with Dawson's rather brief defense of Valentinian authorship of the Gospel of Truth (a mere five lines in an end note; 277 n. 4), but this does not detract from the value of the analysis.

In the fourth chapter, Dawson shows how Clement followed in the philosophical tradition of Justin Martyr; for both, ultimate...