Allegorizing History: The Venerable Bede, Figural Exegesis and Historical Theory by Timothy J. Furry (review)

Furry, Timothy J. Allegorizing History: The Venerable Bede, Figural Exegesis and Historical Theory. (Cambridge, UK: James Clarke. 2014. Pp. xi, 162. $39.00 paperback. ISBN 978-0-227-17424-1.)

In this short book for theologians Timothy J. Furry seeks to see “what kind of theology [the Historia] is” (p. 141, emphasis in original). In chapter 1, “(Re)framing History: A Contemporary Historiography of Bede’s Historia,” Furry surveys a selection of twentieth-century interpreters with special attention to how they deal with the contradictory or paradoxical juxtaposition in Bede’s Historia of facts and miracles as we understand them: how can Bede be both intelligible in modern terms yet supply many narratives of supernatural occurrences? Furry privileges the discussions of Charles W. Jones and Jan Davidse, and dwells on Bede’s invocation of a, or the, vera lex historiae.

In chapter 2, “Can History Be Figural?,” Furry analyzes the Historia alongside the biblical commentary De Templo, which Bede was writing at the same time. He concludes that “Bede chooses not to make figural [or allegorical] connections between the bible and the history he recounts” (p. 10).

In chapter 3, “Interpreting Genesis,” Furry compares Bede and St. Augustine in their literal commentaries on Genesis 1. He highlights their different philosophical and theological readings, showing that theological and philosophical notions and arguments matter for literal and historical reading and writing” (p. 10).

In chapter 4, “Anachronism and the Status of the Past in Bede’s Historia and Figural Exegesis,” Furry discusses the rise of an awareness of anachronism in the Renaissance. Bede lacked concerns about anachronism. His “ignorance of anachronism helped enable Bede to write the Historia as an intentional piece of theology…”(p. 11).

In chapter 5, “Bede and Frank Ankersmit,” Furry relates Bede to the thinking of Ankersmit (b. 1945), professor of intellectual history and historical theory at the University of Groningen, and author of the book Historical Representation (Stanford, 2001). Among other things, Furry applies “the logic of representation [i.e., interpretation] that Ankersmith articulates to Bede’s figural [i.e., allegorical] exegesis” (p. 11).

In the conclusion, Firry states “that the relationship between Bede’s Historia and exegesis is theologically precarious …” (p. 145).