Tommaso d’Aquino e i margini della «littera»

[Autom. eng. transl.] Modern historiography has often identified in the biblical exegesis of the central decades of the thirteenth century - and in its authors belonging to the Order of Preachers in particular - a turning point characterized by the progressive devaluation of the "spiritual sense", in the direction of an increasingly marked interest for the littera. The sample of this new way of explaining the Bible is recognized in Thomas Aquinas, whose novelty would be on the one hand in the affirmation that in the theological argumentation only what is present at the level of the literal sense can be assumed, and d On the other hand, in the principle he also indicated, that what is derived from the spiritual sense must necessarily be present elsewhere already at the level of the littera. In this way Thomas in fact traces the boundaries to spiritual interpretation: it is however, if we look closely, a traditional line. Moreover, the breadth and elaboration in which the literal interpretation is assumed places it well beyond a historical-critical consideration before litteram, identifying also what is normally recognized as a prophetic sense and dogmatic affirmation. Although, in short, it seems to shift the boundaries between allegory and littera, what seems to interest Thomas in the second does not seem to be so much what the human author intended, but rather the truth of faith that identifies you.