Farkel, your question reminded me how thoroughly a head-up-his-ass JW I was for 30 years, because I was convinced, absolutely sure, that all the symbolic interpretations the WTS came up with were so deep, so unique, so hidden that, well, it just proved they were truly being used by God. roflmfao. Then, when I started college in the early 90s, I discovered (via those pesky elective courses, hehe), much to my shock and dismay, that this methodology not only pre-dated the WTS, and the Adventists, but actually goes at least as far back as Philo of Alexandria (~30 BC to ~45 AD). Williston Walker of Yale University says:
...by allegorical interpretation Philo finds the Old Testament in harmony with the best in Platonism and Stoicism...This allegorical method of Biblical explanation was greatly to influence later Christian study of the Scriptures. (A History of the Christian Church, p. 17)
That remarkable character Origen (~185 to ~245 AD) took hold of Philo's techniques and the Alexandrian school with a vengeance (bold added):
All normal Scripture, he held, has a threefold meaning...This allegorical system enabled Origen to read practically what he wished into the Scriptures...[his] theological structure is the greatest intellectual achievement of the ante-Nicene Church. It influenced profoundly all after-thinking in the Orient. (ibid, pp. 75-7)
Interpreting the Word of God (Moody Bible Institute) adds (p. 178)(bold added):
If one reflects upon the history of the Church, he soon discovers how an entire generation, and in some cases several generations, have been influenced by a single commentator upon the Bible. Take, for instance, the allegorical method of interpretation used by the Alexandrian school of theology which controlled the way the Bible was read and studied for over a thousand years. The real meaning of the biblical text was often lost because the interpreter was free to read into the text any meaning his speculative genius desired.
The bolded portions above remind us of anyone we know?
Anyway, the technique has been widely implemented since the beginning of Christianity, but as for specific modern religions, I don't know. The literature I've read talks at length, for example, about the Revelation and various approaches to it's interpretation (preterist, historicist, futurist, idealist). Only the "idealist" (viewing Revelation simply as a story about the victory of good over evil) would be freed from having to conjure up symbolic meanings. I therefore suspect that, even if not overtly, most other churches harbor similar typological speculations. Just a guess, though.
Craig
PS: If someone here, perhaps barry, picks up on this thread, I would really like to know if other modern Christian religions use the same allegorical techniques.
Edited by - onacruse on 9 January 2003 22:29:1