Anagogy

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The analysis that seeks to reveal a text's hidden spiritual significance is essential for understanding its full impact in moral and esoteric contexts
2. A method of explaining a text by uncovering its symbolic or spiritual meaning beyond the literal sense
3. The approach of interpreting literature or events in a way that reveals deeper moral or divine truths

Etymology: Ancient Greek readers used "anagōgē" for an upward lift of the soul, a rising toward something higher, and the word's core image is literally "leading up" (from "anagein," to lift up, and "agein," to lead). That physical sense of climbing is what the later meaning grew out of. Early Christian writers borrowed the Greek term, and Ecclesiastical Latin "anagōgē" carried it into Western religious thought as one of several ways of reading scripture, where the reader lifts the sense of a passage toward heavenly or eternal realities. Over the centuries the idea hardened into a method. Medieval exegetes often described a text as having multiple layers of meaning, with the anagogical sense sitting at the top, above the literal, allegorical, and moral readings. The term thus names not a particular interpretation but the highest rung on a ladder of meanings, the point where a passage about earthly events points toward ultimate divine truth.