Theological Anthropocentrism

Abstract

Hugh of St. Victor compares theology as the elucidation of allegorical scriptural meaning with a spiritual building raised on the foundation of literal scriptural meaning.

Already the foundations of history have been laid in you: it remains now that you found the bases of the superstructure. You stretch out your cord, you line it up precisely, you place the square stones in the course, and, moving around the course, you lay the track, so to say, of the future walls. The taut cord shows the path of the truth faith. The very bases of your spiritual structure are certain principles of the faith—principles which form your starting point.¹

The principles of faith serving as the bases of the spiritual building are the principal Christian mysteries including the Trinity, creation ex nihilo rational creatures’ freedom of volition, original sin, the natural law, the written law, the Incarnation, grace, resurrection, and beatitude.² Hugh believes that philosophy helps theologians to elucidate these principles by constructing illuminating conceptions of incorporeal realities without employing sensory experiences of corporeal things. This approach to philosophical theology immediately faces a pair of questions.