Last Sunday at Mass the Priest mentioned something about "sensus plenior" talking about the Bible. Does anyone know what exactly is sensus plenior and how an where does it apply in the Bible?

Enrique

-- Enrique Ortiz (eaortiz@yahoo.com), October 02, 2003

Answers

--?--

-- Enrique Ortiz (eaortiz@yahoo.com), October 02, 2003.

I found the following through Google.......

"The term Sensus Plenior refers to a concept which understands the text of the Bible to have inherent in it more than one sense of meaning.

Early scholars and biblical exegetes were well schooled in philosophy, mythology and rhetoric, and operated in the traditional milieu of allegorical interpretation of divine oracle. It came naturally for these scholars to see other meanings in scripture than the literal. For most of them these plenior senses were not only veiled under the literal text but it appeared in layers of successively deeper meaning. These various layers of meaning were interpreted from the literal text by means extraction, by reading the literal text as metaphor, analogy, anagogy, and allegory, searching ever deeper endeavouring to extract the last hidden secret from the divine words. It was the opinion of such notable scholars as Augustine of Hippo and Origen that God veiled deeper mysteries under the literal text. It remained however for the medieval scholars to fully develop the art of the sensus plenior more fully.

During the Enlightenment and in the aftermath of Rationalism the deeper layers of the Sensus, that of the allegorical and mystical, were denigrated and moved to the shelves of eccentric mystics where it remained until very recently. Lately, during the latter half of this century, the Church experienced once again a mystical element entering its midst. However resistant the Church may have been to accept these so-called 'charismatic' phenomena, she had to yield in the end to the massive surges of this mystical movement.

-- Dee (Dee@none.sorry.com), October 02, 2003.

Enrique, It is an approach that says that early biblical writers, (Old Testament) were "speaking with authority from God". Their writings not only applied to their time, but also to future times, such as prophesies fulfilled through and/by Christ.

The successive writings revealed what God intended, but not as out and out prophesies.

Hope this helps, God bless,

-- john placette (jplacette@catholic.org), October 02, 2003.