Florian Woeller: Turning towards the Literal Sense: Augustine in Late Medieval Exegesis

One of the characteristic features of late medieval exegesis (14th and 15th centuries) consists in a special attention for the literal sense of Scripture with which many biblical theologians dedicated themselves to biblical interpretation. This tendency marks an important 'turn' in the history of biblical exegesis and as such directs our attention to later, i.e. Early Modern developments. Yet, it must also be understood as a 'turn' to the past, since to a fair extent it was Augustine's idea of the literal sense which inspired late-medieval exegetes.
In my paper I will discuss two prominent biblical theologians, Nicholas of Lyra (ca. 1270-1349) and Peter Auriol (ca. 1280-1322), who both developed influential accounts of Scripture's literal sense and of its meaning for biblical exegesis. Although these Franciscan confrères both heavily draw upon Augustine, they come to strikingly different conclusions and thus offer excellent examples for the late-medieval transformations in the reception of Augustine, more specifically of his principles of biblical interpretation.