Resumo

BEUKES, Johann. A metaphoricity of the senses in William of Auxerre's (ca.1140-1231) Summa Aurea (ca.1220). Tydskr. geesteswet. [online]. 2021, vol.61, n.3, pp.633-654. ISSN 2224-7912.  http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2224-7912/2021/v61n3a1.

This article presents an idea-historical reappraisal of the unique early scholastic contribution of William of Auxerre (Latinised as Guilhelmus Altissiodorensis or Autissiodorensis; ca.1140-1231), the author of a complete (four-volume) scholastic summa in theology, the Summa Aurea, completed in and circulated from circa 1220. The article, by reworking several niche outputs from the most recent specialist research (notably that of BT Coolman and Magdalena Bieniak), attempts to position Auxerre within the frame of contemporary scholastic scholarship by specifying the idea-historical development of a metaphoricity of the senses (with regard to the epistemological claims of the "spiritual senses") from patristics and the early Middle Ages to the central and later Middle Ages, and presenting "spiritual apprehension" as the basic integrating concept in the Summa Aurea. Then a possible relationship between Auxerre's teaching of the "spiritual senses" and Medieval Minnemystik (with specific reference to the sensual mysticism of Hadewijch of Antwerp [fl. 1240]) is explored, after which the conceptual framework and discursive nature of a metaphoricity of the senses are examined in detail. Auxerre's fundamental objective was to show that spiritual knowledge of God acquired through the "spiritual senses" is similar to material knowledge acquired through the bodily senses, that is, the "spiritual sight" or (according to Augustine) the "enlightened vision" of God (visio Dei) and "hearing" (simphonia), "smelling" (odor, referring to memory in particular), "tasting" (dulcedo) and "touching" (tactus) contribute to an expansion of existing theological knowledge. Finally, Auxerre's hermeneutics is presented as an original dialectic of the mundane (in via) and the eternal (in patria). This reinterpretation of the significance of the Summa Aurea is descriptive-analytical in its presentation of the history of ideas concerned, literary-analytical in its examination of the relevant sections in the Summa Aurea and synthetic in its coherent integration of the primary and secondary texts concerned. The objective of the article is fivefold, namely 1) to position Auxerre within contemporary scholasticism scholarship; 2) to specify the idea-historical development of the metaphoricity of the senses during the Middle Ages; 3) to detail "spiritual apprehension" as a key metaphorical concept in the Summa Aurea; 4) to indicate the possible relationship between a metaphoricity of the senses and Medieval sensual mysticism (or Minnemystik, with specific reference to Hadewijch of Antwerp's experience-driven epistemology); and 5) to elaborate on the internal conceptual structure and discursive nature of the Summa Aurea as a unique contribution arising from the highly idiosyncratic theological and philosophical contexts of early scholasticism.

Palavras-chave : Augustinianism; Magdalena Bieniak; BT Coolman; early scholasticism; Guilhelmus Altissiodorensis / Autissiodorensis; Guillaume d'Auxerre; Hadewijch of Antwerp; Medieval Minnemystik; metaphoricity of the senses; the senses as metaphor; spiritual senses"; Summa Aurea; William of Auxerre.

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