Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as anagoge.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Same as anagoge.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The spiritual or mystical interpretation of a word or passage beyond the literal, allegorical or moral sense.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Ecclesiastical Latin, from Ancient Greek ἀναγωγή (anagōgē, "religious or ecstatic elevation, mystical feeling"), from ἀνάγειν (anagein, "lift up"), from ἀνά (ana, "up") + ἄγειν (agein, "to lead").

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Examples

  • The standard view was that “history talks about events, allegory about how one thing is understood from another, tropology discusses morals, ¦ and anagogy is the spiritual meaning ¦ that leads to higher things.”

    Giovanni Pico della Mirandola Copenhaver, Brian 2008

  • Dissociated from the moral idealism of conventional anagogy, this Jerusalem is an old, decaying city — in fact,

    Introduction - Critical Apparatus 2005

  • It will help him to see the profound allegory and sublime anagogy in the wisdom of our inheritance from the saints, both simple and wise, naturally expressed in pious tradition.

    Archive 2006-12-01 Mike L 2006

  • It will help him to see the profound allegory and sublime anagogy in the wisdom of our inheritance from the saints, both simple and wise, naturally expressed in pious tradition.

    Avoiding docetism Mike L 2006

  • But Suger, unlike Eco's abbot, seems to take very seriously the anagogy of decoration, the means by which the beauty of the Church is intended to be an earthly echo reminding people of the glory of heaven.

    Archive 2005-05-01 2005

  • But it's also clear that there is something to this doctrine of anagogy.

    "The dull mind rises to the truth through material things" 2005

  • But Suger, unlike Eco's abbot, seems to take very seriously the anagogy of decoration, the means by which the beauty of the Church is intended to be an earthly echo reminding people of the glory of heaven.

    "The dull mind rises to the truth through material things" 2005

  • But it's also clear that there is something to this doctrine of anagogy.

    Archive 2005-05-01 2005

  • We must now make a transition from the serpent to the author of this mischief himself; and that not only in the way of comparison, for there truly is a literal anagogy; [196] because God has not so vented his anger upon the outward instrument as to spare the devil, with whom lay all the blame.

    Commentary on Genesis - Volume 1 1509-1564 1996

  • The true and pious one is that which ... elucidates the secret mysteries of the holy law according to the principle of anagogy

    Secret Societies And Subversive Movements Nesta H. Webster 1918

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