The Symbolism of Creation as the Basis for the Construction of Hermeneutic Procedures. Method of Integral Exegesis

Abstract

The symbolic nature of the world and man created by God, according to the author, opens up the prospect of reading culture as a symbolic text, since it also has symbolism deeply rooted in it. The article presents a historical overview of the transformation of the concept of«symbol» in the European cultural space. European culture can rightly be regarded as an extended commentary on the Holy Scriptures, since it, often unwittingly, resides in the biblical "matrix", in which the very principles of distinguishing between good and evil are set. The existing methods of its analysis in literary criticism and cultural studies represent a great dissonance, since they are based on a variety of settings - from psychoanalysis to the theory of dialogue by M. M. Bakhtin or postmodern approaches. The theological understanding of culture, the introduction of its diversity into the coordinates of Christian semantic differentiation can be started by applying to it, with appropriate amendments and assumptions, the methods of biblical hermeneutics.