Patristic allegorical preaching as a mimetic technology: an exploration and proposal. (original) (raw)

I argue that patristic exegesis partly aims at developing a particular 'sense' regarding the world and one's actions. Moral action, in particular, is dependent on an allegorical imagination that sees common actions as being modeled on the 'figures' of historical events, characters, objects, and buildings. This understanding is related to Girard's theory of mimesis and Foucault's understanding of technologies of the self. The inculcation of such an imagination was historically brought about by specific practices involving the regular liturgical reading of patristic exegesis.