A literary and biblistic monograph entitled Hermeneutica Sacra written by Zorâna Lanovik, an Ukrainian professsor of literature at the University of Ternopil, is a very good example of a sacrological scholarly study. Professor Lanovik deals with Russian and Ukrainian literature, theory of literature, comparative studies and the Bible. She has created her own concept of sacrology and sacrological hermeneutics, especially in the sphere of biblical motifs in literature. This extensive monograph (586 pages), written in Ukrainian, is a very important work concerned with the theme of the sacrology of literature and hermeneutics of biblical literature. The monograph consists of an introduction (pages 6-13) and three main chapters, divided into many small parts (subsections).
In the first chapter entitled The Bible and literature: specificity of artistic nature of the biblical texts as the basis of biblical hermeneutics (p. 14-57) the author deals with the following questions: 1) the Bible and artistic literature in the context of textual interpretation (p.14-19), 2) the history of the world (Weltgeschichte) and the holy history (Heilsgeschichte) in relation to the problems of historicism and mythologicism (mythology in scholarly cognition) in the Bible (p.19-37), 3) lingual concepts in the Bible (p. 38-43), 4) poetics and rhetoric (artistic nature of the biblical texts, (p. 43-50)), polysemantics and dialogic multiplicity of the Bible (p.50-57)
The second chapter entitled Genesis of the biblical hermeneutics: an aspect of literary studies (p.58-280) presents the following issues concerning the history of biblical hermeneutics (‘historiography’ of the theory of the interpretation of the Bible): 1) intertextuality and allegorism as dominants of the ancient Jewish hermeneutics of sacred texts (p.58-74), 2) principles of literary interpretation of The Old Testament in the early apologetics (p.75-79), 3) development of allegorical and historical and literary method of interpretation of the Bible in patristic exegetics (p.79-93), the conception of textual interpretation in scholasticism in the Middle Ages (p.93-107), 5) philological change in the period of humanism and renaissance hermeneutics (p.108-111), 6) transformation of biblical hermeneutics in the Reformation era (p.112-128), 7) inductive basis of ancient texts in scholarly paradigm of modernism (p.128-153), including such problems as: a) biblical rationalism (p.128-130), b) historical and literary criticism (p. 131-140), c) grammar interpretation (p.140-144), d) philosophy and cultural studies (p.145-150), d) biblical irrationalism (p.150-153) and, moreover, 8) interpretive model of the latest biblical hermeneutics (p.154-270), including issues such as: a) the liberal school of hermeneutics (p.154-180), b) the mythological school of hermeneutics (p.180-184), c) the biblical existentialism (p.184-193), d) the most recent phenomenological hermeneutics (p.194-218), e) extra-hermeneutical model of analysis of biblical texts (p.218-234), f) return to the assumptions of "pure hermeneutics" (p.235-270), 9) non-secular schools of Biblical Studies (p.270-280).
In the third chapter entitled Methodological system of analysis of biblical texts (p.281-541), the author presents the following questions: 1) the basis of ‘extra-textual’ context of the Bible as an interpretative paradigm of the historical and critical method in hermeneutics (p.281-331), including issues such as: a) the historical paradigm (p.283-305), b) paradigm of cultural studies (p.305-321), c) the geographical paradigm (p.321-331), moreover, 2) the generic paradigm and critical-literary method of interpretation (p.332-387), including issues such as: a) the specificity of the epic (prose) and types (species) of prose in the Old Testament (p.335 -342), b) ancient Jewish poetry and wisdom literature (p.342-358), c) the stories of the prophets: creating genological factors and artistic-figurative curiosities (p.358-371), d) Gospel as the basis of generic description of the New Testament (p.371-381), e) literary analysis of the letters of the New Testament (p.381-387), f) the generic nature of apocalyptic literature: the specificity of artistic organization of the text (p.388-396); besides 3) the author’s paradigm and psychological method of interpretation (p.396-417), 4) the paradigm of language and grammatical method of interpretation (p.417-439), 5) contextual and intertextual principles of the hermeneutical analysis (p.439-465), 6) metatextual paradigms of the Bible and principles of their interpretation (p.465-541), including such problems as: a) the archetypal paradigm (p.465-481), b) the symbolical paradigm (p.481-505), c) the allegorical paradigm (p.505-519), d) the typological paradigm (p.519-541). The author presents the conclusions of the analysis separately (p.542-562), and includes an extensive bibliography (i.e. the literature of the subject - p.563-586).
In my opinion, it would be useful to translate this book into English to make it possible for scholars from other European countries to become familar with the conceptions of the Ukrainian sacrological school.
