What is "anagoge"

Anagoge \An`a*go"ge\, n. [Gr. ? a leading up; ? + ? a leading, ? to lead.]

1. An elevation of mind to things celestial.

2. The spiritual meaning or application; esp. the application of the types and allegories of the Old Testament to subjects of the New.

n. The spiritual or mystical interpretation of a word or passage beyond the literal, allegorical or moral sense (especially in Biblical criticism).

1. n. a mystical or allegorical interpretation (especially of Scripture)

2. a mystical or allegorical interpretation (especially of Scripture)

Anagoge (ἀναγωγή), sometimes spelled anagogy, is a Greek word suggesting a "climb" or "ascent" upwards. The anagogical is a method of symbolic interpretation of spiritual statements or events, especially scriptural exegesis that detects allusions to the afterlife.

Certain medieval theologians describe four methods of interpreting the Scriptures: literal/historical, allegorical, tropological (moral), and anagogical. Hugh of St. Victor, in De scripturis et scriptoribus sacris, distinguished anagoge from allegory. In an allegory, a visible fact is signified by another visible fact. On the other hand, with respect to an anagoge (‘leading above'), from a visible fact, an invisible is declared.

The four methods of interpretation point in four different directions: The literal/historical backwards to the past, the allegoric forwards to the future, the tropological downwards to the moral/human, and the anagogic upwards to the spiritual/heavenly.