allegorism

Noun

allegorism (usually uncountable, plural allegorisms)

1. (usually) The use of allegory.
   • These two tendencies correspond, mutatis mutandis, with the development of symbolism and allegorism in twentieth-century literature.1999, Tullio Pagano, Experimental Fictions, page 149
   • Schmidt makes a rather surprising statement when he ventures to assert that in general S. Irenaeus avoids allegorism, that when he uses it the exegesis is mostly typology, and that allegoristic passages are not for him determinative for faith.2001, Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism, page 255
2. (usually) The belief that the primary value and significance of what is earthly and tangible is the way it points to the divine.
   • He goes so far as to affirm that in Scripture 'all has a spiritual meaning, but not everything has a literal meaning' (De princ. 2,3,5). We have here the point of departure for all the exaggerations of medieval allegorism.2000, Henri de Lubac, Medieval Exegesis Vol 2: The Four Senses Of Scripture, page 277
   • The issue of the merits or demerits of allegorism became pronounced at the close of the 13th century and was keenly contested in the polemical literature of the second Maimonidean controversy.2007, Fred Skolnik, Michael Berenbaum, Encyclopaedia Judaica - Volume 3, page 645