The course is dedicated to the history of the perception of authoritative, including sacred, texts in Europe from antiquity to the present day. It includes an overview of the most important cultural practices that determined the face and fate of European hermeneutics: from pagan theology and exegesis of the ancient Greeks and Romans to the ways of interpreting the Holy Scriptures that developed in the first centuries A.С., from ways of commenting on famous literary works  in Greek  and Roman schools to humanistic comments on the classics of antiquity, from biblical criticism of the Pre-Modern Time to the reception of the patristic tradition in Greek and Russian ecclesiastical culture of the XIX-XXI centuries. Having seen how European philology was born, what was its dialogizing background, how the practice of reading a text and its interpretation was transformed over the centuries-old history of Europe, listeners will receive the opportunity to problematize and correctly contextualize the basic skills that a modern school and university require from all students of languages ​​and literature.

The module “The History of Exegesis Between East and West” is taught by Dr Julia Ivanova. It will be offered as Specialization Module 3 in the summer semester 2021.