Liber creaturae und sacra scriptura. Zur Bedeutung der Naturkunde für die Bibelexegese der lateinischen Kirchenväter

: This article gives an insight into the theoretical approach to and the practical application of natural knowledge by Latin Christians in Late Antiquity. Based on the only explicit reference of a church father to the Physiologus , by Rufin of Aquileia, and on theoretical con-siderations in Augustine’s De doctrina christiana and De civitate dei , the two basic functions of natural history – ex-egesis and apologetics – are presented in their respective historical and conceptual contexts. In a second part, concrete applications of natural knowledge in various Latin Christian authors, for whom the Physiologus may have served as a kind of handbook, are examined. These exam-ples illustrate the increasing argumentative significance of nature for Latin Christians, and the simultaneous diver-sity in concrete implementation. The paper thus forms the bridge from the original Hellenistic context of the Physiologus to its reception in the Latin cultural area – and thus also to the Bernese Physiologus . Dinge aber erzeugt dunkle, figürliche Rede-weisen, wenn wir Eigenschaften von Lebewesen oder Steinen oder Pflanzen oder anderen Dingen nicht kennen, die meistens wegen irgendeines Vergleichspunktes in den Schriften angeführt werden. 26