Hermeneutics

1. Hermeneutics S John Bosco Department of English SJC

2. Heidegger German Philosopher • Wilhelm Dilthey German Historian • Schlelermacher German Theologian Hans- Georg GadamerGerman Philosopher Paul Ricoeur French Philosopher

3. Influenced by German Phenomenology and existential Philosophy

4. Hermeneutical circle • The text • Explanation-understanding(prefiguration) • Appropriation(refiguation)

5. a part of theology concerned with death, judgement, soul –eschatology

6. Understanding is an historical encounter which calls forth personal experience of being there in the world

7. 2 areas of understanding • The question of what is involved in the event of understanding a text • The question of what understanding itself is

8. History of hermeneutics • Hermeneutics and philosophy • Hermeneutics and religion • Hermeneutics and phenomenology • Hermeneutics and reader response theory

9. Hermes(message) • Plato • Aristotle

10. Interpretation • To say, explain, translate

11. Her concerned with problems, methods, purpose of interpretation • History, culture, cultural diversity, language, distance between author and the interpreter • it is a science – rules and principles • began in the 15th century, humanist education

12. General Hermeneutics The theory that analyzes interpretation, specifically, how texts communicate, how meaning is derived from texts and/or their authors, and what it is that people do when they interpret a text Biblical Hermeneutics The discipline of interpreting the Bible which includes exegesis (the discovery of the original meaning) and the contextualization of meaning to Christian theology and practice

13. Words have meaning and ideas have consequences

14. Her. Is the theory of text interpretation • Bible, Wisdom lit, Philo text • Modern her. Verbal and Non Verbal • When Good Questions are asked, new knowl, can be produced • Philo. Her. Is not a method of understanding , but rather a process of understanding • Understanding is not a reproductive process bt a productive process

15. Biblical Hermeneutics: Two Worlds • Textual world Reader’s world

16. Process of interpretation is applicable to practice of understanding • Wilhelm Dilthey, Ger, Philo, Devloped Friedrich Schleiermacher’ s idea • Hermeneutic circle • The reader cant understand any part of the text until the whole is understood, while the whole cant be understood until the parts are understood

17. The Necessity of Biblical Hermeneutics • Every reader is an interpreter. • Because the nature of language and communication as inferential Aoccdrnig to a rseearch at CmabrigdeUinervtisy, it deosn'tmttaer in wahtoredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olnyiprmoetnttihng is taht the frist and lsatltteer be at the rghitpclae.  The rset can be a total mses and you can sitllraed it wouthitporbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamnmniddeos not raederveylteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.   

18. What is usually spontaneous for us when reading documents in our native language and of our same cultural context necessarily needs to be more consciously addressed when reading ancient texts If theology is to make sense now about the meaning of Jesus Christ whose career took place then, it has in that moment engaged in a transfer of meaning. It has carried out a hermeneutic…the question is whether that hermeneutic is to be the object of deliberate theological reflection, or whether it is to be assumed and allowed to operate without the benefit of theological clarification.” (Paul J. Achtemeier, An Introduction to the New Hermeneutic)

19. Dilthey diff. bt understanding and explanation • Distin. Bt human sciences ans natural sciences • E.D. Hirsch- author’s willed meaning • Horizon of expectation- generic, cultural, conventional • Verbal meaning is stable • Matin Heidegger and Hans instist on the historicity and temporality of understanding

20. Mar. Hna meaning – constituting a temporal structure of interpretative understanding, which is already engaged in the activity of inter. • Meaning is always codetermined, reader’s horizon attempting to fuse with the author • An inescapable relativity and indeterminacy s thereby introduced into the notion of interpretation • Dasein – being there

21. Hans- argues Inter. Of past lit arises from argument bt past and present • Present perspective is associated with past • The past can only be grasped thru limited perspective of the present • Text Inter. Depends on knowl. Assumption, cultural backdrop, exp and insights of the reader

22. Her cal methods and ideas have impact on Phenomenology RRT Wolfggang Iser, Stanley Fish • Jurgen Hebermas Inter in terms of everyday Lang, than in terms of forms of social life

23. Historically affected consciousness

24. Thank you.