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Hermeneutics. Prof M D Herholdt. Defining Hermeneutics. Concepts. Definition 1.
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Hermeneutics Prof M D Herholdt
DefiningHermeneutics Concepts
Definition 1 • Hermeneutics, the study of the theory and practice of interpretation. It was originally used in the study of theology, and applied specifically to biblical interpretation, but has broadened since the 19th century to include philosophical theories of meaning and understanding, and also theories of literary interpretation.
Definition 2 • the study of the general principles of biblical interpretation. For both Jews and Christians throughout their histories, the primary purpose of hermeneutics, and of the exegetical methods employed in interpretation, has been to discover the truths and values of the Bible.
Scope • Nineteenth-century hermeneutic theorists such as Friedrich Schleiermacher and Wilhelm Dilthey considered understanding to be a process of psychological reconstruction; • that is to say, the reconstruction by the reader of the original intention of the author. • In this view, the text is the expression of the thoughts of its author and interpreters must attempt to put themselves within the author's “horizon” in order to relive the creative act.
The concept • Hermeneutics, from Hermes. • Hermes was the messenger of the gods of ancient Greece. He also protected travelers and thieves.
The hermeneutical circle • What is the grounds for judgment? If we assume a definitive ground, we end up with foundationalism. • Existential approaches end up in subjectivism. • Historically critical struggles to bridge the time gap. • Metaphorical is relative. • The German philosopher Martin Heidegger and his pupil Hans-Georg Gadamer describe this dilemma as a “hermeneutic circle”, referring to the way in which, in understanding and interpretation, part and whole are related in a circular way: in order to understand the whole it is necessary to understand the parts and vice versa. This is the condition of possibility of all human experience and enquiry.
Different approaches Ways to interpret the Bible
Traditional schools of Biblical interpretation • Literal (St Jerome, 4th century scholar). Take it at face value of plain meaning. • Moral – lessons to be learned • Allegorical – typological, having meaning beyond the events, persons and things explicitly mentioned. • Anagogical – this is a mystical interpretation, seeking a deeper spiritual meaning.
Modern periods – theoretical constructs • Historical-critical - emphasizes the interpretation of biblical documents in the light of their contemporary environment. It draws upon not only exegesis and hermeneutics but also such fields as history, archaeology, and Classical scholarship in an attempt to reconstruct the historical setting within which biblical texts were produced. • Existential - focussing on what the text means to you in addressing your subjective experience. • Structuralism - committed to the structuralist principle that a language is a self-contained relational structure, the elements of which derive their existence and their value from their distribution and oppositions in texts or discourse. • Metaphorical, analogical – departs from the philosophical notion that the mind works analogical, it can only make sense of the abstract by expressing it metaphorically.
Exegesis • The critical interpretation of the biblical text to discover its intended meaning. • Both Jews and Christians have used various exegetical methods throughout their history, and doctrinal and polemical intentions have often influenced interpretive results; a given text may yield a number of very different interpretations according to the exegetical presuppositions and techniques applied to it. • The study of these methodological principles themselves constitutes the field of hermeneutics, for instance….
Philosophicalissues Epistemology & Ontology
Contemporary issues and ancient truth • René Padilla relates that Hermeneutics has to do with a dialogue between Scripture and a contemporary culture. Its purpose is to translate the Biblical message from its original context into a particular situation. • Its basic assumption is that the God who spoke in the past and whose Word was recorded in the Bible continues to speak today in Scripture (1978:11).
A few influential scholars The influence of philosophers
Wilhelm Ditlhey (1833-1911) • Son of a reformed Church theologian. • Dilthey held that historical consciousness—i.e., the consciousness of the historical relativity of all ideas, attitudes, and institutions—is the most characteristic and challenging fact in the intellectual life of the modern world.
Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) • German philosopher, counted among the main exponents of existentialism. His groundbreaking work in ontology (the philosophical study of being, or existence) and metaphysics determined the course of 20th-century philosophy on the European continent and exerted an enormous influence in virtually every other humanistic discipline.
Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) • German philosopher who developed a dialectical scheme that emphasized the progress of history and of ideas from thesis to antithesis and thence to a synthesis. • Hegel found a place for everything—logical, natural, human, and divine—in a dialectical scheme that repeatedly swung from thesis to antithesis and back again to a higher and richer synthesis.
Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) • German philosopher, the founder of Phenomenology, a method for the description and analysis of consciousness through which philosophy attempts to gain the character of a strict science. • The method reflects an effort to resolve the opposition between Empiricism, which stresses observation, and Rationalism, which stresses reason and theory, by indicating the origin of all philosophical and scientific systems and developments of theory in the interests and structures of the experiential life.
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) • Austrian-born English philosopher, regarded by many as the greatest philosopher of the 20th century. • He taught that is was a mistake to conceive of meaning as essentially tied to the nature of reality. • Language has many functions – words are instruments, not only to describe, but to ask questions, play games, give orders, etc.
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) • Regarded by many as the most influential philosopher since Aristotle. • German philosopher whose comprehensive and systematic work in the theory of knowledge, ethics, and aesthetics greatly influenced all subsequent philosophy, especially the various schools of Kantianism and Idealism. • He taught that “The mind imposes principles upon experience to generate knowledge.”
JacquesDerrida (1930-2004) • French philosopher whose critique of Western philosophy and analyses of the nature of language, writing, and meaning were highly controversial yet immensely influential in much of the intellectual world in the late 20th century. • He was the father of deconstructionism. He taught that the concept of self is itself a linguistic construction. • His philosophy is based on the idea that meaning can only be distilled or interpreted from any particular situation: there is no objective structure.
Thomas Kuhn (1922-1996) • Kuhn questioned the traditional conception of scientific progress as a gradual, cumulative acquisition of knowledge based on rationally chosen experimental frameworks. • Instead, he argued that the paradigm determines the kinds of experiments scientists perform, the types of questions they ask, and the problems they consider important. • A shift in the paradigm alters the fundamental concepts underlying research and inspires new standards of evidence, new research techniques, and new pathways of theory and experiment that are radically incommensurate with the old ones.
OurworldandtheBible Where do we stand today?
Bible and reality • “One’s instinct to seek a unified view of reality is theologically underwritten in the belief in the Creator who is the single ground of all that is … • It must accommodate within its metaphysical embrace both the constituent insights of elementary particle physics and also the integrating insights of aesthetic and religious experience.” (John Polkinghorne, 1988:69)
Ways people appropriate Biblical message • He may deny it. “ I belief the Bible, but that can’t be true.” (the world view cannot accommodate it) • He may relativize it. “This is true only for certain people at certain times.” (dispensational process) • He may redefine it. “There are two possible meanings, and this is the one I accept for this word.(situationalism – relative to situation) • He may compartmentalize it.” This is a spiritual concept, for my Sunday but not my Monday life.” (fragmentation due to dualism). • He may reintegrate it. “when I have more faith it may be possible for me, but it is not now.” (not able to apply it existentially).
Practical: We know truth by committing to it and doing it Ps 94:23 (New International Version) • Blessed is the man you discipline , O, Lord, • The man you teach from your law; • Judgment will again be founded on righteousness • And all the upright in heart will follow it.”
Sensemaking Is a total approach • Complex • No recipe • Outcomes needed
Classdiscussion • What questions can be asked?
