Title: A Hermeneutical Perspective in Christian Education
Abstract: In the most general terms, hermeneutics can be depicted as the act of understanding. When used in its narrower sense, hermeneutics can be regarded as the method and techniques used to interpret written texts. In its wider sense, on the other hand, it can refer to the conditions which make understanding possible and even to the process of understanding as a whole.
General hermeneutics emerged with the work of Friedrich D.E. Schleiermacher. Rather than focusing on technical rules governing the interpretation of texts, Schleiermacher changed the focus to the preconditions which make understanding possible. The idea of a general hermeneutics, suggested by Schleiermacher for all forms of communication, was developed further by Wilhelm Dilthey when he employed it to the phenomenon of history. This historical approach to hermeneutics was later further developed by Martin Heidegger. Presenting the concept of the hermeneutical circle, Heidegger attempted to extend the horizon of hermeneutics to include communicative, epistemological, and ontological dimension.
Deeply influenced by Heidegger's ontological and traditional hermeneutics, Gadamer maintains that hermeneutics cannot strive only for objectively secured knowledge, such as a question of method, but must commence a dialogical process through which possibilities for existence are recognized. According to Gadamer, a dialogue opens up a dialectical relationship between past and present and between text and interpreter, each with its own horizons. Drawing a distinction between philosophical hermeneutics and hermeneutics oriented toward methods and methodology, Gadamer proposes a more dialogical approach to hermeneutics which reveals the truth by means of a dialogical process.
Since the publication of and Method, hermeneutics has come to be recognized as an international and interdisciplinary field of study. The herementical perspective presented in this article has opened new horizons of consideration in diverse disciplines in critical relationship with theological disciplines Even though this hermeneutical perspective has a danger of utilizing tradition without critical consideration and paying insufficient attention to the concepts of distance and tension, this perspective can provide the possibility of developing a dialectical hermeneutics that pursues the Truth through method by means of the interaction between past and present, between teacher and student, and between theory and practice.
Publication Year: 2004
Publication Date: 2004-10-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 1
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