Text and Interpretation as Categories of Theological Thinking

The aim of this book is to examine the dimensions of an adequate theological hermeneutics and thus to contribute to the present discussion of theological method. One essential concern of theological thinking is the interpretation of texts, such as biblical writings, creeds, dogmas, prayers, etc. This book examines text and interpretation as the two categories of any adequate theory of interpretation. In the first chapter a new, three-dimensional theory of interpretation is developed in critical dialogue with the hermeneutical proposals of Hans-Georg Gadamer and Paul Ricoeur. The second chapter investigates the concept of text."" It examines essential features of the textuality of texts and of the process of reading. Focusing on the theological methodology of David Tracy, the third chapter assesses the hermeneutical character of theology and theology's particular contribution to human understanding. The book may be used as a textbook in courses of systematic and philosophical theology, because it is written without presupposing any special knowledge of the particular topics discussed. It would be most valuable to courses in theological hermeneutics.