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Discourse on Matter: Hermeneutics and the ‘Miracle’ of Understanding
Author(s) -
VANHOOZER KEVIN J.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
international journal of systematic theology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.149
H-Index - 13
eISSN - 1468-2400
pISSN - 1463-1652
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-2400.2005.00149.x
Subject(s) - hermeneutics , miracle , ontology , philosophy , interpretation (philosophy) , epistemology , event (particle physics) , theology , linguistics , physics , quantum mechanics
Abstract: The task of interpretation according to hermeneutic philosophers is to discern the ‘matter’ of textual discourse. This article studies what actually happens in the event or ‘miracle’ of understanding. A case study of two texts – Descartes's Discourse on Method and Barth's Romans – introduces two key terms (‘discourse’ and Sache ) and two accounts (philosophical and theological) of understanding. The next part examines Gadamer's classic description of the event of understanding with special attention to his use of theological categories (e.g., homoousios ). The final part offers a distinctly Christian account of understanding that attempts to ‘save the discourse’ by making fully operational those theological categories that Gadamer employs only illustratively, and by replacing the secular ontology presupposed by philosophical hermeneutics with a distinctly Christian ontology of the being whose being consists in understanding.