Second European Society for Intercultural Theology and Interreligious Studies Conference

Description

Conference talk: "Scriptural Reasoning and Interreligious Hermeneutics"

This paper argues that one of the principal tasks for modern philosophy is keeping 'problem­solving' and 'world­ disclosure' together. Problem­ solving refers to the strand in that philosophy which privileges public justification, intelligibility, saying what you mean, redeeming validity claims, coming to agreement ­ all with a view to solving problems that present themselves. World ­disclosure refers to the strand which privileges the interpretation of classic texts/works of art/music, making and discovering meaning, describing the world as a whole, the rhythms by which things are understood with a view to making sense of life. It is vital that the one is not reduced to the other, either by treating aesthetics instrumentally, as a tool for some clearly articulated set of goals; or by treating repair purely aesthetically, as if attempts to feed the hungry are forms of 'expression' of the same order as playing the violin. Questions of freedom and limitation play a key role in the best attempts to keep the two together, in relation to each other. Scriptural reasoning is a fruitful model for the relation between freedom (the spontaneity of interpretations) and limitation (the traditions of interpretation that shape interpreters), and offers a practice that displays both world disclosure and problem solving simultaneously. Its practice of textual study is both 'public' and 'rooted in traditions', and it aims at the repair of relations between those traditions.

Period	16 Apr 2009
Event type	Conference
Location	Salzburg, AustriaShow on map