What Do You Read When You Read a Religious Text?

What is it about?

This essay reflects on the theory of hermeneutics as it applies to biblical and theological studies. In the essay I reorient the idea of hermeneutics from a conception as a disembodied idealist endeavour to an understanding of the interaction with texts as a very material process.

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Why is it important?

The key characteristics of hermeneutics are re-interpreted and critiqued in light of recent theories of religion and history. There are three domains of critical questions at issue in the open question posed to the practice of hermeneutics, namely 1) redescriptive theorising of religion as a social discourse; 2) the materiality of the tradition; and 3) revisioning history and the relationship to the past. As such, I envisaged this essay on hermeneutics as a 'farewell to hermeneutics' in which I redescribe hermeneutics in terms of material practices. This 'statement' is offered as a creative archaeology of hermeneutics inviting a different envisioning of what is involved in the interaction with foundational texts from the past.