Gadamerian Background of Merold Wesphal’s Existential Hermeneutics of Religion

Abstract

Merold Westphal’s hermeneutic epistemology developed in the work “Whose Community? Which Interpretation? Philosophical Hermeneutics for the Church” (2009) represents an organic synthesis of the basic principles of the hermeneutic project of Hans-Georg Gadamer and the dialogic ethics of Søren Kierkegaard, which marks the incipiency and formation in the late period of the work of the original version of the existential hermeneutics of religion of well-known American theologian. Westphal’s desire to overcome the “relativism of hermeneutics” becomes a prerequisite for the further development and application of the tradition of hermeneutic analysis in theology. The attribute “existential” for own methodology Westphal “gained” on the basis of the study and reinterpretation of Kierkegaard’s legacy. The same happened with the Westphal’s understanding of the specifics of the application of hermeneutic analysis in theology. Gadamer’s hermeneutics is perceived by Westphal in the context of Kierkegaard’s intentions, for which it is primarily understood as the practice of personal participation (existential presence) in the interpretation and realization of God’s will, which generally defines the Westphal’s non-typical perception of the Scripture. Therefore, in this case we are talking about the life of the text as a way that, to a certain extent, resounds with the Kierkegaard’s interpretation of the human existence as a process of constant formation of the personality of a human being