James K. A. Smith has a neat scheme for summarizing different view of interpretation in terms of the categories of creation and fall. For some thinkers, interpretation and the possibility of misinterpretation are results of the Fall; for others, interpretation and misinterpretation is inherent in created life, though there is a difference between those who see this as structurally good (Christian) or inherently violent (gnostic).
Here’s a version of the chart he provides on p 23:
Present Immediacy: Hermeneutics is a result of the fall; mediation is overcome in the present; this view is represented by Richard Lints and some other evangelical writers.
Eschatological Immediacy: Hermeneutics is a result of the fall; mediation is overcome in the future; this is represented by Pannenberg, Gadamer, Habermas.
Violent mediation: Hermeneutics is constitutive of human being but is structurally violent; mediation cannot be overcome, and thus neither can violence; this view is represented by Heidegger and Derrida.
Creational Hermeneutic: Hermeneutics is constitutive of human being but is structurally good; mediation cannot be overcome but is an aspect of creaturehood, and though violence is possible it is not necessary or inherent; Augustine represents this view (though Smith puts Augustine in brackets).
Smith is defending the last of these, which seems exactly right to me.
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
