Ricoeur on Interpreting Religion

On Paul Ricoeur’s “The Critique of Religion” and “The Language of Faith” (1973).

Last episode taught us about hermeneutics, but how can this best be applied to the text for which hermeneutics was originally developed, i.e. the Bible? For Ricoeur, it’s a two-way street: We need to change our understanding of the text (i.e. read it historically, recognizing for example that it was common to mythologize heroes in texts at the time), but also “put at risk” our own evaluative presuppositions, which under the tutelage of science have blinded us to symbolism and so left us unable to even sensibly ask the question “what is it to be saved?”

The regular four are joined by Lawrence Ware to figure out what this “hermeneutics of suspicion” is all about. Read more about the topic and get the essays.

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End song: A live performance (recorded via camcorder) by Mark Lint and the Fake from Dec. ’98 in Austin, TX of the Elvis tune “Suspicious Minds.” #ricouer #hermeneutics #kerygma #freud #marx #nietzsche #religion Go to the blog: http://www.partiallyexaminedlife.com/2015/03/16/ep112-ricoeur/