SUBJECTIVITY AND OBJECTIVITY IN THEOLOGICAL HERMENEUTICS: THE POTENTIAL OF LOVE FOR INTERFAITH ENCOUNTER

This article investigates the nature and significance of hermeneutics in theological thinking. Two principal approaches to hermeneutics in theology, i.e. a hermeneutics of revelation and a hermeneutics of signification, are examined and their respective implications for theological thinking are discussed within a Christian horizon. However, it is argued that all religious traditions need to come to terms with their respective linguistic and hermeneutical condition and with the plurality of interpretations arising from the necessary interplay between subject and object in every act of interpretation. A concept of love as critical human praxis is proposed as the most appropriate way of dealing with differences of understanding sacred texts, traditions and human experiences in this universe, culminating in the call for a hermeneutics of love in theology.