Ecumenical Hermeneutics by Rudolf von Sinner

ecumenical hermeneutics is meant to serve the "specific task of focusing on how texts, symbols and practices in the various churches may be interpreted, communicated and mutually received as the churches engage in dialogue. In this sense it is a hermeneutics for the unity of the Church." (ibid.)7 It is ecumenical because of the space in which it is being applied, that is, where churches are in dialogue about the interpretation, communication and reception of texts, symbols and practices. At the same time, it alms at the unity of the Church, a unity which, however, is not being defined more precisely.

On the basis of this definition, the study paper expounds in three points what such an ecumenical hermeneutics should be able to produce. (1) It should "aim at greater coherence in the interpretation of the faith and in the community of all believers as their voices unite in common praise of God". (2) It should "make possible a mutually recognizable (re)appropriation of the sources of the Christian faith". (3) Finally, it should "prepare ways of common confession and prayer in spirit and truth" (para. 6). Therefore, it aims at being a hermeneutics of coherence. As the (One) Church is, in itself, a hermeneutical community, in which the churches are in dialogue with one another, each church has, at least, to suppose that the Spirit can also speak in the other church and, through her, speak to oneself. Thus, the study also mentions a hermeneutics of confidence, a term new to the published study text compared to its earlier versions, which presumes in the other a "right intention of faith" (para. 30). It is made clear, at the same time, that the study paper does not refer to a romantic notion of understanding and agreement without any criticism. It also implies a hermeneutics of suspicion "which perceives how self-interest, power, national or ethnic or class or gender perspectives can affect the reading of texts and the understanding of symbols and practices" (para. 28). I shall return to this threefold hermeneutics -- of coherence, confidence, suspicion -- in the concluding chapter of this article. ...> More