Abstract

The thesis constructs a theological hermeneutics in dialogue with Gianni Vattimo, Eberhard Jungel, Robert Scharlemann and Paul Ricoeur. The main argument is that theological hermeneutics's task is to inscribe the word "God" upon the occurrence of the cross, and consequently upon every human event without destroying the difference between divine and worldly being. Thus, the hermeneutics of the word "God" functions theologically as the trace of the Crucified. ;The dissertation reaches this conclusion through an analysis of Gianni Vattimo's ontological hermeneutics in the form of a narrative genealogy of modernity. Central to this genealogy is the idea of postmodernity as the dissolution of Being as foundation. The thesis follows Heideger's assessment of the dissolution of being into value in the main figures of modernity . In response to Heidegger, Vattimo constructs his ontological hermeneutics as an interpretation of the "weakening" of metaphysics. Metaphysics can be "weakened" only because interpretation is an articulation or response to the appeal of Being as trace. ;Vattimo sees modernity--the last epoch of metaphysics--not as something to be left behind, but as an object of critical Verwindung . This critical distortion serves, among other things, to retrieve the Judeo-Christian tradition as the provenance of postmodern thought. Thus the thesis reconciles theological hermeneutics with the positive aspects of postmodern critical thought