Abstract

Originally, hermeneutics was applied only to particularly unclear portions of legal, religious, and classical texts. However, since the 18th century, hermeneutics has gradually broadened in scope. By the latter half of the 20th century, hermeneutic philosophers had claimed all human understanding as their domain—the activity of the mind was pervasively interpretive. This universalisation is largely due to the influence of Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002), whose development of philosophical hermeneutics established interpretation as a fundamental category in studies of knowledge, perception, and textual analysis. The implications for religion are inescapable. If all human understanding is interpreting, this includes the reading of scriptures, the anthropological study of religious communities, inter-religious dialogue, and religious experience itself.