TCH 511 Hermeneutics and the Other: A Post-Modern Protestant Perspective
Faculty: Dr. Jennifer Little (Profile)
ABOUT THE COURSE
This course of study is an introduction to and exploration of post-modern hermeneutics and its usefulness to the church. Paul Ricoeur’s work is difficult; let us be honest about that fact. However, we are at a moment in theology and ecclesiology when we must pay attention to the changing dynamics of our understanding of the self and the other. Particularly as we try to find authentic ways to express biblical insight into God’s love for the other, we must re-orient ourselves to the self—our own and others’. Thus, we study theology. This course is designed to immerse the student in language and hermeneutics that will temporarily disorient and then re-orient one to primary ideas of the self as subject, the other as subject, God as subject and the integration of faith and ministry in a post-modern world. In this sense, post-modern theology is much like modern and post-modern art. There is tension and challenge; fragmentation and wholeness. The application of Ricoeur’s hermeneutics to psychoanalysis and counseling is intriguing. Both the minister and the pastoral psychotherapist will appreciate the insight of Ricoeur.