"This is a translation from the first part of the Czech original edition, 'Hermeneutika jako teorie porozum�en�i,' by Petr Pokorn�y. Twelve other scholars participated in the second and third parts of this publication ... published in Prague by Vysehrad Publishing House in 2005."

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Hermeneutics : hearing God's word today / James Hamilton Charlesworth -- What is hermeneutics? -- The world of language. Language as an encoding system -- The question of the world language (or, From syntax to pragmatics) -- Hermeneutics, transformational grammar, and the "future" of the text -- Symbol and metaphor -- Text. The graphic character of the written text -- The silence of the text -- The possibility of misusing the text -- The fixed character of the text -- The reduction of redundancy -- The successive surface of the written text -- The text between tradition and the future -- The effect of the text -- Genre -- Methods of interpretation. The historical background of exegetical methods and hermeneutic theories -- Philology -- Synchronic interpretation and projects based on it -- Historical methods -- Interpretation. The otherness and attraction of ancient texts -- The meeting of worlds -- Understanding the text as part of self-understanding -- Historicity and revelation -- Revelation and witness.