Schleiermacher: Hermeneutics and Criticism

The founding text of modern hermeneutics. Written by the philosopher and theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher as a method for the interpretation and textual criticism of the New Testament, it develops ideas about language and the interpretation of texts that are in many respects still unsurpassed and are becoming current in the contemporary philosophy of language. Contrary to the traditional view of Schleiermacher as a theorist of empathetic interpretation, in this text he offers a view of understanding that acknowledges both the structurally and historically determined aspects of language and the need to take account of the activity of the individual subject in the constitution of meaning. This volume offers the text in a new translation by Andrew Bowie, together with related writings on secular hermeneutics and on language, and an introduction that places the texts in the context of Schleiermacher’s philosophy as a whole.

• A most important text for the foundation of modern interpretative theory - important for debates in contemporary literary theory • Of strong interest to theologians: important for the study of Protestant hermeneutics • Substantial historical and philosophical introduction

Introduction; Chronology; Further reading; Note on the text and the translation; 1. Hermeneutics and criticism; 2. General hermeneutics; 3. Schematism and language; Index.