"This is a translation from the first part of the Czech original edition, 'Hermeneutika jako teorie porozumĕní,' by Petr Pokorný. 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.