ASIAN HERMENEUTICS FROM A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
Keywords:
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVEAbstract
The topic may appear a little enigmatic and too wide in scope. The
first question that has to be cleared is what one is to understand by
hermeneutics. The expression is well known not only in scriptural
studies but also in some respect in philosophy and other sciences.
Ultimately it concerns with interpretation. Interpretation can be
literal or historical understanding of scriptural text or texts. It can
also be more than literal and historical. Just as there is the
possibility of a symbolic or spiritual interpretation there is also the
possibility of a theological interpretation. In this essay we take the
last mentioned possibility-spiritual! theological-interpretation of
the Word of God revealed in Jesus Christ both through the Old and
the New Testaments. In this sense hermeneutics and theology are
interconvertible. Having clarified the term hermeneutics we will
first speak a word about Asia from the geographical and historiccultural
points of view and then proceed with an overview of the
progress of Asian hermeneutics in two parts.
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