Hermeneutics and the Philosophy of Religion

Paul Ricoeur (1913-2005) was one of the most distinguished and prolific philosophers of religion in the second half of the 20th century. Through his wide-ranging writings, a self-reflective and critical approach to hermeneutics became an indispensable tool for the philosophical interpretation of the complex text worlds of religious traditions and for critical reflection on cultural phenomena. His philosophical hermeneutics was sensitive to the lack of transparency of the human self and the corresponding intricacies of direct and indirect communication in religion and culture. It was open to the analytic and phenomenological traditions but, by combining phenomenological description with hermeneutical interpretation, also decisively different from other contemporary approaches. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his birth this volume explores and evaluates Ricoeur's contributions to the hermeneutic turn in the philosophy of religion. His hermeneutical phenomenology enriches and reorients the contemporary practice of philosophy of religion, moving beyond the barren varieties of metaphysical theism and antitheism in both the analytic and post-analytic traditions.