The 12^th International Conference of
	ISSEI	In cooperation With
	International Society for the Study of European Ideas

Section V: Religion, Philosophy, Anthropology, Psychology, Language

Workshop: Biblical Text and Secular Thought: Hermeneutics Beyond the Faith-Reason Dichotomy

Chair: Chris Irwin

One of the enduring legacies of the Enlightenment has been the production of highly polarized interpretations of the relationship between secular thinking and the Bible.  As a result, it is not unusual for both fundamentalist readers and theophobic secularists to overlook the hermeneutical demands involved in interpreting biblical texts. It could be argued, in both cases, that these readers too readily assume that biblical texts present their meanings simply and directly, without subtlety or nuance, thereby eliding any tension between the word of the Bible and its interpretation.

At yet there is another interpretive tradition that also finds its origins in modern European thought. Beginning with the development of scriptural hermeneutics in the early modern period, thinkers working at the borders of biblical and philosophical traditions have argued that biblical narratives themselves demand from their readers a complex--even radical--understanding of the relationship between faith and reason. For example, Spinoza, Hegel, Kierkegaard, and Levinas have all argued for a more paradoxical interpretation of the relationship between God and human beings in biblical narrative than is allowed for by either reductively anthropomorphic or conventional orthodox readings. For Hegel, the truth of God and the truth of the human being are together embodied in the history and practice of Christian communities, communities which then develop secular successors (e.g. ethical and political ideals and institutions). In this way, Hegel makes problematic any clear demarcation between faith and reason, between God and human beings, or between the secular and the religious. Similarly, Levinas turns to Talmudic and biblical resources to show how the revelation of God is found only in the ethical relation to the other, suggesting a move beyond any binary conception of God and human beings.

In keeping with these readings, this workshop invites papers that examine the hermeneutical issues that are raised when biblical narratives, themes, and concepts are taken up in the discourses of Western ethical, political, and social theory. It also welcomes papers that challenge dichotomous configurations of the relationship between the divine and the human, between faith and reason (or science), or between the secular and the religious.

Chris Irwin

chris.irwin@humber.ca

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