Postmodernism and the hermeneutical challenge : some theological reflections

Abstract

How can one achieve the critical tension between contextual relevance in a post-modern world and "responsibility before history"? What is the justification for theological method as critical reflection within a tradition? What is the relation between ground texts that have historical authority (Scripture), the informing tradition of interpretation of these texts (church history), and the interpretive communities that read them (context)? Raising these questions, the article argues that for all its useful insights, postmodernism fundamentally challenges theological (and historical) reflection. Theology has always contextualised itself ever since its origins. What is different in this encounter is that we are dealing with an intractable ideology that not only undercuts the fundamentals but disallows the "long view" (the informing and continually renewing tradition) and the communicativeness of theology (proclamation).