Picture Gallery from our international conference ‘Understanding and Believing’
20.06.-22.06.2018 at the old university library in Erlangen
Comparative View of Theological Scriptural Hermeneutics:
Theologians are increasingly according due weight to the insight that an understanding of the divine message in the three monotheistic religions requires a genealogical approach that entails deciphering the interactions between intellectual history and discourse in the scriptures. Alongside a traditional theological approach proceeding on the basis of comparing and contrasting monotheistic beliefs, a comparative hermeneutic methodology drawing on semiotics and textual analysis has emerged as promising. Nevertheless, all methods that have impacted discourse in the field thus far primarily indicate that all comparative approaches essentially appear to posit dogmatic definitions, such as that of the Trinity or of the attributes of God, as relative.
How, then, in light of these considerations, might a comparative theological hermeneutics of the divine message look today? To what extent can methodological and epistemological diversity within a religious denomination or theological tradition contribute to an interreligious discourse on an academic level, conducted, as is its due, in the service of the ethical and spiritual essence of the divine word, which all religions have long proclaimed and laboriously uncovered in their scriptures?
This conference provides the framework for specialist academic discussion of theological and epistemological questions relating to the process of understanding divine discourse in the three monotheistic religions and the associated ethical, moral and social implications.
The conference’s panels intend to provide a framework for wide-ranging discussion around the topics currently at the center of theological discourse, such as symbolic theology, textual aesthetics and moral theory. A panel on readings of the Qurʾān, the Bible and the Torah will concern itself with matters of source criticism. In addition to this, an exploration of the qirāʾāt will proceed on the basis of an Islamic perspective on selected passages or terms. This approach may encompass both purely lexical and/or grammatical interpretations and those with exegetical relevance.
You can download the programme here.