In the essays contained in this work, the authors question whether or not hermeneutics is dependent on religion. Is it not possible that the emptiness of hermeneutics without religion would be similar to the blindness of religion without hermeneutics?

Hermeneutics and religion are closely related. It was, after all, religion which brought hermeneutics into existence. This was neither a useless invention, nor was it selfless, since religion needs hermeneutics in order to explain itself. In a world with many and often conflicting religions, hermeneutics becomes especially necessary, not only in order to enable each religion to understand itself but also in order to understand the other religions and those aspects which are unfamiliar. In the essays contained in this work, the authors question whether or not this applies the other way round as well, i.e. whether hermeneutics is also dependent on religion. Is it not possible that hermeneutics is as much in need of religion as religion is in need of hermeneutics?

Autorentext
Born 1948; 1977 Promotion; 1982 Habilitation; Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology, Symbolism and Philosophy of Religion at the University of Zurich; Danforth Professor Emeritus of Philosophy of Religion at Claremont Graduate University in California; Fellow at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study in South Africa. Born 1967; studied Protestant Theology and Philosophy; 2000 PhD; 2006 Habilitation; 2007-15 Chair of Systematic Theology and Philosophy of Religion at the University of Rostock; since 2015 Professor of Systematic Theology, Dogmatics, and Philosophy of Religion at Heidelberg University; Director of the Research Center of the Evangelical Study Community in Heidelberg.

Inhalt
Ingolf U. Dalferth und Philipp Stoellger : Einleitung: Religion zwischen Selbstverständlichkeit, Unselbstverständlichkeit und Unverständlichkeit - Hendrik J. Adriaanse : Das Religionsthema in Husserls Phänomenologie - Dieter Mersch : Die Frage der Alterität. Chiasmus, Differenz und die Wendung des Bezugs - Philipp Stoellger : Vom Nichtverstehen aus. Abgründe und Anfangsgründe einer Hermeneutik der Religion - Ben Vedder : Eine Interpretation der Gegebenheit - Pierre Bühler : Kommunikationspragmatik als Zugang zur Hermeneutik der Religion - am Beispiel Kierkegaards - Jürgen Hädrich : Wie Religion funktioniert. Grundzüge einer Religionshermeneutik bei Ernst Cassirer - Hubert Knoblauch : Transzendenzerfahrung, Kommunikation und populäre Religion - Klaas Huizing : Gestische Kommunikation. Theologie als Gesten- und Medienwissenschaft - eine Annäherung an Aby Warburg und Co. - Günter Thomas : Die Multimedialität religiöser Kommunikation. Theoretische Unterscheidungen, historische Präferenzen und theologische Fragen - Wilhelm Gräb : Massenmedien - Religion - Hermeneutik - Thomas Erne : Phänomenologie des Rhetorischen und gelebte Religion. Perspektiven für die Praktische Theologie - Werner Stegmaier : Religion als Stärkung der Moral? Eine Fallstudie zur Irak-Krise 2003