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Is there such a thing as a special biblical or theological hermeneutics?

Wiki MarkupThere is no such thing as a special biblical or theological hermeneutics because "\[i\]nterpretation of the biblical writings is not subject to any different conditions of understanding from those applying to any other literature" (_NTM_: 86; cf. 90 f., n. 4).

Even so, theological interpretation of the biblical writings is like any other interpretation in that it must be guided by a certain way of asking questions without which it is impossible but which is also different from other ways of questioning them. Naturally, the biblical writings may be understood religiously, at the primary level of self-understanding and life-praxis, without raising this way of asking questions to the level of critical reflection, and thus of theological interpretation, properly so-called. But if we do not ask some question, at some level, the biblical writings remain dumb. Needless to say, the particular way of asking questions to be followed by a theological interpretation "may not prejudice the contents of what is asked about by presupposing certain results of exegesis; on the contrary, it is supposed to open our eyes for the contents of the text" (106).

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