The countdown continues: Three

The countdown continues. If you’ve just arrived, I’m offering a countdown of the five greatest achievements of modern theology. Here’s number three:

The hermeneutical question. An utterly astonishing achievement of modern theology is its formulation of the questions of hermeneutics: How do ancient texts speak to us across the gulf of time and history? How does understanding take place? What is language, and how does it function? Such questions, which have developed in so many different directions since the pioneering work of Schleiermacher, continue to pose some of the most urgent problems for theological reflection today. Much of the most profound and influential work in modern theology has resulted from attempts to wrestle with the questions of hermeneutics.