URL study guide

https://studiegids.vu.nl/en/courses/2024-2025/G_MAHERMN

Course Objective

You have developed knowledge, understanding and competences in the field of hermeneutics: (1) You can demonstrate (in writing and/or in oral communication) your knowledge and understanding of the various kinds of hermeneutics in current scholarship as a basis for developing an adequate hermeneutic theory and praxis (= Dublin descriptor 1: knowledge and understanding). (2) You are competent to apply various hermeneutic theories to a case study (= Dublin descriptor 2: applying knowledge and understanding). (3) You can integrate hermeneutic theory, where possible and relevant, into a larger (multi-disciplinary) frame of reference, especially with a view to the professional community and praxis (i.e. society, academy and church) and report about this (= Dublin descriptor 3: making judgements). (4) You can communicate the conclusions of your research in a position paper written for a specialist (peer) audience (= Dublin descriptor 4: communication). (5) You show that you are aware of the complexities of "understanding" (or not-understanding) [hermeneutic gap, text, author, reader, interpretive community, context] and can deal with them professionally in a largely self-directed (autonomous) learning process (hermeneutical habitus) (= Dublin descriptor 5: learning skills).

Course Content

This course will provide you with an introduction into the interreligious learning environment of the faculty Religion and Theology. It will provide you with tools to understand others, who believe and practice differently. This course starts with lectures on hermeneutics, especially on the themes of Ricoeur's hermeneutical anthropology and text hermeneutics; postcolonial and interreligious hermeneutics; and hermeneutics of objects and bodies. One guest lecture will be given on the questions on forgiveness and reconciliation. It ends with dialogical working sessions in mixed groups for the group assignment.

Teaching Methods

Lectures, working sessions, Q&A sessions, discussion board on Canvas, working groups, reading assignments.

Method of Assessment

21% Active participation in seven Canvas discussions: the criteria of "active participation" will be given on Canvas 10% Small individual assignments 69% Group assignment applying hermeneutical theories to existing texts, in this case Simon Wiesenthal, The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness (with responses). The group assignment must be sufficient before individual students can complete this course.

Literature

Obligatory:
- Marianne Moyaert, In Response to the Religious Other (Chs 1, 5, and 6): available via the online library of UBVU
- Simon Wiesenthal, The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness with Responses (New York: Schocken Books, 2nd edition, 1997) or later. A Dutch translation exists, made by J.W.F. Klein-von Baumhauer en A. Pieterse: De Zonnebloem: over de grenzen van vergeving (Haarlem: Becht, 1997) or later. A German version is also possible: Simon Wiesenthal, Die Sonnenblume: über die Möglichkeiten und Grenzen von Vergebung (Berlin: Europaverlag, 2015) or a later edition. Do mind that you purchase the book including the reactions of several people to the original story.
- Some articles will be provided via (a link in) Canvas.

Target Audience

This is a mandatory course for all MA students of FRT: MA Theology (1 year), Divinity (3 years) and Research Master (2 years). It is also open to students of EM (= Educatieve Master) and other Master's students.

Recommended background knowledge

If this is your very first acquaintance with (general) hermeneutics, you will much profit from Jens Zimmermann, Hermeneutics: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), especially chapters 1, 2, and 4.
Academic year1/09/2431/08/25
Course level6.00 EC

Language of Tuition

  • English

Study type

  • Master