hermeneutics plural in form but singular or plural in construction: the study of the methodological principles of interpretation (as of the Bible)
2
: a method or principle of interpretation
a philosophical hermeneutic
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the WebIf Pope Francis can toss away the hermeneutic of continuity, on what basis can defenders of this pontificate oblige me to remain faithful to it? Michael Brendan Dougherty, National Review, 15 Sep. 2021 The vast majority of priests who took up Benedict’s permission in 2007 also say the new Mass; no clearer demonstration can be made of their commitment to Benedict’s idea of the hermeneutic of continuity. Michael Brendan Dougherty, National Review, 15 Sep. 2021 Far from autofiction, their novels are as varied as their poems, with suspenseful plots and untrustworthy characters and an understanding that drama arises from bad hermeneutics—that is, misreading people. Ange Mlinko, The New York Review of Books, 10 Mar. 2020 For Brookhiser, part of what killed the old order was modernism—meaning characters like Marx, Freud, and Nietzsche, the instigators of what the French philosopher Paul Ricœur called the hermeneutics of suspicion. Doug Henwood, Harper's magazine, 28 Oct. 2019 Some certainly are rooted in history, but figuring that out is the work of hermeneutics. Emily Mcfarlan Miller, Washington Post, 22 June 2018