Relational Hermeneutics: Theoretical-Methodological Systematizations of Interpretative Research

Relational hermeneutics understands every interpretation of texts, images, and other data as a relational event and the empirical findings of hermeneutic research as relationally structured facts. In doing so, it undermines the traditional distinction between the subject and object of knowledge. The epistemic subject is understood as a historically, culturally, and socially embedded individual, whose creative activity largely depends on the variable availability of productive horizons of comparison. After a sketch of the context of the emergence of relational hermeneutics and its (meta-)theoretical assumptions and perspectives, an elementary definition of the concept of interpretation is provided. This is followed by an explanation of the central function of comparative thinking and determining and reflective judgment in the research process. Finally, procedural suggestions for the practice of interpretive analysis are presented, and a typology is introduced that systematizes comparative interpretation with regard to the principle availability of horizons of comparison.