First, thank
you for acquainting us with your hermeneutic approach.
Few
people would admit that hermeneutics, the general theory
and applied practice of interpretation of revered texts,
is deeply enmeshed with broader issues such as humanism
and the transformation of core beliefs, whether
religious, metaphysical, mystical, or ideological.
I
believe hermeneutics is entwined with the socio-cultural
processes of secularization and modernization, and the
tension between the "two cultures" of the natural
sciences and humanities, as well as differences among
historic cultures.
Also,
hermeneutics becomes crucial wherever or
whenever meanings become problematic, attenuated, or
unintelligible.
Quite often, Friedrich
Nietzsche's observation that "all knowledge is
interpretation" is acknowledged to underscore the
omnipresence of hermeneutics.
You have asked a rather pertinent
question: How can one divorce history from religion?
To set the ball rolling, here's my
answer.
When we say, "How can one divorce history
from religion?" we're implying that history is an
intrinsic part of religion, whereas that is hardly true.
Whereas Religion is the engine that drives the human
heart toward compassion and forgiveness and divinity,
History performs the function of fanning the flames of
hate from the dead past.
I believe we should keep history out of
religion, unless we are studying some dead religion from
the dead past.
Rashid
Mughal
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