THE RELEVANCE OF CRITICAL HERMENEUTICS IN THE PROCESS OF DIALOGUE

Cosimo Zene

Dr Casimo Zene, is Lecturer in the Department of the Study
of Religions at the School of Oriental and African Studies.
UK

Dialogue and the Fear of the Other Western philosophy has often
been characterised as overly preoccupied with the 'self'. The importance given
to the thinking subject and its identity - the I, Ego, Self - as the foundation
of all other philosophical achievements, has often obscured the relevance of
'Others'. I will in the paper present some contingent and circumscribed examples
- which hold global resonance - of how this philosophy is still at work today in
recent documents of the Catholic Church. I will then move to challenge this
position, not from a theological point of view, but appealing to a philosophy
which seeks to renounce the 'powerful Logos' in favour of a 'weak self' whose
main intent remains that of welcoming the 'Other'.