Hermeneutics

When I first saw the title of this week's topic, Hermeneutics, I was so puzzled because not only have I never heard of the term, but I had no idea how it would relate to our topic of sacred texts. However, as I began to read the readings and listened during the class lecture, I was intrigued by the way it all came together. Hermeneutics is basically when you interpret using a method with rules and steps. According to the reading, some of the steps in Hermeneutics is to apply the knowledge that you have about the topic to interpret it and compare in culturally as well. Everyone interprets everything in their own way because of the preconceptions that you had about the certain topic. Hermeneutics includes this fact that there are multiple ways that one text could be interpreted. Therefore, Hermeneutics is strongly related to religious texts because it deals with meaning. Each person could interpret a sacred text according to what they know and think. This is why when someone reads a religious text they feel like it applies and relates to them no matter what.

The second part I found interesting in the reading and the lecture was the whole idea of "the death of the author." The idea that when you read you begin to interpret the words in your own way that the actual author of the text "dies" and you become the author. This concept made so much sense to me but was also shocking because I've never thought about it as well.