2
ideological positioning which in turn informs alliances within the community and among other
communities in the U.S. These intersections and adjacencies are examined utilizing Gebser’s
(1949/1985) methodological perspective of hermeneutic horizons.
Methodological Approach
In examining culture, there are several factors that influence and shape our
understanding. Despite traditional descriptive, empirical approaches to culture, it is not possible
to fully understand a culture by merely studying its behaviors and practices. It is vital that we
put culture into a context and a frame of reference. In fact, the notion of culture is irrelevant
unless it is examined in reference to another culture. One cannot name the world unless and until
one sees another world. Hermeneutics offers a way in which to understand culture and place it
into a context and frame of reference.
1
A key approach in hermeneutics is the examination of horizons.
2
Horizons inform and
shape the text and its readers. Here, history plays a vital role along with other forces that shape
one’s horizon. History is seen as an operant now rather than in the past. It is a living, breathing
force, because we are our history. History changes as we change. This does not mean that one
history is correct and another history incorrect. All histories are correct in their given horizon.
Author Jean Gebser provides an efficient approach to hermeneutics.
3
His theory of civilizational
1
.
There are two key approaches within hermeneutics. The first approach, know as historicism, is best
represented in the work of Friedrich Schleiermacher. Historicism presumes that one can understand and interpret a
text by simply understanding its history. Shleiermacher argued that in order to effectively interpret the Bible, it was
necessary to understand the lives of its authors, their intentions, the times they lived in and their experiences in those
given times. Though useful, in many ways, this approach is reductionistic and fails to provide accurate insight into a
given text. Also, the attempt to identify the author’s intent was rejected by Friedreich Nietzche’s insistence on the
viability of perspectivism. Neitzche argued that one cannot escape one’s own perspective, so one can only know
another’s perspective through one’s own (Nietzche, 1974). The second approach is the examination of horizons,
utilized in this essay.
2
This discussion of horizons is taken from Hans Georg Gadamer (1995) as adapted by Kramer (1997).
3
It is important to note that in his writings, Gebser presupposes Husserl in his writings.
Convention