ABSTRACT
Gadamer developed a distinctively dialogical approach that has become a major contribution to the development of twentieth-century hermeneutics. His name has become synonymous with philosophical hermeneutics, and although he was not explicitly a religious thinker his work has had a broad impact in many circles including theology and biblical criticism. Gadamer’s most influential work, Truth and Method (Wahrheit und Methode, 1960, ET 1975), has the dual purpose of confronting narrow views of scientific method as the sole route to truth and offering an extension of Martin Heidegger’s Dasein ontology. Truth and Method is an account of what Gadamer takes to be the universal hermeneutic experience of understanding in which he emphasizes language and tradition.
