ABSTRACT
James D. Smart himself believes that, in the fullest sense of the word "understanding", certain parts of the Bible including the Old Testament, can be understood only from within a Christian frame of reference. The modern reader is also conditioned by his own place in history and tradition. Meaning depends on context. More specifically it involves establishing a relationship between horizons. Everything becomes dominated by the interpreter's own pre-understanding and the ancient text becomes merely a projection of his own ideas or preconceptions. Carl Braaten writes, "The Achilles heel of Rudolf Bultmann's hermeneutical proposal is his narrow conception of the pre-understanding appropriate in Biblical interpretation.” Bernard Lonergan also argues for the importance of pre-understanding, simply as a given fact of life by virtue of the nature of language and understanding. Hermeneutics and especially theological questions about the significance of pre-understanding have been given a new turn by the emergence of the theology of liberation in Latin America.
