ABSTRACT
My own preaching leads me to suspect that philological analysis and theo logical interpretation are l inked immediately. The most interesting ideas for a sermon emerge in reflecting on the biblical text, and often in translating it. It is exactly the concentration on the letter that confronts us with the mani fold movements in the biblical language and texts, that is, with the vivid and powerful dynamics of the Spirit. Of course, this concentration on the letter confronts us with philological problems, such as the gap between methodo logical questions in recent literary criticism and the hermeneutical search for understanding the text. Some literary criticism does not interpret the texts, since the implications of reading texts are more interesting. I Medita tions on 'horizon' , ' Geschichtlichkeit' and 'existence' - the traditional key words of German philosophical hermeneutics - do not contribute anything to the analysis of textual structures, and we may even ask whether they are irrelevant to the range of critical historical methods . Obviously, these meth ods do not need any philosophical reflection or legitimation. This insight will be important for us, because any philosophical mediation between reading and understanding the text may obscure the theological dialectics of letter and Spirit.
