In 1998, the Standing Commission on Faith and Order published its draft of an ecumenical hermeneutics, entitled "A Treasure in Earthen Vessels". This document seeks to bring together previous discussions on the issues and thegoal of ecumenical hermeneutics and to indicate prospects for further work on this topic. Ecumenical hermeneutics, as the document "A Treasure in Earthen Vessels" understands it, is not limited to the interpretation of texts, but also includes symbols and rites, stories and practices. It is not clear what this exactly means. The above article makes some suggestionsby using some results of literary hermeneutics, semiotics and Wittgenstein's theory of language games. While the document of Faith and Order argues for a hermeneutics for unity, this article argues for a hermeneutics of diversity, which can be explained by Wittgenstein's conceptof family resemblance.

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Personen: Körtner, Ulrich H. J.

Schlagwörter: Symbol Ökumene Brauchtum Sprache Hermeneutik Ritus