Interdisciplinary interpretation: Paul Ricoeur and the hermeneutics of theology and science

This dissertation addresses theology's "interdisciplinary question," which is: What is the character of theology's interdisciplinary engagement with the natural sciences? Its thesis, developed in deep conversation with the philosophy of Paul Ricoeur, is that interdisciplinary theology is fundamentally a form of hermeneutics, a way of making interdisciplinary interpretations.;The argument supporting this claim is developed in a series of five discrete stages. The first stage investigates the work of Ian Barbour, Wolfhart Pannenberg, David Tracy, and Wentzel van Huyssteen in order to demonstrate that hermeneutics is already a part of mainstream discussions of interdisciplinary method in theology and science, even if its presence is rarely acknowledged.;In the second stage Ricoeur's wide ranging perspective on philosophical hermeneutics is summarized, presented in terms of a chronological development that illustrates how hermeneutics played an increasingly expansive role in his work over the course of his career. Beginning with his work on the interpretation of symbols, Ricoeur went on to adapt hermeneutics for the interpretation of texts, human actions, and the human self.;In the third stage a particular view of interpretation is plotted on this expansive landscape, arguing that Ricoeur's work strongly endorses a definition of interpretation that can be both generally applied and specifically articulated as the dialectical process of understanding through explanation. This view provides a useful way of relating hermeneutics with epistemology, an issue of some importance for the interdisciplinary question.;In the fourth stage this view of interpretation is used to articulate whether, how, and to what extent the natural sciences can be considered to be hermeneutical. Two qualitatively different forms of hermeneutics are identified, one focused on the "inner" dynamics of experimental practice and another on the "outer" dynamics of theoretical meaning.;The fifth and final stage finally establishes the ultimate thesis by arguing that interdisciplinary theology borrows meaning from the sciences through a process of interdisciplinary interpretation. This leads to a characterization of systematic theology as faith seeking understanding through explanation, a characterization that both respects theology's disciplinary identity and encourages interdisciplinary and other cross-contextual explorations.