성경적 설교를 위한 저자 중심의 해석학

Author's Oriented Hermeneutics for a Biblical Preaching

In this article the writer intends to explore a hermeneutical foundation for a biblical preaching. One of the most important elements for a biblical preaching is his or her perspective toward the Bible, which is an issue of hermeneutics. The issue of hermeneutical theory in relation to biblical interpretation is prevalent in theological circles today. The issue can be summarized in the following questions: does the Bible have one intended meaning, which is the author's intended meaning or a number of meanings? If there is any meaning in a biblical text, who is the legitimate determiner of the meaning? History of literary and biblical interpretation shows three major arguments in hermeneutics: author-oriented, text-oriented, and reader-oriented meaning. Current hermeneutical trend shows that the focus of attention in interpreting of the Bible is given to the part of the reader. Before the dawn of the 20th century, the determiner of meaning is the author of a biblical text. This perspective, however, experiences a drastic change, and a reader response criticism has attained its power. Both the author's intent in the biblical text and the text's unique meaning has been expelled, and a hermeneutical trend today regards all thoughts as relative. The writer believes that the biblical preacher must uphold the author's single intended meaning which was originally given by the biblical author. Based on Hirsch's hermeneutical ideas of meaning and significance, the writer wants to assert that there is an author's meaning in a text and that the determiner of that meaning is the author. This conclusion requires that an expositor of the Bible should put the priority on the author's intended meaning.