Hermeneutic Method as Prejudice: The Theo-Teleological Gaze of the Earnest Interpreter in Kierkegaard and Gadamer

This paper interrogates Søren Kierkegaard’s For Self-Examination as anti-hermeneutical method. Standing as a seminal precursor to Hans-Georg Gadamer’s notion of the dissimilarity between truth and method is Kierkegaard’s notion that the earnest (as interpretive summum bonum) is not found in an "objective" and impersonal technique. Rather, a theo-teleological gaze—focused on transformation through union in Christ—demands subjective appropriation through our prejudices over detached exegesis “against” them. Interpretive assurance becomes busyness, where “the people alter the conception of what earnestness is and consider being busy with interpretation to be real earnestness." Here, the mirror of the Word exposes such pseudo-earnestness, insisting on immediate self-confrontation and action. There is no “objective” mediator or method we can defend our prejudices with. Rather, what stands greater is the final upbuilding maxim from Either/Or, that "in relation to God we are always in the wrong,” which serves as the humbling criterion, built upon our eternal sanctification.