Love and Justice, or On Paul Ricoeur’s Dialectics of the Exegesis

Witold P. GLINKOWSKI

Katedra Filozofii Współczesnej, Instytut Filozofii, Wydział Filozoficzno-Historyczny, Uniwersytet Łódzki, ul. Narutowicza 65, 90-131 Łódź, Poland , Poland

Abstract

Ricoeur’s hermeneutics used for biblical texts’ exegesis yields especially interesting results when it focuses on the notions of love and justice. Those concepts, rooted in the Judaist and the Christian traditions, have their counterpart in philosophy, notably in the context of myth and symbol, which is crucial in anthropological approach. Knowing that, in his hermeneutical exegesis Ricoeur covers a variety of sources and motifs. As a result he proposes the concept of the ‘economy of the gift,’ which takes into account the dialectical encounter of the rule of law and justice with the spirit of love and commandment. However, a doubt appears: Can a text itself, conceived of as the basis of hermeneutic analysis, automatically and invariably represent interpersonal relations?

Keywords:

justice and mercy, ‘economy of gift,’ neighbor, philosophical hermeneutics, philosophy of dialogue