Abstract

My thesis is that Hans-Georg Gadamer's theory of historically effected consciousness and the fusion of horizons as expressed in the principle of application/lex applicatio provides a basis for the development of a hermeneutics of Christian liturgy. ;In language, history and forms of art, the church's memory of God's saving deeds is carried forward in what we call tradition. The contemporary liturgical formulation of the hermeneutical question is, How can those claims rooted in the past and expressed in ancient texts and actions actively engage worshipers today and continue to exercise their saving effects? ;In Gadamer's recovery of the principle of application in understanding and interpretation, hermeneutics fuses the truth embedded in tradition with the contemporary situation's need to understand that truth for them. Therefore, it is the same truth of the tradition which encounters us, but it is understood "differently." The purpose of the fusion of horizons in application is that the truth of tradition encounters us in a contemporary way. ;In order to speak of hermeneutical issues in a specific contemporary horizon and to make application in Gadamer's sense, I have utilized the Faith and Ferment study of Minnesota Christians of 1977 until 1983. In order to speak of this event of application which we call liturgy, I have utilized the Lutheran embodiment of the liturgical tradition as experienced through the use of the 1978 Lutheran Book of Worship. ;Following Gadamer's insight, I argue that hermeneutics is the way in which all worshipers participate in the hermeneutical community of memory at worship. Hermeneutics is not exclusively the task of the experts or leaders, but of the essence of being human. This insight has significant implications for the active nature of the worshiping assembly and the understanding of worship leadership. ;I explore one of the hermeneutical issues debated by many worshiping communities, namely, the tension between so-called traditional and contemporary or alternate liturgies. In my conversation with Gadamer's hermeneutical approach, I propose that this tension cannot be eliminated. I believe this tension is at the heart of the hermeneutical experience and that our task is to make this a productive tension in which both the tradition and the contemporary situation are allowed their voice in the conversation. ;I further examine application as doing classical set texts and prescribed actions in a fluid situation. In this liturgical fusion of horizons, I propose ways to do liturgy as hermeneutical engagement and to do it as an event of the Christian Gospel