The Hermeneutic of Suspicion

In today’s show Chris introduces a term coined by the French intellectual, Paul Ricouer—the hermeneutic of suspicion. In the 19th century, theorists including Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud promoted the idea that rationality was nothing more than rationalization. Beneath the surface of any argument was something selfish and irrational. They believed that interpretation should begin with suspicion. One of the bitter fruits of this approach is the shift from persuasion through argument to identify politics. The Pugsters discuss what this means for the church.