Hauptinhalt

Rudolf Bultmann Institute for Hermeneutics

The University of Marburg has a long tradition of hermeneutical thought in the humanities. In this setting, Rudolf Bultmann developed one of the most ambitious programmes of a theological hermeneutics, grounded in the idea of existential interpretation: biblical texts are read not primarily for the facts or doctrines they report, but as the expression of a religious self-understanding that calls for interpretation appropriate to its subject matter and its time. Building on this, Ernst Fuchs – founder of the Marburg Institute for Hermeneutics – emphasised the reality-disclosing, parabolic character of (biblical) language, a line of thought that today connects with theories of metaphor, image, and symbol discussed across the cultural sciences.
The Institute’s research centres on two areas: biblical hermeneutics and its metaphorical, pictorial, and symbolic dimensions; and the history of hermeneutical theology, in Marburg and beyond. It offers staff and students a forum for discussing the bearing of individual disciplines on theology as a whole, through joint study days, courses, and conferences.