Life & Language

To speak of the person as a living human document is to acknowledge this connection between life and language.  It is to acknowledge that to understand what Boisen calls the inner world is dependent upon understanding the language by which that inner world of experience is connected to external events.  To understand the inner world of another is therefore a task of interpretation—interpretation of a world of experience that is itself an interpretation of the myriad events and relationships that make up a life.  Said another way, the task of understanding another in the depth of that other’s inner world is a hermeneutical task.  It is therefore subject to all the problems and possibilities that the interpretation of an ancient document, such as a New Testament Gospel or Epistle, involves.  The difference is that this document is living and continues to disclose itself in new language and behavior that expresses its inner world.  – The Living Human Document, Charles V. Gerkin, Abingdon Press, c1984