ZYGO Zygon® 0591-2385 1467-9744 10.1111/j.1467-9744.1994.tb00692.x FROM THE SENSES TO SENSE: THE HERMENEUTICS OF LOVE Shafer Ingrid H. 02 12 1994 29 4 10.1111/zygo.1994.29.issue-4 579 602

Abstract. Drawing on philosophy, theology, comparative religion, spirituality, Holocaust studies, physics, biology, psychology, and personal experience, I argue that continued human existence depends on our willingness to reject nihilism–not as an expedient “noble lie” but because faith in a meaningful cosmos and the power of love is at least as validly grounded in human experience as insistence on cosmic indifference and ultimate futility. I maintain that hope will free us to develop nonimperialistic methods of bridging cultural differences by forming a mutually intelligible vocabulary that celebrates diversity, enters the worlds of others in respectful dialogue, and fosters a postmechanistic, organic, ecological, holistic, dynamic, interactive, open‐ended model of reality. I lay the foundation for a “hermeneutics of love” to complement Paul Ricoeur's “hermeneutics of suspicion” and invite speculation on the ways science, technology, and society would be transformed if those “glasses of friendship” were widely applied.

 Altruism cross‐cultural dialogue cross‐disciplinary dialogue hemisphericity hermeneutics hesed holism hope mysticism religion as language second naiveté truth and meaning two‐culture split Barbour, Ian G.1966. Issues in Science and Religion. Englewood Cliffs , N.J. : Prentice‐Hall. Becker, Ernest. 1973. The Denial of Death. New York : Free Press. Bryant, M. Darrol. 1989. “From ‘De’ to ‘Re’ or…Does the ‘Future of Ontotheology’ Require the Recovery of the Experience/Sense of Transcendence?  ” in Religion, Ontotheology and Deconstruction, ed. HenryRuf, pp. 69–87. New York : Paragon House. Capra, Fritjof, and DavidSteindl‐Rast. 1991. Belonging to the Universe; Explorations on the Frontiers of Science and Spirituality. San Francisco : Harper/Collins. D'AquiliEugene G.1983. “The Myth‐Ritual Complex: A Biogenetic Structural Analysis. Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science  18 (September): 247–69. D'Arcy, Martin C., S.J.1956. The Mind and Heart of Love. Lion and Unicorn: A Study in Eros and Agape. Cleveland and New York : World Publishing Company. Dees, Morris, and SteveFiffer. 1991. A Season for Justice: The Life and Times of a Civil Rights Lawyer. New York : Charles Scribner. DonovanPeter1993. “The Intolerance of Religious Pluralism. Religious Studies  29, no. 2 (June): 217–29. Ekman, Paul. 1971. “Universal and Cultural Differences in Facial Expression of Emotion  .” In Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, ed. J. K.Cole, pp. 207–83. Lincoln : Univ. of Nebraska Press. Francis of Assisi, Saint. 1982. “The Canticle of the Sun  . Francis and Clare: The Complete Works. Trans. Regis J. Armstrong, O.F.M. CAP. and Ignatius Brady, O.F.M. New York : Paulist Press. Frye, Northrop. 1981. The Great Code: The Bible and Literature. New York : Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Gardner, John. 1978a. “Challenging the Literary Naysayers. Interview with Daniel Laskin  . Horizon 21 (July): 32–36. Gardner, John. 1978b. On Moral Fiction. New York : Basic Books. Gilbert, Martin.1985. The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe During the Second World War. New York : Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Greeley, Andrew M.1971a. The Friendship Game. New York : Doubleday. Greeley, Andrew M. 1971b. why Can't They Be Like Us? America's white Ethnic Groups. New York : E.P. Dutton & Go. Hefner, Philip. 1993. The Human Factor: Evolution, Culture, and Religion. Minneapolis : Fortress Press. Henry, James P.1986. “Religious Experience, Archetypes, and the Neurophysiology of Emotions. Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science  21 (March): 47–74. Hofstadter, Douglas R.1980. Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. New York : Vintage Books. Hofstadter, Douglas R.1986. Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern. New York : Bantam Books. Hofstadter, Douglas, R. and Daniel C.Dennett. 1981. The Mind's I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul. New York : Basic Books. Hopkins, Gerard Manley. [1877] 1991. “God's Grandeur  ” In The Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins, 4th ed., ed: W. H.Gardner and N. H.Mackenzie, p. 66. Oxford Univ. Press. Joyce, James. [1922] 1986. Ulysses. Edited by Hans Walter Gabler. New York : Vintage. Langbein, Hermann. [1972] 1980. Menschen in Auschwitz. Frankfurt am Main : Ullstein, 1980. Laughlin, Charles D., Jr.John, McManus, and Eugene G.D'Aquili. 1993. “Mature Contemplation. Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science  28 (June): 133–76. Lonergan, Bernard J. F., S.J.1970. Insight: A Study of Human Understanding. New York : Philosophical Library. Lonergan, Bernard J. F., S.J.1972. Method in Theology. New York : Herder and Herder. Lyotard. Jean‐François. 1984. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Translated by Geoff Bennington and Brian Massumi. Foreword by Fredric Jameson. Theory and History of literature, vol. 10. Minneapolis : Univ. of Minnesota Press. MacIntyre, Alasdair. 1981. After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory. Notre Dame , Ind. : Univ. of Notre Dame Press. Monohan, David. 1988. “Editorial  .” The Sooner Catholic 15, no. 25: 5. Nebelsick, Harold P. 1981. Theology and Science in Mutual Modification. New York : Oxford Univ. Press. Neumann, Erich. [1956] 1985. Die Grosse Mutter: Eine Phänomenologie der Weiblichen Gestaltungen Cles Unterbewussten. Freiburg / Breisgau : Olten. O'Flaherty, Wendy Doniger. 1988. Other People's Myths: The Cave of Echoes. New York : Macmillan. Paldiel, Mordecai. 1986. “Hesed and the Holocaust. Journal of Ecumenical Studies  23.1: 90–106. Popper, Karl. 1966. The Open Society and Its Enemies. Vol. 2. London : Routledge and Kegan Paul. Rotenberg, Mordechai. 1986. “Hasidic Contraction: A Model for Hemispheric Dialogue. Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science  21 (June): 201–17. Ricoeur, Paul. 1967. The Symbolism of Evil. Translated by Emerson Buchanan. New York : Harper and Row. Ricoeur, Paul. 1981. Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences. Edited and translated by John B. Thompson. New York : Cambridge Univ. Press. Ricoeur, Paul. 1985. Time and Narrative. Translated by Kathleen McLaughlin and David Pellauer. Chicago : Univ. of Chicago Press. Rue, Loyal D.1994. By the Grace of Guile: The Role of Deception in Natural History and Human Affairs. New York : Oxford Univ. Press. Shafer, Ingrid. 1989a. “Non–dversarial Criticism, Popular Literature, and Cross‐Cultural Understanding  .” Proteus 6, no. 1: 6–15. Shafer, Ingrid. 1989b. “Religious Matrix and Ecological Responsibility. Proceedings of the Oklahoma Achy of science  69: 63–69. Snow, C. P.1961. The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution. Cambridge : Cambridge Univ. Press. Sperry, Roger. 1965. “Mind, Brain, and Human Values  .” In John R.Platt, ed., New Views on the Nature of Man. Chicago : Univ. of Chicago Press. Thompson, John B.1981. Editor's Introduction. In Paul Ricoeur, Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences, edited and translated by John B.Thompson, 1–26. New York : Cambridge Univ. Press. Tilley, Terrence W.1985. Story Theology. Wilmington , Del. : Michael Glazier. Tracy, David. 1975. Blessed Rage for Order: The New Pluralism in Theology. New York : Seabury Press. Tracy, David. [1981] 1986. The Analogical Imagination: Christian Theology and the Culture of Pluralism. New York : Crossroad. Tyrrell, George. 1903. “Vita Nuova. Month  102 (October): 30. Vivekananda, Swami. [1907] 1972. The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda. Mayavati Memorial Edition. 8 vols. Vol. 1. Calcutta : Advaita Ashrama. Wheelis, Allen. 1993. “Reflections. In Hofstadter and Dennett  1981, pp. 119–21. Zimmer, Heinrich. 1951. Edited by JosephCampbell. Philosophies of India. Bollingen Series XXVI. Princeton , N.J. : Princeton Univ. Press.