Pastoral Relationship with People with Intellectual ... - Theses

165Through this circle understanding is sought; however, it is not concernedwith presenting a means of interpreting and understanding randomly chosenpieces of knowledge but with that which emanates from the essentialforestructure of Dasein, that is, existence itself. In later discussions of the circleemphasis was placed on dialogue with ancient Greek scholars and poets.Classical thinking is regarded as providing an historical grounding forunderstanding. Creative expression is seen as offering insight into the nature ofBeing, and a revelation of hitherto undisclosed layers of insight. In other wordsthere is dialogue between the understood existential nature of Being andbeings. 444Such hermeneutical conceptualisation lays the groundwork for movingaway from systematised, detached modes of understanding of persons andcontexts that inherently adopt generic philosophical understandings. 445 Thealternative becomes a movement to a structure that invites engagement withpeople and their lived context with a view to developing more insightfulunderstandings.In pastoral terms it is the philosophical dimension of the hermeneuticalprocess that enables the layers of understanding to emerge from the stories thatresult from the interpersonal communication, personal experiences andapplication of historic traditions to the contemporary context. 4465.4.2 A Commitment to the OppressedIt is the contention of this extended reflection that the starting point of thehermeneutic endeavour is located in the socio-politically constituted reality ofpeople’s contemporary lived experience. The lived experience incorporates thepastoral and theological perspective of this pastoral practitioner. As feministtheologian Sallie TeSelle asserts, it is the task of the hermeneutical process and oftheological enquiry, “[t]o start with the ordinary and the everyday, with personallife, with corporate stories, with ‘our times’ in their political and social agony...” 447 Or, as Segundo states from his emancipatory theological perspective, “…one cannot recognise Christ, and therefore come to know God, unless he or she is444 ibid., 98-99.445 Pattison, Pastoral Care, 34.446 Gadamer, Hans-Georg. "On the Problem of Self-Understanding." In PhilosophicalHermeneutics, edited by David Linge, 44-58. (Berkeley: University of California Press,1962), 18.447 TeSelle, Speaking in Parables, 180.