The Philosophical Hermeneutics Implications Of Augustine’s "Inner Word"

Augustine,as the collector of the Christian Fathers,is a landmark figure in Christian exegesis.Throughout Augustine’s philosophical and theological system,his ideas have not only methodological hermeneutical value but also ontological hermeneutical significance.In particular,his theory of word/Verbumlehre implicitly exposes the relationship between language and being,which to a large extent becomes the theoretical resource of Gadamer’s ontology of language.Augustine introduced the concept of "Verbum interius" in the framework of the analogy between the Trinity of mind and the Holy Trinity.According to him,the true language is the "inner word",the unvoiced language in the mind,the meaning that the speaker wants to express,which alone can be the image of the Word.The sensual,external language symbols are called "words" because the inner word takes them and reveals them to the outside.But man,because of his finite nature,can only keep exploring in time,and in the process of thinking,produce the true word and approach the perfection of the Word.The similarities and differences between the Word and the human word,as well as between the inner word and the outer word,as revealed in the analogy of the Word,provide a new inspiration for contemporary hermeneutics.Gadamer attributed universal aspects of hermeneutics to the inner word.Augustine’s analogy of the Word gives Gadamer insight into the original identity of language and thought;just as the Word arises without detriment to the Father himself,human word arises completely and wholly from thought.The historical event of the Incarnation reveals the dialectical relationship between inner and outer speech.The unity of the inner word must be expressed through the concrete diversity of the outer word,just as the Word had to be externalized into flesh to come into the world;the diversity of the outer word must also point to the unity in the inner word,i.e.,the outer sign always points to the inner thought that it has not yet spoken but is taking place,and this pointing constitutes the universal dynamic of understanding.Augustine’s theory of the inner word has an implicit ontological element of language.This is reflected in two main points: first,the understanding is intrinsically related to human existence,i.e.,the existential construction of the inner word is reflected in the dynamic trinity of the mind,and second,the original identity of language with being itself is implicit in the theory of sacred creation,where language as the inner speech of the thing itself reveals itself through the speech of man.Here Augustine emphasizes the finiteness of man and the rupture between being,thought,and language through the difference between sacred and human speech.But language also offers the possibility of human transcendence.The tension between inner and outer word constantly drives our understanding and encourages dialogue,opening up our finitude to the infinite and allowing us to "transcend language within language".Unlike Augustine,Gadamer goes beyond traditional metaphysics and sees being as a process of self-expression rather than as a fixed entity,so that the original language is a dialogical process that requires the individual spirit to integrate its own field of vision into a higher,universal historical field of vision and to gain a new life in the process of constructing a new tradition and committing to it.In this process the spirit overcomes its own finiteness and achieves the unity of being and thought(understanding).