Heidegger and Gadamer are typically read by different theologians. Heidegger tends to be read by philosophical theologians examining his contribution to matters of doubt, existential finitude, and atheism. Gadamer tends to be read by those with an interest in interpreting the Bible, especially by those with more confessional or epistemically optimistic sensibilities. In both cases, Heidegger and Gadamer have well-established associations with specific theological positions.

Joshua Broggi challenges this arrangement by re-reading the primary texts as theological resources; he defends an alternative theological appropriation of their philosophical work through a close engagement with portions of their argument.

What emerges from Broggi's examination is an account of the unity of tradition, reason, and scriptural language. This account goes beyond claims of their relatedness, which are uncontroversial, and advances the stronger argument that they name the very same thing. Although initially counterintuitive, the central task set by both Heidegger and Gadamer is the investigation of that one phenomenon. This argument challenges the pervasive image in which Christians rely on 'tradition' to 'reason' about the meaning of 'scripture'. It puts into question the injunction that theologians should balance the resources of scripture, tradition, and reason. Broggi offers an account of Christian life as more fundamental than certain entities which are distilled out of it, namely: scripture, tradition and reason.

Abbreviations
Introduction
1. How to Read this Book
2. Narrative and World
3. A Tale of Interpretations
Part I: Heidegger
1. Being and Time
The Very Possibility of Reading Scripture Wrongly
What Sort of Book is Being and Time
The Argument in Being and Time
2. Tools in the World
A Phenomenology of Tools, §15
Broken Tools: A Gloss of §16
The Inhabited Taxonomy, §18
Language as an Everyday Tool
3. Scripture in the World
The One Thing Named by 'Scripture', 'Tradition', and 'Reason'
The Unity of Background Commitments
Language and Taxonomy
Finite Reason
Part II: Gadamer
4. Truth and Method
Approaching Gadamer
The Scope and Argument of Truth and Method
The Opening Discussion
5. Reading Rightly
The 'Hermeneutical Circle' and the Ethics of Thought
The First Ethical Principle: Start Rightly
The Second Ethical Principle: Wait Long
6. Reading in the World
'The Principle of Wirkungsgeschichte'
Gadamer's Use of Hegel
Alterity in the Metaphor of Horizons
Gadamer's Logic of Unity
7. Conclusions
The Pitt Rivers Museum
Theology and the Gordian Knot of Self-Consciousness
What Can Theologians Say?
The Unity of Scripture, Tradition, and Reason
Scripture in the World

Bibliography
Index