78 PART ONE: INTRODUCTION transcendent,”207 now that “in modernity, a firm historical awareness replaces idealistic, timeless reasoning.”208 They continue: ’Narration’ is a way of substantiating the transcendence through ‘recollection’ and ‘construction’. ‘To narrate’ means to interpret the present through it, resulting in a community or an individual ‘narrating’ their origins so that in the thus-and-not-otherwise ‘recollected’ past a future is unclosed.209 This view represents the ‘narrative turn’ in empirical research, building on the insights of Hans Georg Gadamer and Paul Ricoeur.210 Ruard Ganzevoort seems hesitant to fully agree with the epistemological capacity attributed to the narrative approach by Schöttler and Först but nonetheless acknowledges its potential: “narrative research is limited in its capacity to unveil external facts, but it has high potential to uncover the processes of giving meaning to life experiences through life stories.”211 Addressing the question of normativity in relation to other theological voices, he adds: “a narrative analysis of practices can – and should – uncover the hidden normativity within these practices and in relation to the tradition in which they are embedded.”212 The interviews conducted in the scope of this study aim at facilitating the (re)construction and articulation of meaning through biographic narratives. Unstructured interviews seemed to fit that end best as they enable respondents to control the content and layout of their own narrative. Thus, they articulate their own understanding of their experiences and attribute meaning to them. According to Först and Schöttler, such recollection and (re)construction of the past in the present opens up outlooks on the future as it produces insight and, 207 Först and Schöttler, “Erzählen: erinnern und entwerfen,” 191. Original text in German: “Erinnern und Erzählen können heute möglicherweise so etwas wie einen Transzendenzbezug für den Menschen eröffnen,” (translation: FW). 208 Först and Schöttler, 189. Original text in German: “in der Moderne ein starkes geschichtliches Bewusstsein das idealistisch überzeitliche Denken [verdrängt]” (translation: FW). 209 Först and Schöttler, 192. Original text in German: “’Erzählen’ ist eine Form, Transzendenz durch ‘erinnern’ und ‘konstruieren’ zu realisieren. ‘Erzählen’ heißt, die Gegenwart dadurch zu deuten, dass eine Gemeinschaft oder ein Individuum ihre bzw. seine Herkunft ‘erzählt’ und in der so und nicht anders ‘erinnerten’ Vergangenheit sich Zukunft eröffnet” (translation: FW). 210 R. Ruard Ganzevoort, “Narrative Approaches,” in The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Practical Theology, ed. Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore, Wiley-Blackwell Companions to Religion (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Limited, 2012), 215, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315210223-11. 211 Ganzevoort, 220. 212 Ganzevoort, 222.
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