In the controversy over political correctness, the canon, and the curriculum, the role of Western tradition in a post-modern world is often debated. To clarify what is at stake, Vassilis Lambropoulos traces the ideology of European culture from the Reformation, focusing on a key element of Western tradition: the act of interpretation as a distinct practice of understanding and a civil right. Championed by Protestants insisting on independent interpretation of scripture, this ideal of autonomy ushered in the era of modernity with its essentialist philosophy of universal man and his aesthetic understanding of the world.

Originally published in 1993.

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"The subject of Vassilis Lambropoulo's ambitious book: the delineation of Hellenic (analytic) as opposed to Hebraic (hermeneutic) mode of thought; and the contest between the two for supremacy in European philosophy and literary criticism." - The Times Literary Supplement