Hermeneutics began as a specialized methodology for the interpretation of ambiguous or obscure texts, an “art of reading” corresponding to the art of speaking (rhetoric).  However it eventually blossomed into a universal theory of understanding that surmounted all of the specialized disciplines.  Its original orientation to obscurity was well-suited to a contemporary world that recognizes the profound limits of human knowledge and the seemingly impenetrable strangeness of other human beings and their incommensurate values and beliefs.