Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / The problems of contemporary biblical interpretation are largely rooted in the instability caused by an inadequate response by the Church to the challenge realised by historical criticism, and this uncertainty has now been compounded by the embittered divisions between two contemporary responses to the hermeneutical impasse, namely existentialist exegesis and dogmatic theology. This dissertation undertakes to examine the hermeneutic's reaction to this situation by an outstanding continental theologian, Hermann Diem. The scope of this dissertation is limited to the realm of German speaking Protestantism, and further to the debate aroused by the alternatives currently presented by Rudolf Bultmann and Karl Barth in hermeneutics, and to Diem's response to these alternatives. The method used is descriptive and comparative in nature. [TRUNCATED]