I don't know of any hermeneutic which *contradicts* author's intent (how would you do that unless you knew the intent?). Sterling has given good examples of methods which don't care what the author intended. None of those methods, however, would claim that any text can mean anything at all. I know of no method (apart from wishful thinking!) which would make such a claim. George Aichele 470-5237@mcimail.com