At the end of Reflection and Doubt in the Thought of Paul Tillich, Robert Scharlemann proposes that Tillich's basic ontological structure of self - world should be modified to self - world - other. I propose to use theological modeling as a development of philosophical hermeneutics in order to depict one possible model of this triadic, ontological structure. I survey the field of contemporary philosophical hermeneutics as developed by Hans Georg Gadamer and Paul Ricoeur, and demonstrate how constructing theological models of texts is a substantive development in philosophical hermeneutics. To do so, I have selected two texts to model: Colossians 3:1-4 (COL) and Robert Frost's Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening (SBW). COL focuses on the self - world structure and SBW focuses on the self - other structure. Both texts focus on their particular structural relation in an inclusive and expansive manner, and this maximizes their utility for this hermeneutical enterprise. The theological models reveal the ontological depth of COL as "hope" and the ontological depth of SBW appears as "fidelity."

Hope and fidelity become the new, structural elements of the superstructure of the proposed, self - world - other ontological structure. In analyzing the relation between the ontological elements of hope and fidelity, the new ontological depth becomes manifest as "love." The basic ontological structure of Being is revealed in terms of the theological virtues. Hope, as the basic ontological disposition of COL is being-beyond-death in terms of "resurrection" (versus Heidegger's care as being-toward-death), that in its most basic form is being-beyond. Fidelity, (a redefinition of faith as faithfulness) as the basic ontological disposition of SBW, is being-for-others, which, in its most basic form, is being-for. The ontological disposition of love, is an integral relation of being-beyond and being-for. Concomitant to this new ontological and integral relation of being-beyond and being-for, is the receiving and giving of being, respectively. "Love" then, at its ontological depth, is the integral relation of receiving from and giving to Being-itself, the ground of the being of all beings in the self - world - other structure.