Grand narratives about modernity have often predicted a dystopian descent towards a ‘clash of civilisations’, or ‘decline of the West’. But Hans-Georg Gadamer, student of Heidegger and one of the last philosophers in the German phenomenological lineage, spent his career describing a hopeful grand narrative of dialogue and growth that was grounded in a robust metaphysical picture drawing on Plato, Aristotle, Hegel and others. Gadamer is frequently depicted merely as a philosopher of language and understanding, but this book examines the coherence of his core ontology with his larger philosophical vision of truth, reality, ethics, values and human life. It unpacks a promise implicit in his thought that a more creative, dialogical and sublime form of modernity is possible. This chapter also positions the present study amid common approaches to Gadamer and critiques of him: our goal is to see what his thought looks like as a systematic ontology for contemporary metaphysics, and a grand narrative for modern society.