Postcolonial Liberation: Decolonizing Biblical Studies in the South African Postcolony

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald O. West
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
The South ◽  
Biblical Hermeneutics ◽  
The Bible ◽  
African Black ◽  
History Of ◽  
Land Economics ◽  
The 1960S

Liberation biblical interpretation and postcolonial biblical interpretation have a long history of mutual constitution. This essay analyzes a particular context in which these discourses and their praxis have forged a third conversation partner: decolonial biblical interpretation. African and specifically South African biblical hermeneutics are the focus of reflections in this essay. The South African postcolony is a “special type” of postcolony, as the South African Communist Party argued in the 1960s. The essay charts the characteristics of the South African postcolony and locates decolonial biblical interpretation within the intersections of these features. Race, culture, land, economics, and the Bible are forged in new ways by contemporary social movements, such as #FeesMustFall. South African biblical studies continues to draw deeply on the legacy of South African black theology, thus reimagining African biblical studies as decolonial African biblical studies—a hybrid of African liberation and African postcolonial biblical interpretation.

scholarly journals Reading the Bible with the marginalised: The value/s of contextual Bible reading

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald West
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
The Bible ◽  
History Of ◽  
Interpretive Practices ◽  
Bible Reading

There is a long history of collaboration between “popular” or “contextual” forms of biblical interpretation between Brazil and South Africa, going back into the early 1980’s. Though there are significant differences between these forms of Bible “reading”, there are values and processes that cohere across these contexts, providing an integrity to such forms of Bible reading. This article reflects on the values and processes that may be discerned across the Brazilian and South African interpretive practices after more than thirty years of conversation across these contexts.

scholarly journals Interpreting the Bible in the 'new' South Africa: Remarks on some problems and challenges

1997 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J. Human
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
New South ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
Biblical Hermeneutics ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
South African Society ◽  
The Bible ◽  
University Of Pretoria ◽  
Interpretation Process

Interpreting the Bible in the 'new' South Africa DJ Human Department of Biblical Studies (Sec B) University of Pretoria The Bible plays an important role in South African society. The interpretation of this book within or outside the Christian community has become an increaslingly major source of debate. It has been used and misused in several spheres of society. This article does not intend providing an extensive and composite picture of the problems and character of biblical hermeneutics. Nor will it attempt to elaborate on or explain the origins, development and influences of all the different her-meneutical approaches. Rather, it poses to be an introduction to a few of the problem(s) encountered in the attempt to understand the Bible, especially in terms of the 'new' South Africa. Within the framework of this scope, remarks will be made regarding the challenges involved in interpreting the Bible, the role of the interpreter in the interpretation process, the varied forms of literature to be found in Scripture, and in the last instance, to take cognisance of a few methodological approaches to the text analysis of the Bible.

scholarly journals Hermeneutics of Re-enacting Biblical Text(s) and Concept(s) in the History of Prophetism in Ghana’s Christianity: A Case Study of the Ministry of Agabus and Prophet Bernard Opoku Nsiah

2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-65
Author(s):  
Daniel Nii Aboagye Aryeh
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Religious Fundamentalism ◽  
Biblical Hermeneutics ◽  
Historical Method ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Sitz Im Leben ◽  
History Of ◽  
Book Of Acts ◽  
Original Audience

Biblical hermeneutics is significant in delineating the meaning of scripture text(s) for contemporary audience. The critical historical method as well as its derivative criticisms is the widely used approach to understand what the text meant for the “original” audience in its sitz im leben. It is socio-historical in nature and curbs religious fundamentalism. However, its concentration on history does not make it suitable for prophetic ministries in Ghana. The approach to scripture interpretation by prophetic ministries since 1914 has been re-enactment of favourite scripture text(s) to have instructions for life in the present situation and the future. They believe that being biblical is the patterning of life style or activities along some popular characters in the Bible. Prophet Bernard Opoku Nsiah claims that his prophetic ministry is patterned or is a replica of the prophetic ministry of Agabus in the book of Acts. This essay examines biblical interpretation in the history of prophetism in Ghana’s Christianity, and how scripture text(s) were used as hermeneutics of re-enactment.

The Bible in the Investiture Contest: The South German Gregorian Circle

1985 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 61-84
Author(s):  
I.S. Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Coming Out ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
The South ◽  
The Bible ◽  
History Of ◽  
A Charge

Beryl Smalley has often pointed to the importance of the eleventh-century cathedral schools in the history of biblical studies, but she has also emphasized the difficulties of investigating the study of the sacred page in this century. ‘We have to eke out our knowledge by guesswork …. We are beginning to see a great movement. Though we cannot yet discern the detail, we can trace its outline, at least provisionally’. At first the outlook appears bleak. Abbot Williram of Ebersberg is found complaining c. 1060 that scholars concentrate on grammar and dialectic and neglect the Scriptures: a charge echoed a few years later by Otloh of St. Emmeram in Regensburg. However, the complaints of these monastic polemicists run directly contrary to the information coming out of the cathedral schools. Here the news is of masters abandoning profane learning in favour of sacred studies.

Authentic Indigenization and Liberation in the Theology of Canaan Sodindo Banana (1936–2003) of Zimbabwe

2005 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 319-332
Author(s):  
Norman Thomas
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
South African ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
The United States ◽  
African Culture ◽  
Biblical Hermeneutics ◽  
Armed Struggle ◽  
The Bible ◽  
African Black ◽  
Socially Relevant

AbstractAfrican theologies are most often classified as either theologies of inculturation, or of liberation. Canaan Banana was one of few African theologians who combine authentic indigenization and liberation in their thought. The author, who knew Rev. Banana personally, based his analysis on Banana's writings and on interpretations by other scholars. Banana's theology was influenced by his ecumenical leadership as a Methodist minister, studies in the United States, involvement in the liberation struggle, and national leadership as the first President of Zimbabwe. Banana's liberation perspective, in contrast to those of most South African black theologians, dealt with issues of class rather than of color. His political theology, articulated when he was president of Zimbabwe, focused on the relation of socialism and Christianity. For him liberation involved struggle and even armed struggle. In his last decade former President Banana began to articulate a prophetic "Combat Theology." Banana stimulated a heated discussion on biblical hermeneutics in southern Africa by proposing deletion from the Bible of passages used to justify oppression. Believing that God is revealed also through creation and African culture, he found creative myths and images of Jesus in the cultures of his own Shona and Ndebele peoples. His contribution is a theology that can help Christianity to be both indigenous and socially relevant in 21st century Africa.

scholarly journals Interlocution after liberation: Who do we interpret with and which biblical text do we read with?

2020 ◽  
Vol 76 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald O. West
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Black Theology ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Biblical Text ◽  
Biblical Hermeneutics ◽  
Black Liberation ◽  
The Bible ◽  
African Black ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
A Site

This article aims to point out two seminal reflections on interlocution: Frostin’s insightful late-1980s (1988) analysis of ‘Third World’ liberation theologies and his contention that the decisive question for liberation theologies was the question of who the primary dialogue partners of liberation theology have been and should be, and Vuyani Vellem’s more recent millennial (2012) reflection on how South African Black Theology after liberation has grappled and should grapple with the notion of interlocution. My choice of these two scholars is not idiosyncratic, for Vellem uses Frostin’s work as one of his starting points. I build on this conversation, reflecting with Vellem on how we might understand the issue of interlocution within black and kindred liberation and prophetic theologies today. My particular emphasis is on biblical hermeneutics; therefore, my contribution to the conversation frames my reflections within a particular phase of Black Theology in which the Bible is most significantly problematised, what Tinyiko Maluleke refers to as the second phase of Black Theology. The conundrum Itumeleng Mosala poses for Black Theology is how the recognition of the Bible as itself – intrinsically, inherently and indelibly – ‘a site of struggle’ reconfigures interlocution. Mosala, I will argue, forces us to not only ask who we interpret with when we do Black Theology, but also ask which biblical texts we read, for not all biblical texts offer resources for liberation.Contribution: This article makes a contribution to the VukaniBantuTsohangBatho – Spirituality of Black Liberation collection in which the work of Vuyani Vellem is celebrated and critically engaged. Specifically, the article interrogates and contributes to Vuyani’s Vellem understanding of ‘locution’, and asks how this concept impacts our understanding of biblical text.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 533-539
Author(s):  
Julie Faith Parker ◽  
Kristine Henriksen Garroway
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Special Volume ◽  
The Bible ◽  
History Of

Abstract This Introduction provides a framework for this special volume on Children in the Bible and Childist Interpretation. First, we acquaint unfamiliar readers with the term “childist” and the history of childist interpretation within biblical studies. We briefly outline the hallmarks of the field and explain the specific ways in which this volume moves childist interpretation forward. A paragraph on each article summarizes the overall content of the separate contributions. We conclude by offering the reasons why childist biblical interpretation matters not only for the study of children in the biblical world but for children in the modern world as well.

VIEWING THE BIBLE THROUGH THE EYES AND EARS OF SUBALTERNS IN INDIA

2002 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 245-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sathianathan Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Complex Pattern ◽  
Material Objects ◽  
Biblical Hermeneutics ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Indian Context ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
History Of ◽  
Postcolonial Discourse

AbstractThis paper sets out to do four things. First, it situates the concept of Subalterns in the Indian context. Caste plays an important part in its definition. Subalterns are the outcaste (Dalits) and non-caste (Adivasis) communities in the process of contracting a labouring people's solidarity. Second, it submits a methodological argument. In dialogue with postcolonial discourse on biblical interpretation, it makes the case that subalternity is characterized by the primary interplay of domestic, local and particular mechanisms of power. Thus, this location must be the starting point for interrogating the Bible from the Subalterns' viewpoint. Third, it examines the complex pattern of changes that the Bible brought about for Subalterns. Three aspects are accentuated while discussing the Bible in relation to Subalterns in India: the Bible entered into a Subaltern world that already had a long history of iconizing material objects of sacred power; the Bible was an important instrument for expounding and expanding colonial mission activity; the Bible functioned as an alternate canon within the worldview of Hinduism, which kept its sacred book (Vedas) beyond the reach of Dalits and Adivasis. Finally, it extrapolates three aspects of Subaltern biblical hermeneutics in India. There is an attribute of generosity employed in retrieving universal axioms from the Bible, which is not devoid of imaginative contextual amplification in its application to human life. Moreover, Subalterns' interpretation of the Bible is directed by the goal of transformation rather than understanding. Furthermore, the summons of Subalterns' hermeneutics is not only to take up the challenge of working within the multiscriptural context but also to take seriously the ramifications of doing hermeneutics in the multimodal and multimedia context of the Dalits and the Adivasis of India.

‘Limping, Yet Made to Climb a Mountain!’ Re-Reading the Vashti Character in the Hiv And Aids South African Context

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madipoane Masenya (Ngwan’A Mphahlele)
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
External Factor ◽  
Hiv And Aids ◽  
African Women ◽  
South African Context ◽  
Land Grabbing ◽  
The Bible ◽  
History Of ◽  
African Context

The history of the Christian Bible’s reception in South Africa was part of a package that included among others, the importation of European patriarchy, land grabbing and its impoverishment of Africans and challenged masculinities of African men. The preceding factors, together with the history of the marginalization of African women in bible and theology, and how the Bible was and continues to be used in our HIV and AIDS contexts, have only made the proverbial limping animal to climb a mountain. Wa re o e bona a e hlotša, wa e nametša thaba (while limping, you still let it climb a mountain) simply means that a certain situation is being aggravated (by an external factor). In this chapter the preceding Northern Sotho proverb is used as a hermeneutical lens to present an HIV and AIDS gender sensitive re-reading of the Vashti character in the Hebrew Bible within the South African context.

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