The irrevocable pedagogical value of the Bible: Liberation transcends technology

2021 ◽  
Vol 77 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hlulani M. Mdingi
Keyword(s):  
Oral Tradition ◽  
Written Text ◽  
Black Experience ◽  
Distribution Of Wealth ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Digital Era ◽  
Western Values ◽  
Christian Thought ◽  
Written Word ◽  
Gospel Message

The introduction of the Bible in Africa operated on two major frontiers, firstly, the oral tradition of the missionary who possessed both the Gospel message by word and in the written text (gadget). Conversion occurred through oral ‘manipulation’ that includes an oral negation of the native’s history and worldviews. Secondly, the rise of missionary schools opened the door to the reading of the Bible. However, the black experience has revealed that the reading of the Bible by blacks, slaves and the oppressed gave rise to a new world of interpretation and, in some respects, quietened the oral, historical, political and spiritual disturbance of the missionary voice as the vanguard of the colonial master. It is not the gadget or the written word that is in dispute, even in the digital era, but what the Bible says about oppression, poverty, injustice, dehumanisation, equitable distribution of wealth and politics. Through the paradigms of liberative thought, namely, the hermeneutics of the oppressed, this study firstly will acknowledge the creative and existential interpretation of the Bible for particular goals. While laying out a brief history on Eurocentrism as superseding the Gospel. Secondly, the study seeks to look into Western Christian thought as expansion of the Western Empire. Therefore, arguing that shifts and progress under the guise of development maintain western values. Lastly, the study seeks to argue that despite any platform of biblical transmission, orally, the printing press and the electronic platform, the hermeneutical and epistemological pedagogy of the liberationist lens of the Bible persist; liberation transcends technology.Contribution: This research will contribute in the dialogue between faith and technology within the paradigm of liberation theology. The study seeks to centre the pertinent theme of justice and liberation in the Bible as a critical witness that is relevant for the meaning and relevance of the Bible.

Avoiding the tyranny of the written word

1986 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 23-37
Author(s):  
Bernard Spolsky
Keyword(s):  
Traditional Knowledge ◽  
Oral Tradition ◽  
Jewish Tradition ◽  
Universal Education ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Correct Reading ◽  
Written Law ◽  
Written Word

Abstract A study of literacy as a social rather than as a personal phenomenon reveals new aspects of its complexity. Looking in particular at Jewish literacy, a distinction is proposed between unmediated and mediated literacy, the latter referring to modes of literacy that continue to require extensive mediation by a teacher long after the initial skill of phonemic decoding of the orthography has been acquired. In the case of the Written Law (the Bible) this situation was maintained by the use of an orthography which did not record vowels or punctuation and by the maintenance of an oral tradition on correct reading in crucial points in the text. In the case of the Oral Law (the Talmud), when it was finally written down, it was recorded in an elliptical style that continued to make the mediation of a teacher necessary. The result in each case is a method of safeguarding transmission without fossilizing content. Even after unmediated literacy had become widespread for other purposes, the effect of the traditions has remained strong. The system of mediated literacy, combined as it is in the Jewish tradition with a strong value for universal education, assures continued interpretation of traditional knowledge.

A performance critical analysis of the Lukan Parable of the Banquet (Luke 14:15–24)

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-253
Author(s):  
David Seal
Keyword(s):  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Oral Delivery ◽  
Word Of Mouth ◽  
Spoken Word ◽  
First Century ◽  
Public Communication ◽  
Written Text ◽  
Performance Criticism ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Written Word

Most public communication in the ancient world was oral. Given that the first-century world of the Bible can be labeled as a period where people preferred the spoken word over the written word, and Jesus’ parables were shared by word of mouth, it seems crucial to analyze the oral traits found in the written text of the parables. Biblical performance criticism is a methodology which analyzes texts that were intended primarily for oral delivery. Utilizing performance criticism, this article will investigate the so-called banquet parable recounted in Luke 14:15–24, with the intent to discover its oral conventions. Finally, where important oral conventions are identified, we will offer a conceivable script or suggest dramatic elements that can be utilized to re-enact the parable to a modern audience.

Erasmus, Desiderius (c.1466–1536)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika Rummel
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Divine Revelation ◽  
Christian Humanism ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Christian Thought ◽  
Articles Of Faith ◽  
Absolute Knowledge ◽  
The Church ◽  
Textual Critic

Although Erasmus was not a systematic philosopher, he gave a philosophical cast to many of his writings. He believed in the human capacity for self-improvement through education and in the relative preponderance of nurture over nature. Ideally, education promoted docta pietas, a combination of piety and learning. Erasmus’ political thought is dominated by his vision of universal peace and the notions of consensus and consent, which he sees as the basis of the state. At the same time he upholds the ideal of the patriarchal prince, a godlike figure to his people, but accountable to God in turn. Erasmus’ epistemology is characterized by scepticism. He advocates collating arguments on both sides of a question but suspending judgment. His scepticism does not extend to articles of faith, however. He believes in absolute knowledge through revelation and reserves calculations of probability for cases that are not settled by the authority of Scripture or the doctrinal pronouncements of the Church, the conduit of divine revelation. Erasmus’ pioneering efforts as a textual critic of the Bible and his call for a reformation of the Church in its head and members brought him into conflict with conservative Catholic theologians. His support for the Reformation movement was equivocal, however. He refused to endorse the radical methods of the reformers and engaged in a polemic with Luther over the question of free will. On the whole, Erasmus was more interested in the moral and spiritual than in the doctrinal aspects of the Reformation. He promoted inner piety over the observance of rites, and disparaged scholastic speculations in favour of the philosophia Christi taught in the gospel. The term ‘Christian humanism’ best describes Erasmus’ philosophy, which successfully combined Christian thought with the classical tradition revived by Renaissance humanists.

Digital Preservation of Indigenous Knowledge in South African Rural Communities

2022 ◽  
pp. 317-340
Author(s):  
Tlou Maggie Masenya
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
South African ◽  
Oral Tradition ◽  
Memory Loss ◽  
Digital Preservation ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Digital Era ◽  
Modern Methods

Indigenous knowledge is mainly preserved in the memories of elders, and most of this knowledge is slowly disappearing in rural communities due to various factors such as death, sickness, and memory loss. Digital preservation is regarded as one of the modern methods to preserve indigenous knowledge as it can be shared with others and be passed on to future generations. But how can indigenous knowledge be documented and preserved to benefit indigenous knowledge owners and accessible for future generations? The chapter thus looked into the policy, techniques, and technologies being employed to document and preserve indigenous knowledge in rural communities. Knowledge management frameworks were also used as underpinning theories to guide the study. The findings revealed that rural communities are still relying mostly on traditional methods such as oral tradition, storytelling, and community of practice in sharing their indigenous knowledge in this digital era.

Hermeneutics in Modern Theology: Some Doctrinal Reflections

1998 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 307-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Webster
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
The Bible ◽  
History Of ◽  
Christian Thought

The territory indicated by my title is impossibly vast, and some delimitations are in order at the beginning. What follows does not attempt any kind of thorough or nuanced historical analysis of the great tangle of issues to which the terms of the title refer. ‘Hermeneutics’ and ‘modern theology’ don't exist as simple entities; the terms are shorthand ways of identifying very complex traditions of thought and cultural practices, and a serious attempt to trace those traditions and the variations in their relationship would be little short of a history of Western Christian thought since the rise of nominalism. What is offered here is more restricted and precise, chiefly an essay in Christian dogmatics. At its simplest, my proposal is that the Christian activity of reading the Bible is most properly (that is, Christianly) understood as a spiritual affair, and accordingly as a matter for theological description. That is to say, a Christian description of the Christian reading of the Bible will be the kind of description which talks of God and therefore talks of all other realitiessub specie divinitatis. There is certainly an historical corollary to this proposal — namely, the need for some account of why the dominant traditions of Western Protestantism (and more recently of Western Catholicism) have largely laid aside, or at least lost confidence in, this kind of dogmatic depiction of the church's reading of the Bible, replacing it with, or annexing it to, hermeneutical theory of greater or lesser degrees of sophistication and greater or lesser degrees of theological content.

‘Fossil Tradition’ in Stone Implements

Antiquity ◽  
1935 ◽  
Vol 9 (33) ◽  
pp. 74-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Vayson de Pradenne
Keyword(s):  
Oral Tradition ◽  
Human Knowledge ◽  
Prehistoric Archaeology ◽  
Mode Of Transmission ◽  
Written Word

When one speaks of tradition, that is to say, of the transmission of human knowledge from one generation to another, one implies that there are two methods by which that transmission is effected—the spoken and the written word; thus one draws a distinction between oral and written tradition.Nowadays written tradition alone is of importance; but one recognizes that it has gradually replaced that oral tradition which alone existed, as one supposes, in prehistoric times. We wish here to call attention to yet another mode of transmission which certainly played a part, perhaps even an important part, in the Stone Ages, and disregard of which might in certain instances seriously confuse the study of prehistoric archaeology.

The Message of Jesus and our Customary Theological Language: An Indian Approach to a New Language in Theology and Inculturation

Exchange ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 208-226
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Jewish People ◽  
Good News ◽  
Son Of God ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Paschal Mystery ◽  
Loving Parent ◽  
Asian Context ◽  
Theological Language ◽  
Gospel Message

AbstractThe Asian Context demands a new language in theology, as both the Bible and the past theological formulations are conditioned by their time, place and problems. The Paschal Mystery needs to be understood in the light of the picture of God given by Jesus as an unconditionally loving Parent. Jesus was killed because of the way he lived and spoke of God. Hence we need to look afresh at the sacrificial interpretation of Jesus' death. The title Christ is conditioned by the expectations of the Jewish people, and Jesus, the Son of God we honour, is more and other than what they expected. Past theological developments did not come from this picture of God, and from Jesus' outlook, his options and priorities; they were responses to the problems of their times, conditioned more by Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy, than by the good news that Jesus proclaimed. In the context of the 'Old Testament' of the peoples of these places, with Jesus' option for the poor, we need to announce the simple message of Jesus to let new theologies and liturgies emerge. Certain conditions are necessary for any true inculturation of the gospel message.

scholarly journals Qur’ans of the Umayyads

2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 114-117
Author(s):  
Andrew Rippin
Keyword(s):  
Oral Tradition ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
Original Text ◽  
History Of ◽  
Written Word

Qur’an manuscripts have attracted a good deal of attention from scholars, especiallyin the wake of the spectacular finds in the Great Mosque in Sanaa in1972. Some might suggest that this attention is superfluous or even reflectiveof a willful ignoring of the significance of the scripture’s oral transmissionand a privileging of the written word over the oral. However, careful studiesof these manuscripts tell us many things, such as early Muslim attitudes towardthe text, that cannot be documented otherwise. In fact, early manuscriptsare the only tangible source about the oral tradition itself. We can also see thatchanges in appearance in early manuscripts provide evidence of the perceptionand role of such copies and that this went through a significant transformation,especially during the Umayyad period (661-750).Studies done by knowledgeable scholars do not aim to establish an “original”text or to find fault with the modern version; rather, they aim to focuson such matters as the history of the Arabic script’s development and howmanuscripts were used. Of course, such early manuscripts also provide evidenceof textual variation, the precise dimensions of which have not alwaysbeen preserved by Muslim tradition. It is worth reiterating, however, that thesevariations are never of such extent that one can doubt the integrity of the textor its doctrinal or legal contents. Overall, the study of early Qur’an manuscriptsis a challenging task, subject to much scholarly speculation and thusdifference of opinion, especially due to the absence of colophons on the availabletexts thought to stem from the Umayyad period. This is generally the resultof the lost first and last pages in such manuscripts, for they are the first tobecome worn and detached and then disappear. Most of those manuscriptsavailable to us today are in a highly fragmented condition.François Déroche is the world’s leading scholar on matters related toQur’an manuscripts. The vast majority of his writing until now has been inFrench; his masterful examination of a single early exemplar, La transmissionécrite du Coran dans les débuts de l’islam, appeared in 2009. Thus many readersto whom his scholarship has not otherwise been accessible will welcomethis book written in English and marketed in a relatively inexpensive paperbackformat. The work originated as a series of four lectures given at the LeidenUniversity Centre for the Study of Islam and Society in 2010. Thoselectures were primarily the result of an extensive use of the resources held inIstanbul’s Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum ...

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