scholarly journals Carly L. Crouch & Jonathan Stökl (eds.): In the Name of God. The Bible in the Colonial Discourse of Empire

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. LXI-LXVIII
Author(s):  
Judith Becker

This contribution offers a review ofCarly L. Crouch & Jonathan Stökl (eds.): In the Name of God. The Bible in the Colonial Discourse of Empire, Biblical Interpretation Series 126.Leiden: Brill, 2014. viii and 192 pages, € 98, ISBN 978-900-425-8334.

Author(s):  
K. K. Yeo

This chapter challenges the ‘received’ view that traces the expansion of the dominant theologies of the European and North American colonial powers and their missionaries into the Majority World. When they arrived, these Westerners found ancient Christian traditions and pre-existing spiritualities, linguistic and cultural forms, which questioned their Eurocentric presumptions, and energized new approaches to interpreting the sacred texts of Christianity. The emergence of ‘creative tensions’ in global encounters are a mechanism for expressing (D)issent against attempts to close down or normalize local Bible-reading traditions. This chapter points to the elements which establish a creative tension between indigenizing Majority World approaches to the Bible and those described in the ‘orthodox’ narrative, including: self-theologizing and communal readings; concepts of the Spirit world and human flourishing; the impact of multiple contexts, vernacular languages, sociopolitical and ethno-national identities, and power/marginalization structures; and ‘framing’ public and ecological issues.


Author(s):  
Mark P. Hutchinson

This chapter looks at the tensions between biblical interpretation and the political, social, and cultural context of dissenting Protestant churches in the twentieth century. It notes that even a fundamental category, such as the ‘inspiration’ of Scripture, shifted across time as the nature of public debates, social and economic structures, and Western definitions of public knowledge shifted. The chapter progresses by looking at a number of examples of key figures (R. J. Campbell, Harry Emerson Fosdick, H. G. Guinness, R. A. Torrey, and R. G. McIntyre among them) who interpreted the Bible for public comment, and their relative positions as the century progressed. Popularization of biblical interpretation along the lines of old, new, and contemporary dissent, is explored through the careers of three near contemporaries: Charles Bradley ‘Chuck’ Templeton (b. 1915, Toronto, Canada), William Franklin ‘Billy’ Graham, Jr (b. 1918, North Carolina), and Oral Roberts (b. 1918, Oklahoma).


Author(s):  
Gerald O. West

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.


2012 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony C. Thiselton

AbstractFormation constitutes the key link between reception theory, Jauss and scripture. The Bible shapes readers by showing them what lies beyond the self. Hans Robert Jauss (1921–97) remains the effective founder of reception theory or reception history. He was a literary theorist, who specialised in romance literature. Following Hans-Georg Gadamer, he insisted that texts carry ‘a still unfinished meaning’, and focused on their historical influence. The exposition of how communities or thinkers have received texts includes de-familiarisation; sometimes the ‘completion’ of meaning, as in much reader-response theory; and instances of when a text ‘satisfies, surpasses, disappoints, or refutes the expectations’ of readers. Reception theory can often trace continuity in the reception of texts, as well as disjunctions, reversals and surprises. It offers a more disciplined approach to scripture than most reader-response theories. Clearly horizons of expectation play a major role in the interpretation of biblical texts. I suggest six direct parallels with biblical interpretation. (1) Like Francis Watson and others, Jauss rejects any value-neutral objectivism in interpretation. (2) The readers’ horizon of expectation derives partly from earlier readings of the text. (3) Horizons can move and change, and thus transform readers as these change. (4) Biblical genres display all of Jauss’ accounts of the responses of readers. For example, parables of reversal may surpass what the Christian believer expects, or disappoint the unbeliever. (5) Like Gadamer, Jauss emphasises the importance of formulating constructive questions in approaching texts. (6) Jauss’ ‘levels of reading’ correspond closely with Bakhtin's notion of polyphony. I compare Ormond Rush's work on reception and otherness, and Luther's insistence that the Bible often confronts us as our adversary to judge and to transform us. Finally, we illustrate the history of reception from Ulrich Luz on Matthew, from Childs on Exodus, and from my commentaries on 1 Corinthians and 1 and 2 Thessalonians.


Author(s):  
Christopher Ocker ◽  
Kevin Madigan

AbstractThis essay surveys a generation of scholarship since the death of Beryl Smalley, pioneer in the study of the medieval reception of the bible, in 1984. We try to give a fair representation of work produced in English, French, German, and Italian over the last thirty years. We report on: 1) editions, tools, and translations, 2) surveys and synthetic treatments, 3) work on medieval biblical hermeneutics, 4) studies of periods and individuals, 5) thematic studies and studies of biblical books and pericopes across broad periods, and 6) comparative work on Muslim, Jewish, and Christian exegesis. We describe a rapidly growing quantity of knowledge and expanding perspectives on biblical interpretation in medieval culture. We conclude with suggestions for future research.


2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-176
Author(s):  
Zainal Arifin

Abstract: This study appears due MUIS Malaysia ban the use of the word "Allah" for the citizens is not Islam. This study examined for the purposes of the establishment of religious tolerance based on the understanding of religion. This paper seeks to explain that the word "Allah" contained in the Qur'an and the Bible, by limiting the study of the Qur’an and the Bible, to formulate the concept of "Allah" who became God for Muslims. This study found that the word "Allah" though not derived from Arabic, he eventually became part of the Arabic language of the Koran. He also became the name of God for Muslims. Furthermore, the authors found that in addition to Muslims, Christians and Jews may use the word "Allah" to indicate their God. When a Christian used to indicate the name of Jesus, it is also allowed as a form of tolerance. As the infidels Quraish mention sculpture as a means of worshiping God. Abstrak: Kajian ini muncul akibat pelarangan MUIS Malaysia dalam penggunaan kata "Allah" bagi warga bukan Islam. Kajian ini dikaji untuk keperluan tegaknya toleransi beragama berdasarkan pe¬mahaman agama. Tulisan ini berupaya menjelaskan bahwa kata "Allah" tertuang dalam Al-Quran dan Alkitab, dengan membatasi telaah pada Al-Quran dan Alkitab, merumuskan konsep "Allah" yang menjadi Tuhan bagi Muslim. Penelitian ini menemukan bahwa kata "Allah" walau bukan berasal dari bahasa Arab, ia akhirnya menjadi bagian dari bahasa Quran yang Arab. Ia juga menjadi nama Tuhan bagi umat Islam. Lebih jauh lagi, penulis menemukan bahwa selain Muslim, umat Nasrani dan Yahudi boleh menggunakan kata "Allah" untuk me-nunjukkan Tuhan mereka. Bila seorang Kristiani meng-gunakannya untuk menunjuk¬kan nama Yesus, itu juga dibolehkan sebagai wujud toleransi. Sebagaimana kaum kafir Quraisy me¬nyebutkan patung sebagai sarana me-nyembah Allah. Keywords: Allah, Al-Quran, Alkitab, God, Islam, Kristen.


Author(s):  
Gerald West

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.


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