scholarly journals CROSSING BOUNDARIES. THE TRANSFORMATIVE POTENTIAL OF INTERCULTURAL BIBLE READING IN SECULAR / POST-SECULAR CONTEXTS

Scriptura ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 120 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Louis Jonker
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Biblical Hermeneutics ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Biblical Scholarship ◽  
Transformative Potential ◽  
Values And Beliefs ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
Bible Reading

Intercultural biblical hermeneutics is a fairly recent development in biblical scholarship in general. It emphasises that biblical interpretation almost always takes place in contexts where an array of cultural values and beliefs determine the outcome of the interpretative process. Although this branch of biblical hermeneutics emerged from the need to reflect theoretically on how Christians from different socio-cultural and socio-economic contexts engage the biblical texts, and one another on account of those texts, this approach may also be widened to include the interpretation of the Bible in non-Christian contexts (including the contexts of other religions and secular contexts) or even to engage in discourse on the interpretation of authoritative texts of different traditions (such as the Qur’an in Islam, in addition to the Tenakh of Judaism, and the Old and New Testament of Christianity). In research on intercultural biblical hermeneutics, it has been noticed that intercultural interpretation holds enormous transformative potential. My paper will examine how this could be of use in engagements between religious, secular and post-secular contexts.

Interpreting the Bible Amidst Ecological Degradation

Theology ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 112 (867) ◽  
pp. 199-207
Author(s):  
Ernst M. Conradie
Keyword(s):  
Crucial Role ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Biblical Hermeneutics ◽  
Ecological Degradation ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
Contemporary Context

This essay explores the role of interpretative strategies in biblical interpretation. It is argued that ‘doctrinal constructs’ play a crucial role in appropriating the significance of biblical texts in and for a particular contemporary context. Various such constructs typically employed for an ecological biblical hermeneutics are analysed. Suggestions are offered towards the use of more sophisticated constructs, with reference to the notions of the ‘liberation of creation’, the ‘wisdom of God’ and the ‘whole household of God’.

scholarly journals Is hermeneutiek nog ergens goed voor?

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 128-137
Author(s):  
E. Talstra
Keyword(s):  
Modern Society ◽  
Recent Book ◽  
Biblical Hermeneutics ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Biblical Scholarship ◽  
History Of ◽  
Biblical Texts

Is Biblical Hermeneutics still a meaningful discipline? Modern studies in hermeneutics either try to teach us how we can still speak about God in modern society, or that we should accept our limited abilities to speak about God at all. This article claims that these options separate God from the long history of biblical texts and contexts where He, as ‘I,’ addresses Israel as ‘you’. In his recent book on reading the Bible, Arnold Huijgen concentrates on the soul rather than on the ratio as an instrument for reading the Bible. Though agreeing with Huijgen’s criticism of modern rationalistic hermeneutics, this article does not see why the soul should take over the role of biblical scholarship when reading the Bible.

scholarly journals Kvinna i den kulturelle bibelen. Ein analyse av nyare norske barne- og ungdomsbiblar

Prismet ◽  
1970 ◽  
pp. 141-159
Author(s):  
Ingunn Aadland
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The New Testament

I denne artikkelen undersøker eg korleis kvinner er representert i den norske kulturelle bibelen med utgangspunkt i gjenforteljingane av Det nye testamentet i barnebiblar utgjevne det siste tiåret. Eit hovudfunn i bibelresepsjonen er at barnebiblar prioriterer forteljingar der menn er hovudpersonar. Vidare finn eg to hovudtendensar i dei forteljingane der kvinner er sentrale: 1) deira rolle er nedprioritert og marginalisert, 2) der kvinner si rolle er framheva, er dei presentert som synderinner. Eg hevdar ikkje at desse fortolkingane er medvitne uttrykk for kvinneforakt. Snarare reflekterer dei ein lojalitet overfor den kulturelle bibelen, det vil seie bibelen slik den vert hugsa og forstått i vår kultur, og like mykje ei manglande erkjenning av rolla kulturen speler i tolkinga av bibelen. Denne resepsjonen av bibelen er ikkje berre reproduksjon og aksept av antikkens ideal, men og uttrykk for verdiar i vår eiga tid.Nøkkelord: Bibel, kulturell bibel, barnebibel, resepsjon, kjønnThis article examines how women are presented in contemporary Norwegian biblical interpretations for children, taking some recent Norwegian children’s bibles reception of the New Testament as examples. One main finding is that children’s bibles often prioritize narratives where men serve as main characters. Moreover, in stories where women play a part, I find two tendencies: 1) their role is either downplayed or marginalized out of the story, 2) when those women’s characters are developed further, they are presented as sinners. I do not suggest that such interpretations are meant to degrade women. Rather, they reflect a loyal attitude towards the cultural bible, the bible as it is commemorated and understood within our culture, and more importantly a lacking awareness of one’s own culture and the role it plays in biblical interpretation. This reception of the bible is not only a reproduction and acceptance of ideals of the Antiquity; but expressions of unfortunate contemporary cultural values. Keywords: Bible, Cultural bible, Childrens’ bibles, Reception, Gender

scholarly journals Narratology and Orality in African Biblical Hermeneutics: Reading the story of Naboth's vineyard and Jehu's revolution in light of Intsomi yamaXhosa

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ndikho Mtshiselwa
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Black People ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Oral Literature ◽  
Biblical Hermeneutics ◽  
Economic Implications ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Biblical Scholarship ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge System ◽  
Economic Function

On the issue of methodology, oral literature has been decisive in the interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in Africa. For instance, Madipoane Masenya (ngwan�a Mphahlele) convincingly employed the folktale of the �Rabbit and the Lion� in her interpretation of the Bible. That Narratology and Orality in African Biblical Hermeneutics is a rarely researched area within biblical scholarship provides room for further studies in this area. This article argues that the reading of the Deuteronomistic story of Naboth�s vineyard and Jehu�s revolution in the light of Intsomi yamaXhosa [the folktale of the Xhosa people] illustrates how biblical interpretation in Africa could be informed by Orality and Narratology. This article examines the light that the socio-economic function of the story of Naboth�s vineyard and Jehu�s revolution would throw on the function of the folktale of Intsimi yeenyamakazana, and vice versa. Furthermore, the present article probes the socio-economic implications that can be drawn from biblical and Xhosa Orality and Narratology for post-apartheid South Africa.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article draws on the indigenous knowledge system, namely Xhosa Narratology and Orality, to interpret Old Testament texts with a view to offering liberating socio-economic possibilities for poor black people in South Africa.

Biblical Interpretation in the Majority World

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. K. Yeo
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
New Approaches ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Majority World ◽  
Multiple Contexts ◽  
Spirit World ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Bible Reading

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.

How American Newspaper Comic Strips Portray God, Angels, and Humans

2020 ◽  
pp. 398-413
Author(s):  
Leonard Greenspoon
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Online Media ◽  
Comic Strip ◽  
Comic Strips ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Biblical Texts

The comic strip as a mainstay of print and more recently online media is an American invention that began its development in the last decades of the 1800s. For many decades in the mid-twentieth century, comic strips were among the most widely disseminated forms of popular culture. With their succession of panels, pictures, and pithy perspectives, comics have come to cover an array of topics, including religion. This chapter looks at how the Bible (Old and New Testament) figures in comic strips, focusing specifically on three areas: the depiction of the divine, renderings of specific biblical texts, and how comic strips can function as sites in which religious identity and controversies play out. Relevant examples are drawn from several dozen strips. Special attention is also paid to a few, like Peanuts and BC, in which biblical imagery, ideology, and idiom are characteristically portrayed in distinctive ways.

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.

Moral Injury and Biblical Studies: An Early Sampling of Research and Emerging Trends

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-144
Author(s):  
Brad E. Kelle
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Studies ◽  
Moral Injury ◽  
Critical Study ◽  
Moral Beliefs ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Biblical Scholarship ◽  
Emerging Trends ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
The World ◽  
Biblical Texts

Moral injury emerged within clinical psychology and related fields to refer to a non-physical wound (psychological and emotional pain and its effects) that results from the violation (by oneself or others) of a person’s deepest moral beliefs (about oneself, others, or the world). Originally conceived in the context of warfare, the notion has now expanded to include the morally damaging impact of various non-war-related experiences and circumstances. Since its inception, moral injury has been an intersectional and cross-disciplinary term and significant work has appeared in psychology, philosophy, medicine, spiritual/pastoral care, chaplaincy, and theology. Since 2015, biblical scholarship has engaged moral injury along two primary trajectories: 1) creative re-readings of biblical stories and characters informed by insights from moral injury; and 2) explorations of the postwar rituals and symbolic practices found in biblical texts and how they might connect to the felt needs of morally injured persons. These trajectories suggest that the engagement between the Bible and moral injury generates a two-way conversation in which moral injury can serve as a heuristic that brings new meanings out of biblical texts, and the critical study of biblical texts can contribute to the attempts to understand, identify, and heal moral injury.

Biblical Interpretation among African-American New Testament Scholars

2005 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-82
Author(s):  
Larry L. Enis
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Ethnic Minorities ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
Biblical Hermeneutics ◽  
Scholarly Journals ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Epistle Of James

Given the small, but growing, number of ethnic minorities in the field of biblical studies, the issue of African-American biblical hermeneutics has received only marginal attention in scholarly journals. In an effort to discern major themes and objectives among these interpreters, this article surveys published works by African Americans who have attained either a PhD or ThD in the New Testament. In this study, six areas of particular interest emerged: hermeneutics, the black presence in the New Testament, Paul, the Gospels, the epistle of James, and Revelation. Moreover, this investigation will demonstrate that the phenomenon of African-American New Testament hermeneutics is a methodologically diverse one.

After Beryl Smalley: Thirty Years of Medieval Exegesis, 1984–2013

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Ocker ◽  
Kevin Madigan
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Biblical Hermeneutics ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Fair Representation

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.

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