“Godsplaining”: Toward a Theory of Religious Capital in Political Rhetoric

This paper is an effort at theorizing the neologism godsplaining. The term interrogates the attempt by religious clerics to earn cultural capital by explaining God’s actions and preferences. The paper does so by deconstructing the political rhetoric of two popular Ghanaian prophets, following the outcome of the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections. Using deconstruction as an analytical tool, the study analyses a 2-hour interview the clerics granted an Accra-based local radio station on its morning show. The analysis showed that the religious leaders engaged in “godsplaining” by employing five basic rhetorical strategies— appeal to prophetic authority, kategoria versus apologia, erotema, biblical allusion, and anecdote in order to defend why their perceived political party either won or lost the 2020 general elections. The analysis revealed that the deliberative rhetoric of the prophets suggested a biased hermeneutic of God’s will in favor of their preferred political affinity. The study has implications for further research in media studies, religious communication, and the question of divinity in partisan politics.

Biblical Allusions in Papuan Mythical Folktales and Their Effects on Material Culture Development for the Papuans

Powerful texts may have great impacts on the many people who read them. This article examined the biblical allusions found in two Papuan myths and discussed their impacts as seen in the material culture. The books in the Bible that the myths allude to are the Old Testament: Isaiah, Exodus, Genesis, and Deuteronomy and the New Testaments: Luke, John, Mark, and Revelations. The sources suggested that the biblical information might have been heard sporadically by the Sawi/Auyu and the Tabi from earlier Europeans. The formal contacts which brought the Bible, though, came in the 1800s. This means that the impacts of the great biblical stories had not been there long enough to internalize in the people’s lives so as to trigger significant material culture - let alone the highest linguistic diversity. Furthermore, the geographical challenges made it even worse for the people to have to endure the hardship, and made it difficult to obtain healthy, nutritional, and sufficient food sources for the improvement of human resources which would have been necessary for creating significant material culture. Keywords: biblical allusion, Papuan mythology, material culture, Kwembo, Ataphapkon

Ideological Underpinnings in President John Dramani Mahama’s 2013 State of the Nation Address

This study sets out to investigate, examine and understand the hidden ideologies and ideological structures/devices in the 2013 State of the Nation Address of President John Dramani Mahama. The study specifically aimed to (i) ascertain the ideologies embedded in the speech and (ii) investigate linguistic expressions and devices which carry these ideological colourations in the speech under review. It uses Critical Discourse Analysis as the theoretical framework to examine the role of language in creating ideology as well as the ideological structures in the speech. These hidden ideologies are created, enacted and legitimated by the application of certain linguistic devices. The researchers deem a study of this nature important as it will expose hidden motives that Ghanaian presidents cloth in language in order to manipulate their audience through their speeches in order to win and/or sustain political power. Through thematic analysis, it was revealed that Mahama projected these ideologies in his speech: ideology of positive self-representation, ideology of human value, ideology of economic difficulty, ideology of power relations and ideology of urgency. It also revealed that Mahama projects his ideologies through the following ideological discursive structures: pronouns, biblical allusion and metaphor. The study has shown that language plays a crucial role in human existence as a means of socialisation. Language has been revealed as a means of communicating ideologies and events of the world. In the tradition of CDA, this study has confirmed that text and talk have social and cultural character and that discourse functions ideologically.

The Intertextual Rhetoric of the Apostrophe to Zion (11QPsa XXII, 1–15)

Considerable agreement has existed concerning the intertextual relations between the Apostrophe to Zion (Ap Zion) and Third Isaiah. But I propose to reread Ap Zion as a literary and theological response to the most famous lament over Zion, exemplified in the book of Lamentations. The common acrostic feature and leitmotif of Zion shared by Lamentations and Ap Zion clearly reflect the latter’s deliberate attention to the former. In this reconsideration, I argue that the much-acclaimed intertextuality between Ap Zion and Third Isaiah is the consequence of the pre-established Isaianic inner-biblical allusion (Second Isaiah) to Lamentations. To expand on this proposal, the paper will explore the multilayered intertextuality between Lam 2, Isa 49, and Ap Zion through classifying their lexical, thematic, structural, and theological associations.

Plowshares: The Career of a Biblical Allusion in The New York Times, 1940–1990

Growing efforts to digitalize newspapers present biblical scholars, especially those interested in “Reception History” or “Popular Interpretation”, with a potentially rich resource. This experiment analyzes a clear “biblical” term, namely “Plowshare” (including a few variant spellings), with regard to its’ use in the New York Times between 1940 and 1990. The sheer number of uses (over 1200) and the variety of contexts for its’ use, is revealing. What emerges from the heavily politicized use of the term is that (a) it is virtually always understood to be a biblical reference to peace and peacemaking, but (b) there is a wide variety of perspectives as to whether it is an ethical maxim or an unrealistic “fantasy” in the face of hard political “realities”. Finally, using the two terms “swords” and “plowshares” together began to clearly emerge in the 20th century as a pious alternative to “guns and butter”, taking on the same “either/or” interpretation. Thus, studying Biblical interpretation in the popular press may offer an important tool in assessing “popular ideas” in specific contexts of world events or cultural contexts.

Goliath among the Giants: Monster Decapitation and Capital Display in 1 Samuel 17 and Beyond

A single verse near the conclusion of 1 Samuel 17 mentions that after defeating Goliath, David took the giant’s severed head to Jerusalem (1 Sam. 17.54). The present paper argues that this text’s communicating of David’s preeminence through his act of decapitation draws on the widespread understanding of heads as uniquely powerful and vulnerable, while triumph over a giant or monstrous body casts the future Israelite king as uniquely dominant over monstrous enemies at the physical extreme. Narratives of monster-combat that center an adversary’s head and its subsequent display are widespread; the present paper discusses the Gilgamesh/Ḫumbaba and Perseus/Medusa narratives, with their corresponding visual art manifestations, to show how the biblical allusion to monstrous capital display functions socially and literarily to constitute David’s power.

(Re) examining Autobiography as Social History: A Historico-Critical Reading of Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai’s the Accidental Public Servant

This study explores the thematic issues raised in Taiwo Oloruntoba-Oju’s poetry collection Losses. A total of nine data were selected from the poems Another Parable, Apata, the Rock; The new Commandments; Down the Throat of Pieter Botha and, Tell Them Mandela which were purposively selected from the poetry collection. These selected data from the poetry collection were analysed using Stylistics as the model for analysis. Specifically, Biblical allusion, as a stylistic device, is used for analysis. The Biblical allusions are elicited from the selected data. The aim of this study is achieved by exploring how the selected Biblical allusions reinforce the various themes in Losses. This study has revealed through the analysis that the use of Biblical allusions by the poet is not just a show of the poet’s linguistic or stylistic dexterity but also as a potent tool to reinforce his message through the themes. The analysis has shown that the poet through Biblical allusion explores basically the themes of oppression, hardship, poverty and revolution. This study is unique in that apart from exploring the stylistic prowess of the poet through his use of Biblical allusions, it further explores how the allusions are important in the thematic construction of the poems. This study concludes that Oloruntoba-Oju is an ace stylistician who through stylistic devices is able to aptly communicate his message to readers. Keywords: stylistics, style, allusion, poetry, Taiwo Oloruntoba-Oju, Losses.

Thematic Reinforcement in Poetry: An Analysis on the use of Biblical Allusion as Stylistic Device in Oloruntoba-Oju’s Losses

This study explores the thematic issues raised in Taiwo Oloruntoba-Oju’s poetry collection Losses. A total of nine data were selected from the poems Another Parable, Apata, the Rock; The new Commandments; Down the Throat of Pieter Botha and, Tell Them Mandela which were purposively selected from the poetry collection. These selected data from the poetry collection were analysed using Stylistics as the model for analysis. Specifically, Biblical allusion, as a stylistic device, is used for analysis. The Biblical allusions are elicited from the selected data. The aim of this study is achieved by exploring how the selected Biblical allusions reinforce the various themes in Losses. This study has revealed through the analysis that the use of Biblical allusions by the poet is not just a show of the poet’s linguistic or stylistic dexterity but also as a potent tool to reinforce his message through the themes. The analysis has shown that the poet through Biblical allusion explores basically the themes of oppression, hardship, poverty and revolution. This study is unique in that apart from exploring the stylistic prowess of the poet through his use of Biblical allusions, it further explores how the allusions are important in the thematic construction of the poems. This study concludes that Oloruntoba-Oju is an ace stylistician who through stylistic devices is able to aptly communicate his message to readers. Keywords: Stylistics, Style, Allusion, Poetry and Taiwo Oloruntoba-Oju.

The book of Jonah and the theme of exile

This article examines the exilic theme of many inner-biblical allusions in the book of Jonah. Although there are few allusions to the Babylonian exile itself, allusions to the primeval and exodus narratives focus upon and draw out the exilic motifs in those texts. The allusions characterize the prophet Jonah, accentuating his wrongdoing and dissatisfaction while also indicating a more hopeful outcome for him than the ending of the book would otherwise suggest. Furthermore, the allusions illustrate the literary approach of the author in using biblical narratives to enrich his own story while simultaneously influencing the reader’s interpretation of the texts that he evokes. This insight into the author’s techniques is informative for exploring other instances of inner-biblical allusion in the book.