Biblical Studies: Alternative Views / Africa: Biblical Studies

This first academic glimpse of the Bible as it is read in Africa and what African biblical scholars are up to explores the myriad ways Africans have made the Bible their own. Replete with diversity and complexity, the essays allow an intertextual conversation within the book to take place. Divided into five main sections, the book includes essays on, among other topics, the historical development of biblical interpretation in Africa, the relationship between African biblical scholarship and scholarship in the West, African resources for reading the Bible, the history and role of vernacular translation in particular African contexts, and the ambiguity of the Bible in Africa. Perhaps of greatest importance to scholars, this book contains the most comprehensive bibliography on the Bible in Africa available in print.This publication has also been published in hardback, please click here for details."

Hermeneutics remains a divisive and polarizing topic within scholarly and ecclesiastical communities in South Africa. These tensions are not limited to theoretical differences but often crystallize on a grassroots level when local churches and church assemblies have to make important decisions on controversial ethical topics such as ordaining women in church offices, assessing the ethics of gay marriages, and taking a stance on the land debate in South Africa. This book makes a unique contribution in two ways: firstly, it focuses on the uniquely South African hermeneutical landscape; secondly, it relates theories to practical ethical application. The unique scholarly contribution of this consists in it relating hermeneutics to ethics within the South African landscape. A diverse group of scholars have been invited to partake in the project and the views expressed are often quite diverse. This allows readers to develop an understanding and sensitivity of the various angles employed and the interests at stake in addressing difficult societal problems.

The world is increasingly assuming the characteristics of a global village," as transportation and information technologies make travel and communications around the globe ever quicker and easier. The world of biblical scholarship has not been immune to such changes. Increasingly, biblical scholars everywhere recognize that they are "reading the Bible in the global village," and that as they do so they must be aware of their particular contexts for reading the Bible, and of the relationships and tensions between the global and the local, the general and the particular. This volume, which derives from the 2000 SBL International Meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, presents essays by eight scholars who all either come from Africa or have strong interests in African biblical scholarship. Taken together, their work provides a good overview of and introduction to some of the key issues, themes, theories, and practices that are characteristic of the best contemporary biblical study in Africa.Paperback edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org)"

The "curse of Ham" has been used to legitimize slavery. Both Ethiopians and Arabians claim the queen of Sheba. Could Moses and Jesus have been black? Edwin Yamauchi explores the historical and archaeological background of biblical texts that refer to Africa and traces the results of past interpretations and misinterpretations. He covers such topics as the curse of Ham's son Canaan, Moses' Cushite wife, Simon the Cyrene, and afrocentric biblical interpretation. Along the way, he dispels myths, interacts with current theories, and provides readers with sound judgments as to what the Bible does and does not say. Readers interested in the connections between Africa and the Bible will enjoy this insightful book. More then eighty photos, maps, and charts are included.

How can African theology survive the self-repetition of mere cultural apologia or contextualization-stereotypes, and mature into a critical theoretical discipline responding to the challenges of the postmodern world-order? Dr. Humphrey M. Wawe contributes here a sound theological reflection using the hitherto unused methodological paradigm of mapping the inroads in the transaction between the Bible and African culture.

Far too long, the relationship between European and African biblical scholarship has been a non-relationship. Divergent insights into how biblical texts should be interpreted and made fruitful for the current context, cultural differences, colonial past and post-colonial future, radically different social situations - this all made companionship and real interaction difficult. This rich and multilayered volume (result of a Stellenbosch conference 2006) attempts to disclose new modes of dialogue between readers of the Bible from those two worlds. More than twenty theologians from Africa and Europe reflect together on how readers from radically different contexts - professional and ordinary alike -, may become allies in an ethically accountable way of relating the biblical text to their current (global) situations and how a process of mutual learning may be established. This book provides important insights in intercultural hermeneutics, the relationship between classical historico-literary approaches and new forms of interpretation. It also gives examples of new forms of how to read the Bible in the secularised European context and the HIV/Aids stricken Africa. Particularly enriching is that every contribution is followed by a personal letter of response of another contributor to the book, giving impulses for further dialogue and debate. The book is useful for all biblical scholars and students, in particular for those interested in how to do contextual exegesis in a manner that also takes into account the context of the other.