HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies

HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies

The present study discusses epistemological foundations of intercultural constructions of the New Testament in Africa. Before embarking on this discussion, it documents the history and procedures of this interpretive tool. In Africa, the intercultural method emanates from the paradigm of inculturation coupled with reconstruction. It has already embraced biblical exegesis, translation studies, canonical criticism and ecological hermeneutics. Contribution: The insights of the article 'Intercultural constructions of the New Testament: Epistemological foundations' pertain firstly to the description of the method of intercultural constructions, taking stock of its emergence, development, procedures, and epistemological foundations in both African and international theological circles. Secondly, the study has specifically established the following epistemological foundations of the intercultural method: interculturality as the cradle of the New Testament corpus, an existential mode, an interpretive paradigm, and interaction with a triple hexagonal dimension. The latter includes a triple pitfall (to avoid), a triple frame of reference, a triple epistemological privilege, a triple epistemological value, a triple ethical value, and a triple cultural position.

1999

This thesis sets out to investigate current reconstruction of forms of African theology that is taking place in parts of Africa. The specific interest is to identify emerging biblical interpretative modes from these theologies and seek to suggest ways of making them effective for the benefit of African communities of readers and the biblical academia as a whole. After a brief consideration of the contribution of historical critical interpretation, this thesis then focused specifically on the development of African scholarly readings. The specific interest in these African readings is• to provide the necessary criteria which will ensure that critical scholarly readings can both be differentiated and derived from popular readings. My interest in popular readings is because of the major role they play in the provision of contextual components or the missing links that can only be obtained from ordinary readers, that the scholarly reader needs in hislher reconstruction of• African self-understanding. I have therefore looked at the attempts to structure the relationship between ordinary readers and scholarly readers and out of that has come the contribution to the theologies of reconstruction in Africa. In summary, to respond to the quest for acceptable critical models of reading the Bible using African cultural texts and world view, it has become necessary to provide recommendations for African hermeneuts which would enhance their readings in order to make their contributions to scholarly biblical interpretation to the global community more effective. This is exactly what this thesis aims at achieving.

Hts Teologiese Studies Theological Studies, 2008

This article traces the rise and development of intercultural Biblical exegesis in Africa, especially with regard to New Testament interpretations. Different trends of Biblical exegesis practiced in Africa are explored, whereafter the different phases of intercultural exegesis are discussed. The focus falls on inculturation hermeneutic as an important method of interpreting the Bible in an African context. The different proponents of this method are discussed and differences in approach are noted and appraised as a healthy tension.

2007

A.l. Modernity 13 A.2. Postmodernity 18 B. POSTCOLONIAL IDENTITIES IN AFRICA 20 B.l. Social-Political Postcolonial Identities in Africa 22 B.2. Postcolonial Trends and Trajectories in African Biblical Scholarship 24 B.3. Education and Biblical Scholarship in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Problematic for African Biblical Scholarship 28 CHAPTER 2: CONTINUITIES BETWEEN AFRICAN CULTURES AND THE CULTURES IN THE HEBREW BIBLE 37 1. Coherence and Spirituality of Creation 41 2. Coherence and Hierarchy of Society 46 3. Concreteness 51 3.1. Concreteness in Time 52 3.2. Concreteness in Communication and Language 55

The Journal of Inductive Biblical Studies, 2014

THE EVANGELICAL THEOLOGICAL SOCIETY FAR WEST REGIONAL MEETING, 2019

A contextual application of biblical doctrine ultimately derives from a contextual hermeneutic. What interpretive guidelines are critical to the development of a genuinely vernacular expression of theology in a local context? The paper surveys some developments in the prolific field of African Christian Theology. The hermeneutical basis of a distinctly African theology appears largely built upon pre-Christian worldviews and spirituality. The paper traces the methodology of the “afrocentric hermeneutic,” which assumes that a genuinely vernacular African theology requires a radical continuity between Old Testament concepts and practices and primal religions and worldviews. The paper considers some case studies in African Christologies that exemplify the exegetical, theological, and practical problems that result from detaching cultural readings from the authorial intent of Scripture, namely the tendency to innovate error and propagate syncretism in the local churches. The paper evidences the need for mission theorists to move beyond the non-critical reporting of aberrant contextual theologies and instead aid in the formation of a biblically tenable global theology on the basis of a biblically faithful hermeneutic. If the goal of contextualization is the transformation of biblical meaning into local significance, then the vernacular expression must be biblically legitimate and reliable otherwise contextualization has not occurred. With this goal in mind, the paper urges for a reevaluation of the afrocentric hermeneutic, and suggests parameters for the biblically faithful application of Scripture in the local African church.

The Bible was interpreted differently in different epochs in the history of humanity. This alone proves that by and large the Bible is more a theological document than historical.

The study of historical-critical method of biblical interpretation has been on-going for centuries. During its history, it has made major achievements and lasting contributions to the general field of Biblical studies. Today, historical-critical studies have reached a climax whereby new development is being advocated by scholars from different theological persuasions. Scholars are making frantic effort to make historical-critical studies relevant in other fields of humanity. Attempts are being made to relate historical-critical investigations to new researches in linguistics, literary criticism and social theory. Historical-criticism is one of the several exegetical tools with which biblical interpreters utilize for biblical interpretation. It should be considered indispensable tool for scholarly interpreters but should not be seen as a panacea for every exegetical hope and problem. The interesting thing is that the proponents of these critical apparatus really want to know what the Biblical authors said and what they wrote. Their concern was not about the text per se but the history behind the text. Thus, historical-critical approaches discuss the world of the author vis a vis the culture, the language and the social background of the Biblical world.