The Promise of Attending to Literary Context for Contextual Biblical Hermeneutics in Africa
Dublin Core
Title
The Promise of Attending to Literary Context for Contextual Biblical Hermeneutics in Africa
Subject
THE BIBLE MEANS WHAT IT
MEANS TO US AND OUR COMMUNITY”
MEANS TO US AND OUR COMMUNITY”
Description
For important reasons, African contextual hermeneutics
raises the main question: “What does the Scripture mean
to us and our community?”. This article asserts that the
reader-centred approach tends to allow the voice of the
community to ring louder than the voice of Scripture.
Repercussions can include a limited role of Jesus Christ
and a heightened role of material prosperity in some
African expressions of Christian faith. The article argues
that contextual hermeneutics needs to make room for
the inductive analysis of biblical texts, especially their
literary contexts. The heart of a combined inductive and
contextual approach is inviting readers to a dialogue
between text and context, asking questions that help them
use literary context to observe the main aims, themes, and
lines of thought of passages of Scripture, and that foster a
deep identification between biblical texts and the readers’
context
raises the main question: “What does the Scripture mean
to us and our community?”. This article asserts that the
reader-centred approach tends to allow the voice of the
community to ring louder than the voice of Scripture.
Repercussions can include a limited role of Jesus Christ
and a heightened role of material prosperity in some
African expressions of Christian faith. The article argues
that contextual hermeneutics needs to make room for
the inductive analysis of biblical texts, especially their
literary contexts. The heart of a combined inductive and
contextual approach is inviting readers to a dialogue
between text and context, asking questions that help them
use literary context to observe the main aims, themes, and
lines of thought of passages of Scripture, and that foster a
deep identification between biblical texts and the readers’
context
Creator
D.W. Ellington
Date
18 June 2021
Contributor
D.T. Banda
Lameck Banda
Hermen Kroesbergen
Bannet Muwowo
Agnes Nyondo Nyirenda
Edwin Zulu
Lameck Banda
Hermen Kroesbergen
Bannet Muwowo
Agnes Nyondo Nyirenda
Edwin Zulu
Rights
Dustin Ellington
Language
English
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