Date: June 8, 2024
Venue: Online
Topic: Methods of Biblical Interpretation in the African Context
Biblical hermeneutics is a critical component of biblical studies that helps in unearthing the meaning of ancient text/narrative critically. Until the early 1960s, biblical hermeneutics in many parts of Africa was dependent on hermeneutical philosophies of the Euro-American cultural norms.[1] This is due to the fact that the Euro-American missionaries and biblical scholars did not know the primal religio-cultural norms of Africa. They did not consider them as factors in the hermeneutical spiral. This has led to the assertions that the efforts of the missionaries were also a form of colonization of the African people. Therefore, some African scholars find the need to re-read/interpret the various interpretations inherited from the Global North as a means to decolonization.[2] It is difficult to determine whether those interpretations by the Euro-American missionaries and scholars were meant to colonize Africans consciously or unconsciously. However, since biblical hermeneutics involves the context of the users of the interpreted texts, many Africans believed that it was a deliberate exercise to colonize Africans because interpreted texts are expected to speak differently to different audiences at different times.
Many biblical scholars of African descent were educated in Euro-American universities and theological seminaries. After a while, they began to identify the need to interpret the Bible from African experiences of life and nurture, which may resemble how some Euro-American scholars interpret biblical texts with their context in view. It led to the proposition of many methods/approaches to biblical hermeneutics in Africa including mother-tongue biblical hermeneutics,[3] postcolonial biblical interpretation,[4] communicative interpretation,[5] intercultural interpretation,[6] African biblical hermeneutics,[7] and African indigenous hermeneutics,[8] liberation hermeneutics[9] among others. Many of these methods/approaches are closely related in terms of engaging African realities in the hermeneutical process for Africans. The difference is in the varied contexts and experiences of African realities that are brought to the hermeneutical perspective. “African biblical hermeneutics does not necessarily mean that the interpreter must be an African or live in Africa, but should be any interpreter who takes into account the socio-cultural, religious, economic and political situations of Africa in his/her theologizing.”[10] Areas to explore include but are not limited to the following:
- Review of methods of biblical interpretation for the African context
- Intercultural hermeneutics
- Mother Tongue biblical hermeneutics
- Proposition of new methods for interpretation in the African context
- Postcolonial hermeneutics
- Liberation hermeneutics
- Critics of existing methods of biblical interpretation in the African context
- African biblical hermeneutics
- Interpretation of a text in Intercultural hermeneutics
- Interpretation of a text in Mother Tongue biblical hermeneutics
- Approaches to biblical interpretation in the African context
- Interpretation of a text using Postcolonial hermeneutics
- Application of Liberation hermeneutics to a text
- Application of African biblical hermeneutics to a text
Important dates
Submission of about 150 and 200 words abstract March 15, 2024
Notice of acceptance of abstracts March 22, 2024
Submission of full (draft) article May 30, 2024
Presentation at IBSA – West Africa online meeting June 8, 2024
Draft full papers should use the Chicago Manual writing style 16th or 17th edition. No endnote, no opcit, no ibid. Draft full papers should be academically written in the context of a theoretical framework of that particular field of research and relevant literature adequately consulted. Kindly note that draft papers that do not strictly observe the rudiments of the writing stipulations will be returned to the authors for corrections before it will be sent for peer review. Papers that critically observe the guidelines will be published in the IBSA West Africa Journal. Submission of draft papers and presentation at the online meeting does not automatically guarantee publication. Acceptance for publication will be based on strict adherence to the guidelines and peer review reports.
Click this link to submit an abstract – https://forms.gle/C3eSG9evpXQEqXo7A
All inquiries should be sent to admin@ibsafrica.org
References
[1] George Ossom-Batsa, “African Interpretation of the Bible in Communicative Perspective,” Ghana Bulletin of Theology 2 (2007): 91-104.
[2] Musa W. Dube, “Reading for decolonization (John 4:1–42),” Semeia 75 (1996): 37–59.
[3] John D. K. Ekem, Early Scriptures of the Gold Coast (Ghana): The Historical, Linguistic, and Theological Settings of the Gã, Twi, Mfantse, and Ewe Bibles (Rome and Manchester, UK: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura and St. Jerome Publishing, 2011), 19; Benhardt Y. Quarshie, “Doing Biblical Studies in the African Context – the Challenge of Mother-Tongue Scriptures,” Journal of African Christian Thought Vol. No. 1 (2002): 4-14; Jonathan E. T. Kuwornu-Adjaottor, “Mother-Tongue Biblical Hermeneutics: A Current Trend in Biblical Studies in Ghana,” Journal of Emerging Trends in Educational Research and Policy Studies (JETERAPS) 3(4) (2012): 575-579; Jonathan E. T. Kuwornu-Adjaottor, “A comparative study of Matthew 6:12 and its parallel in some Ghanaian mother-tongue translations of the Bible; in Proceedings of International Conference on Research and Development, Vol. 3, No. 4, ed., Freda M. Nekang (Accra: Pan-African Book Company, 2010): 62-66; Jonathan E. T. Kuwornu-Adjaottor, “Interpretations of mias gunaikos andra (1Tim. 3:2a) in some Ghanaian mother-tongue translations of the Bible,” Journal of African Biblical Studies, Ghana Association of Biblical Exegetes (GABES) Publication. Vol.3 (January 2011): 43-61.
[4] Musa W. Dube, “Reading for decolonization (John 4:1–42),” Semeia 75 (1996): 37–59.
[5] George Ossom-Batsa, “African Interpretation of the Bible in Communicative Perspective,” Ghana Bulletin of Theology 2 (2007): 91-104
[6] Jean-Claude Loba Mkole, “Beyond Just Wages. An Intercultural Analysis of Mt. 20:1- 16,” Journal of Early Christian History 4/1 (2014): 112-134; Jean-Claude Loba Mkole, “The New Testament and Intercultural Exegesis in Africa, in New Testament Interpretations in Africa,” (Special Issue of the Journal for the Study of the New Testament 30/1, Sheffield: SAGE, 2007b), 7-28; J. S. Ukpong, “Inculturation hermeneutics: An African approach to Biblical interpretation,” in D. Walter & L. Ulrich (eds.), The Bible in a world context: An experiment in contextual hermeneutics (William B. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, MI. 2002a), 17-32; J. S. Ukpong, “Reading the Bible with African eyes: Inculturation and hermeneutics,” Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 91 (1995a) 3–14; Chris U. Manus, Intercultural hermeneutics in Africa: Methods and approaches (Nairobi: Acton 2003).
[7] M. Speckman, “African Biblical Hermeneutics on the Threshold? Appraisal and Wayforward,” Acta Theologica Suppl 24 (2016): 204-224; David Tuesday Adamo, Explorations in African Biblical Studies (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2001); David Tuesday Adamo, “What is African Biblical Hermeneutics?” Black Theology, 13:1 (2015): 59-72; Benjamin Abotchie Ntreh, “Human Complicity in Flood Occurrence: An African Biblical Hermeneutical Reading of Genesis 6:5-8:22,” Illorin Journal of Religious Studies. Vol. 2. No. 2 (2012): 91-102; Benjamin Abotchie Ntreh, “The Survival of Earth: An African Reading of Psalm 104” in The Earth Story in the Psalms and the Prophets. The Earth Bible 4. Edited by Norman C. Habel (Sheffield Academic/The Pilgrim Press 2001), 98-108.
[8] Elizabeth Mburu, African Hermeneutics (Hammond, IN: HippoBooks, 2019).
[9] Gerald O. West, “Liberation Hermeneutics after Liberation in South Africa,” in Trajectories of Religion in Africa https://doi.org/10.1163/9789401210577_022; Gerald O. West, Contextual Bible Study (Pietermaritzburg: Cluster Publications, 1993).
[10] Daniel Nii Aboagye Aryeh, “Inductive Biblical Interpretation and Mother-Tongue Biblical Hermeneutics: A Proposal for Pentecostal/Charismatic Ministries in Ghana Today,” The Journal of Inductive Biblical Studies 3/2: (Summer 2016): 140-160.