AbstractHow would ordinary African Christians interpret the figure and book of Job--the quintessential biblical book on suffering--from contexts of extreme poverty, tropical disease, and rampant suffering? How do African Christians culturally understand issues of theodicy and the nature of evil? What role does the devil play in African Pentecostalism? How does the biblical lament empower faith and foster hope for people living with HIV/AIDS? In what way does a theology of (eschatological) hope inform the spirituality and prayers of ordinary African believers in the midst of suffering? Inside the Whirlwind offers insight on these fascinating questions. Based upon the perspectives of Fang Christians in Spanish-speaking Equatorial Guinea (Central Africa), the thematic and theological reflections on evil, suffering, and hope emerging from sermons and Bible studies on the book of Job offer a remarkable window to view the main theological issues shaping grassroots African Christianity in the twenty-first century.
Kinyua, Johnson K. Introducing Ordinary African Readers’ Hermeneutics: A Case Study of the Agĩkũyũ Encounter with the Bible. Bern: Peter Lang, 2011.
Weems, Renita. “Response to ‘Reading With’: An Exploration of the Interface between Critical and Ordinary Readings of the Bible.” Semeia 73 (1996): 257–61.
AbstractThis article uses the occasion of the 70th anniversary of HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies to reflect on a particular form of liberation hermeneutics that emerged in the 1980s in South Africa. ‘Contextual Bible Study’ is briefly defined, but its precise contours are explored by locating this form of liberation hermeneutics within liberation hermeneutics more generally and then intercultural biblical hermeneutics more specifically. The article sets up a dialogue amongst these practices, examining both their family resemblances and their distinctive features.
West, Gerald O., and Musa W. Dube. “An Introduction. How We Have Come To ‘Read With.’” Semeia 73 (1996): 7–17.
West, Gerald O., Musa W. Dube Shomanah, and Phyllis A. Bird, eds. “Reading With”: An Exploration of the Interface between Critical and Ordinary Readings of the Bible: African Overtures. Semeia 73. Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1996.
Sign up here to receive the ATW Newsletter, which provides updates about the platform and showcases valuable resources, as well as special announcements related to the field of African Christian Theology.