Current Debates On Biblical Hermeneutics in South Africa and the Postcolonial Matrix1
[Article]
Jeremy Punt
Leiden
Brill
Postcolonial studies would seem to offer many advantages for academic and other discourses within and about post-apartheid South African society, including new, broad hermeneutical perspectives for biblical studies. Indeed, a number of current scholarly debates in South African biblical studies are related to the postcolonial paradigm: the tension between African versus Western readings, 'ordinary' versus 'trained' readings, and nationalist versus hybridical readings. juxtaposing some postcolonial biblical-critical voices and these debates is valuable in accounting for many of the important concerns that postcolonial readings raise, showing the significance and value of postcolonial studies, but is also important in the renewed attention to an appropriate ethics of interpretation in the biblical studies guild. Postcolonial studies would seem to offer many advantages for academic and other discourses within and about post-apartheid South African society, including new, broad hermeneutical perspectives for biblical studies. Indeed, a number of current scholarly debates in South African biblical studies are related to the postcolonial paradigm: the tension between African versus Western readings, 'ordinary' versus 'trained' readings, and nationalist versus hybridical readings. juxtaposing some postcolonial biblical-critical voices and these debates is valuable in accounting for many of the important concerns that postcolonial readings raise, showing the significance and value of postcolonial studies, but is also important in the renewed attention to an appropriate ethics of interpretation in the biblical studies guild.