Challenging Contextuality: Bibles and Biblical Scholarship in Context

Challenging Contextuality: Bibles and Biblical Scholarship in Context provides a new and innovative contribution to the study of biblical texts by bringing together current approaches to biblical interpretation. The volume sets the agenda for the future of the field and provides a synthesis of approaches to date. In doing so, it aligns itself with the broadly shared hermeneutical conviction that contextuality is a catalyst for interpretation. This applies in equal measure to approaches and methods that are often framed as 'traditional' or 'mainstream' (e.g. the methodological canon of the historical critical approach as the offspring of the European Enlightenment) and those that are often dubbed 'contextual' (e.g. forms of feminist or 'indigenous' interpretation). The volume grounds contextual biblical interpretation within the broader landscape of biblical studies, and the chapters are all interested in the contexts in which bibles are read. Rather than a series of examples of contextual biblical interpretation, this book is concerned with what it means to do contextual biblical interpretation, how contextual biblical interpretation challenges biblical scholarship, and what chances there are for this mode of inquiry. What contexts are engaged and elucidated when it comes to bible-use? What contexts are made visible and invisible? How can different contexts be theorized and understood? The volume argues that it is not context that matters, rather, contemporary contexts should be a challenge and a chance for biblical scholarship, its present and its future.

Table of Contents:
Hannah M. Strømmen: Contextual Biblical Interpretation as a Challenge and a Chance PART I. Contextual Biblical Scholarship 1: Gerald West: 'Contextual Bible Study' as a Form of Liberation Biblical Interpretation: An Early Conceptual History 2: Charlene van der Walt: Reclaiming the Stolen Bible one Contextual Bible Study at a Time: Engaging African Lived Realities 3: Adriaan van Klinken and Johanna Stiebert: Challenging Contexts from the Lion's Den: Reading Daniel with Ugandan LBGT Refugees in Nairobi 4: Hannah Lewis: 'This is the Sign of the Lord': A Deaf/Disabled Liberation Perspective on Reading the Bible 5: Helen C. John: Intercultural and Cross-Cultural Biblical Interpretation 6: Hanzline R. Davids: Contextual Bible Reading in Practice: Reflections from the NGO Landscape on Sexual Diversity in Africa 7: Helen Cameron and Andrew P. Rogers: Theological Action Research in Conversation with Contextual Biblical Interpretation PART II. Challenging Biblical Scholarship 8: Wongi Park: From Monoracial to Multiracial Biblical Studies 9: Peter-Ben Smit: Diversifying the Field: Growing in Humanity 10: Louise J. Lawrence: Privilege, Marginality, Voice and Representation in Contextual Bible Studies and Contextual Biblical Interpretation 11: Klaas Spronk: Is God Revengeful? The History of Interpretation - a less welcome aspect of the image of God in the Book of Nahum 12: Knut Holter: 'Not a literary man, though very devoted to the Old Testament': Colonial and Contextual Biblical Interpretation vis-à-vis Africa 13: Safwat Marzouk: The Place of Place in Contextual Readings of the Bible: Egypt as a Case Study 14: An-Ting Yi: One Text to Rule Them All? Reflecting on New Testament Textual Criticism and Contextual Biblical Interpretation PART III. Chances for Biblical Scholarship 15: L. Juliana Claassens: Opening up Contexts: The Role of Popular Culture in Expanding the Meaning of Contextual Bible Study 16: Jeremy Punt: Contextual Biblical Interpretation and Theories of Masculinity: Beyond Exnomination 17: Marilou S. Ibita and Maricel S. Ibita: Biblical Ecological Trauma Hermeneutics in a Post-Haiyan Context 18: Fiona C. Black: Contextual Biblical Interpretation: Bodily Inflections and Affective Futures 19: James Crossley: Capitalism, Class, and the Bible: A Very English Proposal 20: Rebekah Hanson: Contextual Convergence in Digital Social Spaces 21: Hugh S. Pyper: The Absent Bible: Oaths of Office in Scotland and the United States

About the Author :
Louise Lawrence is Professor of New Testament Interpretation at the University of Exeter. Peter-Ben Smit is Professor of Contextual Biblical Interpretation at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, and Professor (by special appointment) of Ancient Catholic Church Structures and the History and Doctrine of the Old Catholic Churches at Utrecht University. Hannah M. Strømmen is Senior Lecturer in Bible, Politics, and Culture at Lund University, and currently holds a Wallenberg Academy Fellowship. Charlene van der Walt is Honorary Associate Professor of Gender and Religion at the School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the Global Coordinator for Theological Education at Act Church of Sweden.