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"What roles do biblical scholars play in contexts where the Bible is a significant text within poor and marginalized communities? Gerald West reflects on what their role is by drawing on liberation hermeneutics (with a focus on race, class and gender), inculturation hermeneutics (with a focus on culture), and postmodernism (with a decentred 'focus'!). He argues that recent trends in the field of biblical studies open up space for serious dialogue (and perhaps even collaboration) between readers of the Bible in the academy and readers of the Bible in poor and marginalized communities." --Book Jacket.
The meaningful juxtaposition of academics ("experts") with the day-to-day lives of nonacademics ("nonexperts") has animated Gerald O. West's work from the beginning. Seeking to bridge this chasm, West's approach of reading the Bible with the "ordinary people" (typically marginalized communities) became a core practice not only of his church work but of his scholarship. West has been a strong proponent of taking seriously the "ordinary reader" as a viable and legitimate contributor to our understanding of biblical interpretation. Not only does this undo the "ivory tower" elitism that tends to pervade academic halls of learning, but it also reflects a form of scholarly humility that has been a mainstay of West's and should be perpetuated more broadly in biblical scholarship. -- back cover.
Africa has made the Bible its own. This comprehensive volume explores the many ways in which this took place. Essays by a range of African scholars provide access to resources not readily available outside of the African continent. This publication has also been published in paperback, please click here for details.
Addressing an urgent and deeply felt need for more dialogue between interpreters of the Bible from radically different contexts, this book reflects in a comprehensive and existential manner on how to establish new alliances, how to learn from each other, and how to read Scripture in a manner accountable to ‘the dignity of difference.’
This book explores the way individuals and communities navigate complicated spaces which have been dominated by econo-heteropatriarchal powers to find their voice and claim their space.
Paperback edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org)
In this work West critically examines a range of liberationist approaches to the Bible--including those by black, feminist and Latin American liberation theologians. His concern is to demonstrate that what binds these approaches is a hermeneutical which consciously adopts some fundamental commitment to the poor and oppressed.
World Christianity is concerned not with Christianity as a global cultural and theological monolith, but with local expressions of Christian faith around the globe. But Christianity's presence in and among the world's cultures is complex and contested. Evangelization has often been the religious arm of colonial expansion, and even authentically indigenous religious traditions have been swallowed up into linguistic and liturgical uniformity. Often neglected in the study of these phenomena is the meaning and role of the Bible and biblical interpretation in shaping local Christianities. Perhaps no modern expression of World Christianity more dramatically illustrates this neglect than African, e...
The meaningful juxtaposition of academics (“experts”) with the day-to-day lives of nonacademics (“nonexperts”) has animated Gerald O. West’s work from the beginning. Seeking to bridge this chasm, West’s approach of reading the Bible with the “ordinary people” (typically marginalized communities) became a core practice not only of his church work but of his scholarship. West has been a strong proponent of taking seriously the “ordinary reader” as a viable and legitimate contributor to our understanding of biblical interpretation. Not only does this undo the “ivory tower” elitism that tends to pervade academic halls of learning, but it also reflects a form of scholarly humility that has been a mainstay of West’s and should be perpetuated more broadly in biblical scholarship.