Global Hermeneutics? - International Voices in Biblical Studies ...

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is not inherent in the historical approach itself.” 16 Schüssler Fiorenza, however, is
not convinced by Räisänen’s defence of the Western interpretative heritage. She
sticks to her 1987 claims, arguing “that a decentering of hegemonic biblical
scholarship has to take place so that practitioners from different social locations can
move into and reconstitute the center of biblical studies.” 17
The subsequent volumes in the series address the quest for “global
perspectives” from various thematic and hermeneutical positions: feminist,
contextual, post-colonial, etc. 18 One concept that has received some attention is that
of the “global village”, and the discussion between Justin S. Ukpong (Nigeria) and
Musa W. Dube (Botswana) in a volume based on the SBL International Meeting in
Cape Town (South Africa) in 2000 is illustrative with regard to how this concept
may be approached. 19 In his opening address at the Cape Town meeting, Ukpong
argues that the modern globalization in reality continues old colonial patterns. What
we commonly refer to as the “global village” is “only a unidirectional [Ukpong’s
emphasis] globalization. It is the extension of Western cultural practices to other
parts of the globe with all the good and evil effects that entail.” 20 Hence, he
continues, with regard to non-Western biblical scholarship, as long as it “is
consigned to the margin of biblical scholarship and therefore ignored or treated as
of no consequence, we shall be far from living out the global village content.” 21 In
her response to Ukpong, Dube elaborates some of his major points. Concurring
with him that globalization in many ways continues colonization, she emphasizes
that even though globalization benefits many, it still leaves many others
economically worse off and dehumanized. 22 This has obvious consequences for the
16
H. Räisänen, “Biblical critics in the global village,” in Reading the Bible in the
Global Village: Helsinki (eds. H. Räisänen et al.; Global Perspectives on Biblical
Scholarship 1; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2000), 9–28 and 153–166.
17
E. Schüssler Fiorenza, “Defending the center, trivializing the margins,” in Reading
the Bible in the Global Village: Helsinki (eds. H. Räisänen et al.; Global Perspectives on
Biblical Scholarship 1; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2000), 29–48 and 166–169.
18
Cf. e.g. M. W. Dube (ed.), Other Ways of Reading: African Women and the Bible
(Global Perspectives on Biblical Scholarship 2; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature,
2001); C. Van der Stichele and T. Penner (eds.), Her Master’s Tools: Feminist and
Postcolonial Engagements of Historical-Critical Discourse. (Global Perspectives on Biblical
Scholarship 9; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2005).
19
J. S. Ukpong, “Reading the Bible in a global village: Issues and challenges from
African reading,” in Reading the Bible in the Global Village: Cape Town (eds. J. S. Ukpong
et al.; Global Perspectives on Biblical Scholarship 3; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature,
2002), 9–39 and 179.
20
Ibid., 35.
21
Ibid.
22
M. W. Dube, “Villagizing, globalizing, and biblical studies,” in Reading the Bible in
the Global Village: Cape Town (eds. J. S. Ukpong et al.; Global Perspectives on Biblical
Scholarship 3; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2002), 41–63 and 179–184.