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

HOLTER 9
1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s Total
Burkina Faso 1 1
Burundi 1 1
Cameroon 1 3 4
Centr Afr Rep 1 1
Chad 1 1 2
Dem Rep Congo 1 2 5 8
Eritrea 1 1 2
Gabon 1 1
Ghana 3 1 4
Ivory Coast 1 1
Kenya 1 3 4
Madagascar 1 2 3
Malawi 3 3
Namibia 1 1
Nigeria 1 8 10 15 34
Rwanda 1 2 3
Sierra Leone 1 1
Tanzania 1 1 2 4
Togo 1 1
Uganda 1 1
Zambia 1 1
Zimbabwe 1 1 2 4
Unknown 1 1 2
Total 3 13 28 43 87
Two points should be made here. First, we notice the rapid growth in number,
from three doctoral theses in Old Testament studies in the 1960s to thirteen in the
1970s, twenty-eight in the 1980s and forty-three in the 1990s. This growth reflects
the establishing of graduate and postgraduate Old Testament programmes in the
home contexts of the doctoral candidates. Second, we also notice the strong
presence of Nigerian candidates; forty percent of the doctoral candidates are
Nigerians. This high percentage reflects the particular Nigerian situation: a
combination of a university policy encouraging religious and biblical studies, and a
large number of churches that have established their own theological institutions.
The second perspective is the establishment of professional organisations and
journals that create the frameworks for continued—post-doctoral—scholarly
interaction and research dissemination in Old Testament or biblical studies. The
first organisations with a clear focus on biblical studies came into being in the early
1980s. A major example covering the African continent as a whole is the Pan-
African Association for Catholic Exegetes (PACE), which was established to