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

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Introduction The XIXth Congress of the International Organisation for the Study of the Old Testament (IOSOT) was held in Ljubljana, Slovenia from 15–20 July 2007. It was the first time that this esteemed international Old Testament society held its meeting in Eastern Europe. Except for the 1986 meeting in Jerusalem, all the previous seventeen meetings took place in Western Europe. The President of the IOSOT during the term 2004–2007 was Prof. Jože Krašovec, a professor in Biblical Studies at the Theological Faculty in Ljubjlana. His firm commitment to making this conference accessible to particularly Eastern European scholars was complemented by his invitation to Prof. Dr. Knut Holter to put together a special session on “Global Biblical Hermeneutics”, which would be scheduled as part of the programme. His desire was that reflection on the impact of the global world on our biblical interpretative endeavours should be stimulated by this special session. The papers included in this volume, the first proceedings in the newlyestablished International Voices in Biblical Studies (an initiative of the International Cooperation Initiative of the Society of Biblical Literature), are the deliberations of a handful of international scholars who participated in, and contributed to, the special seminar at the Ljubljana IOSOT conference. They are offered here as a first volume in the new publication series, since this new series has the same objective as the Ljubljana session, namely to stimulate reflection on biblical hermeneutics on a global scale. The volume covers three aspects in different sections, reflecting the structure of the original session at the Ljubljana conference. Firstly, the paper by Prof. Knut Holter provides an overview of the geographical and institutional context of our global hermeneutical endeavours. A second section offers some case studies from different parts of the world. Dr. Gerlinde Baumann from Germany grapples with the position of women and violence in biblical interpretation, Prof. Roy May addresses the issue of land in biblical interpretation in Latin America, and Prof. Mary Jerome Obiorah engages with women readers of the Bible in her Nigerian context. The third section explores the consequences of the global hermeneutical context for biblical interpretation (particularly in the paper by Prof. Louis Jonker) and Bible translation (in the contribution from Dr. Aloo Mojola). Since all scholars who participated in the mentioned conference session are specializing in Old Testament / Hebrew Bible the illustrative materials are mainly taken from the Old Testament. When one reads the contributions in these first three sections, one becomes aware of the fact that the global context or globalization as such, is valued in different ways. In some papers (particularly those of Holter, Baumann, Obiorah and Jonker) globalization is described very positively as the context that provides the opportunity to challenge contexts of oppression, and to invite different vii
methodological approaches and ideological viewpoints to a liminal space of communality and inter-contextuality. In other essays (such as those of May and Mojola) globalization is closely associated with the project of imperialism. There, a negative evaluation of globalization is given. When biblical scholars talk about globalization some dissonances can be detected. In an afterword Prof. Knut Holter therefore reflects on why this might be. He comes to the conclusion that contemporary biblical interpretation is part of the modern globalization project from at least two perspectives: The first perspective acknowledges the fact that we today face a global distribution of communities that interpret the Bible, whereas the second perspective acknowledges—and in some cases tries to counteract—the fact that these globally distributed interpretative communities tend to prolong the traditionally Western hegemony of biblical interpretation. The papers included in this volume have been peer-reviewed by two internationally renowned scholars in the field. Our gratitude goes to them for helping to ensure the academic quality of this work, as well as to the contributors who made their work available for publication in this volume. viii KNUT HOLTER LOUIS JONKER
Page 1 and 2: International Voices in Biblical St
Page 3 and 4: International Voices in Biblical St
Page 5 and 6: Copyright © 2010 by the Society of
Page 10: List of Contributors DR. GERLINDE B
Page 14 and 15: Geographical and Institutional Aspe
Page 16 and 17: HOLTER 5 The first set of tables ou
Page 18 and 19: HOLTER 7 list. Then in 2005 there a
Page 20 and 21: HOLTER 9 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s To
Page 22 and 23: HOLTER 11 collaboration is concerne
Page 24 and 25: HOLTER 13 research in France, or wh
Page 26: Part II CASE STUDIES
Page 29 and 30: 18 GLOBAL HERMENEUTICS? women. On t
Page 31 and 32: 20 GLOBAL HERMENEUTICS? which integ
Page 33 and 34: 22 GLOBAL HERMENEUTICS? Testament t
Page 35 and 36: 24 GLOBAL HERMENEUTICS? canonical a
Page 37 and 38: 26 GLOBAL HERMENEUTICS? BIBLICAL HE
Page 39 and 40: 28 GLOBAL HERMENEUTICS? the root of
Page 41 and 42: 30 GLOBAL HERMENEUTICS? The land is
Page 43 and 44: 32 GLOBAL HERMENEUTICS? perceived a
Page 46 and 47: Reading the Old Testament from a Ni
Page 48 and 49: OBIORAH 37 prerequisites for undert
Page 50 and 51: OBIORAH 39 It is a society where th
Page 52 and 53: OBIORAH 41 Those without formal edu
Page 54: OBIORAH 43 level of literacy among
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The Global Context and Its Conseque
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JONKER 49 It seems to me that Prof.
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JONKER 51 textual reception in the
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JONKER 53 anthropological definitio
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JONKER 55 basis of the inter-contex
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The Global Context and Its Conseque
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MOJOLA 59 global ambitions: we find
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MOJOLA 61 ability to express themse
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MOJOLA 63 specific. It only places
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MOJOLA 65 God’s name in Kiswahili
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MOJOLA 67 with the above when he ob
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MOJOLA 69 Nevertheless it could be
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MOJOLA 71 Iraqw/Gorwa tongue for th
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MOJOLA 73 For many years ever since
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MOJOLA 75 of purification is normal
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MOJOLA 77 Jacob Milgrom held in a c
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MOJOLA 79 two systems. These differ
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MOJOLA 81 categories discussed abov
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Part IV AFTERWORD
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86 GLOBAL HERMENEUTICS? “GLOBALIZ
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88 GLOBAL HERMENEUTICS? biblical in
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90 GLOBAL HERMENEUTICS? example (Le
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92 GLOBAL HERMENEUTICS? role of bib
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