Postcolonial Reading of the Bible: (Evangelical) Friend or Foe?

Ferry Y. Mamahit

Abstract


Reading the Bible through a postcolonial lens has become today’s trend in biblical hermeneutics. It triggers pros and cons within the evangelical circle. Is it friend or foe? Rather than uncritically accepting or refusing it, the article chooses a middle way, being “open but cautious” toward it. The article assumes that every reading method has its strengths and weaknesses and, thus, it can offer valuable things. Applying the content analysis theory, the author finds that a postcolonial biblical reading is somehow relevant to a contextual and transformative biblical reading, regardless of its multiple problems. It enables the readers to be self-critical, context-sensitive, and practical in faith-life integration. The article concludes that postcolonial reading of the Bible can be both (evangelical) friend and foe.


Keywords


postcolonialism; evangelicalism; biblical interpretation

Full Text:

PDF

References


Aster, Shawn Zelig. Reflections of Empire in Isaiah 1–39: Responses to Assyrian Ideology, ANE Monographs 19. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2017.

Benson, Bruce E. and Peter G. Heltzel, eds. Evangelicals and Empire: Christian Alternatives to Political Status Quo. Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2008.

Berquist, Jon L. “Postcolonialism and Imperial Motives for Canonization.” In Postcolonialism and Scriptural Reading, edited by Laura E. Donaldson, 15-35. Semeia 75. Atlanta: Scholars, 1998.

Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture. London and New York: Routledge, 1999.

Billings, Drew E. Acts of the Apostles and the Rhetoric of Roman Imperialism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017.

Boer, Roland. Last Stop Before Antarctica: The Bible and Postcolonialism in Australia. Atlanta: The Society of Biblical Literature, 2008.

Brett, Mark G. Decolonizing God: The Bible and the Tides of Empire. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix, 2008.

Chan, Simon. Grassroots Asian Theology: Thinking the Faith from the Ground Up. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2014.

Cho, Jae Hyung. “A Postcolonial Interpretation of Matthew 28:18-20.” Korean Journal of Christian Studies 150 (2017): 19-25.

Crowell, Bradley L. “Postcolonial Studies and the Hebrew Bible.” Currents in Biblical Research 7, no. 2 (2009): 217-244.

de Alva, J. Jorge Klor. “The Postcolonization of the (Latin) American Experience: A Consideration of ‘Colonization,’ ‘Postcolonialism,’ and ‘Mestizaje.’” In After Colonialism, Imperial Histories, and Postcolonial Displacements, edited by Gyan Prakash, 241-276. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995.

Donaldson, Laura E. “Are We All Now Multiculturalists? Biblical Reading as Cultural Contact.” In In Search of the Present: The Bible through Cultural Studies, edited by Stephen D. Moore, 79-87. Semeia Studies 82. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 1998.

_________. “Gospel Hauntings: The Postcolonial Demons of New Testament Criticism.” In Postcolonial Biblical Criticism: Interdisciplinary Intersections, edited by Stephen D. Moore and Fernando F. Segovia, 97-113. London: T&T Clark, 2006.

_________. “Postcolonialism and Biblical Reading: An Introduction.” In Postcolonialism and Scriptural Reading, edited by Laura E. Donaldson, 1-14. Semeia Studies 75. Atlanta: Scholars, 1998.

__________., ed., Postcolonialism and Biblical Reading. Semeia Studies 75; Atlanta: The Society of Biblical Literature, 1996.

England, Frank. “Mapping Postcolonial Biblical Criticism in South Africa.” Neotestamentica 38, no. 1 (2004): 88-99.

Gandhi, Leela. Postcolonial Theory: An Introduction. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.

Goldsworthy, Graeme. “Biblical Theology and Hermeneutics.” Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 10, no. 2 (2006): 4-21.

Gorman, Michael J. Elements in Biblical Exegesis. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2009.

Green, Gene. “A Response to the Postcolonial Roundtable: Promises, Problems and Prospects.” In Evangelical Postcolonial Conversations: Global Awakenings in Theology and Praxis, edited by Kay Higuera Smith, Jayachitra Lalitha, and L. Daniel Hawk, 19-28. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2014.

Hamadi, Lutfi. “Edward Said: The Postcolonial Theory and the Literature of Decolonization.” European Scientific Journal 2 (2014): 40.

Hernández, Norlan. “Nurturing the Tenets of a Latin American Evangelical Ecclesiology.” Journal of Latin America Theology 16, no. 1 (2021): 111-147.

Hockey, Katherine M. and David G. Horrell, eds. Ethnicity, Race, Religion: Identities and Ideologies in Early Jewish and Christian Texts, and Modern Biblical Interpretation. New York: T&T Clark, 2018.

John, Helen C. “Conversations in Context: Cross-Cultural (Grassroots) Biblical Interpretation Groups Challenging Western-centric (Professional) Biblical Interpretation.” Biblical Interpretation 27, no. 1 (2019): 36-68.

Keener, Craig S. “Scripture and Context: An Evangelical Response.” The Asbury Journal 70, no. 1 (2015): 17-62.

Keller, Catherine, Michael Nausner, and Mayra Rivera, eds. Postcolonial Theologies: Divinity and Empire. St. Lois: Chalice, 2004.

Krippendorff, Klaus. Content Analysis: An Introduction to Its Methodology. 2nd Edition. London-New Delhi: SAGE, 2004.

Kristiawan, Danang. “Interpretasi Alkitab Postkolonial di Asia: Belajar dari Sugirtharajah.” Gema Teologi 33, no. 1 (2009): 1-21.

Larsen, Neil. “Imperialism, Colonialism, Postcolonialism.” In A Companion to Postcolonial Studies, edited by Henry Schwarz and Sangeeta Ray, 23-52. Malden-Oxford-Carlton: Blackwell, 2005.

Lau, Peter. “Back under Authority: Evangelical Postcolonial Hermeneutic.” Tyndale Bulletin 63, no. 1 (2012): 131-145.

Liew, Tat-siong Benny and Erin Runions, eds. Psychoanalytic Mediations between Marxist and Postcolonial Readings of the Bible. Semeia Studies 84. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2016.

Martino, Daniel J. “Postcolonial Biblical Hermeneutics: Interpreting with a Genuine Attunement to Otherness.” Analecta Hermeneutica 4 (2012): 1-21.

Moe, David. “Postcolonial and Liberation Theologies as Partners in Praxis Against Sin and Suffering: A Hermeneutical Approach in Asian Perspective.” Exchange 45, no. 4 (2016): 321-343.

Moore, Stephen D. and Fernando F. Segovia, eds., Postcolonial Biblical Criticism: Interdisciplinary Intersections. London: T&T Clark, 2006.

Osborne, Grant. Hermeneutical Spiral: A Comprehensive Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutics. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1991.

Punt, Jeremy. “Postcolonial Biblical Criticism in South Africa: Some Mind and Road Mapping.” Neotestamentica 37, no. 1 (2003): 59-85.

________. “(Southern) African Postcolonial Biblical Interpretation: A White Perspective.” Journal of Early Christian History 7, no. 3 (2017): 4-24.

Ramachandra, Vinoth. Subverting Global Myths: Theology and the Public Issues Shaping Our World. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2008.

Rukundwa, Lazare S. “Postcolonial Theory as a Hermeneutical Tool for Biblical Reading.” Hervormde Teologiese Studies 64, no. 1 (2008): 339-351.

Said, Edward. Culture and Imperialism. New York: Vintage, 1994.

________. Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient. London: Penguin, 2003.

Samuel, Simon. A Postcolonial Reading s of Mark’s Story of Jesus. LNTS 340. London: T&T Clark, 2007.

Segovia, Fernando F. Decolonizing Biblical Studies: A View from the Margin. Maryknoll: Orbis, 2000.

________. Interpreting Beyond Borders. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 2000.

________. “Biblical Criticism and Postcolonial Studies: Toward a Postcolonial Optic.” In The Postcolonial Bible, edited by R. S. Sugirtharajah, 33-44. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1998.

________. “Interpreting beyond Borders: Postcolonial Studies in Biblical Criticism.” In The Postcolonial Bible, edited by R. S. Sugirtharajah, 11-34. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1998.

________ and A. M. Tolbert, eds. Reading from the Place: Social Location and Biblical Interpretation in Global Perspective. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996.

________ and R. S. Sugirtharajah, eds. A Postcolonial Commentary on the New Testament Writings. New York: T&T Clark, 2007.

Sinaga, Martin L. Identitas Poskolonial “Gereja Suku dalam Masyarakat Sipil (Postcolonial Identity of Tribal Church in Civil Society). Yogyakarta: LKiS, 2004.

Smith, Kathryn J. “From Evangelical Tolerance to Imperial Prejudice? Teaching Postcolonial Biblical Studies in a Westernized, Confessional Setting.” Christian Scholar’s Review 37 (2008): 447-464.

Smith, Kay Higuera, Jayachitra Lalitha, and L. Daniel Hawk, eds. Evangelical Postcolonial Conversations: Global Awakenings in Theology and Praxis. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2014.

Soetrisno, Mudji and Hendar Putranto, Hermeneutika Pascakolonial (Postcolonial Hermeneutics). Yogyakarta: Kanisius, 2008.

Spivak, Gayatri C. “Can the Subaltern Speak?” In Marxism and The Interpretation of Culture, edited by Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg, 271-313. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1988.

________. A Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Toward the History of Vanishing Present. Cambridge-London: Harvard University Press, 1999.

________. The Postcolonial Critic: Interviews, Strategies, Dialogues. London and New York: Routledge, 1990.

Stiebert, Johanna and Musa W. Dube, eds. The Bible, Centres, and Margins: Dialogues between Postcolonial African and British Biblical Scholars. New York: T&T Clark, 2018.

Sugirtharajah, R. S. Asian Biblical Hermeneutics and Postcolonialism: Contesting the Interpretations. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1999.

________. Bible and the Third World: Pre-colonial, Colonial and Postcolonial Encounters. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

________. Exploring Postcolonial Biblical Criticism: History, Method, Practice. Chicester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.

________. Postcolonial Criticism and Biblical Interpretation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

________. Postcolonial Reconfiguration: An Alternative Way of Reading the Bible and Doing Theology. St. Lois: Chalice, 2003.

________. Postcolonial Reconfiguration: An Alternative Way of Reading the Bible and doing Theology. St. Lois: Chalice, 2003.

________. The Bible and Empire: Postcolonial Explorations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

________. The Postcolonial Biblical Reader. Oxford: Blackwell, 2006.

________, ed. The Postcolonial Bible. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1998.

________, ed. Voices from the Margin: Interpreting the Bible in the Third World. London: SPCK, 1995.

Sun, Chloe. “Recent Research on Asian and Asian American Hermeneutics Related to the Hebrew Bible.” Currents in Biblical Research 17, no. 3 (2019): 238-265.

Thiselton, Anthony C. New Horizons in Hermeneutics: The Theory and Practice of Transforming Biblical Reading. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992.

Ukpong, Justin S., et al., Reading the Bible in the Global Village: Cape Town. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2002.

West, Gerald O. “Doing Postcolonial Biblical Interpretation @Home: Ten Years of (South) African Ambivalence.” Neotestamentica 42, no. 1 (2008): 147-164.

Wijanarko, Robertus. “Poskolonialisme dan Studi Teolog.” Studia Philosophia et Theologica 8, no. 2 (2008): 123-133.

Woodley, Randy and Bo C. Sanders. Decolonizing Evangelicalism: An 11:59 pm Conversation. Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2020.

Yung, Hwa. Mangoes or Bananas? The Quest for an Authentic Asian Christian Theology. 2nd ed. Regnum Studies in Mission. Oxford: Regnum, 2014.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25278/jj.v19i2.563
viewed = 0 times




Copyright (c) 2021 Jurnal Jaffray

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Lisensi Creative Commons
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

pISSN 1829-9474
eISSN 2407-4047

Copyright © Jurnal Jaffray 2014-2023