Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T08:37:58.972Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

(Southern) African Anglican Biblical Interpretation: A Postcolonial Project

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Gerald West
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article argues that context is an important fourth factor, alongside the more familiar three, in understanding Anglicanism in (Southern) Africa. As imperialism was an important part of the early context of the Bible’s presence within Southern African Anglicanism, the bulk of the present article charts the contours of imperial Southern African Anglicanism. Having mapped this territory, the article then probes what a postcolonial analysis of Southern African Anglican biblical interpretation might look like, outlining two related components: a descriptive component and an interventionist component. The descriptive task asks how Southern African Anglicans have read the Scriptures, and the interventionist task asks how Southern African Anglicans should read the Scriptures. The former requires a careful Foucault-like ‘archaeological’ analysis and the latter a recognition of the contextually-related resources of African biblical scholarship.

Keywords

African biblical hermeneuticsimperialismSouthern African Anglicanism
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Anglican Studies , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , November 2010 , pp. 140 - 164
Copyright
Copyright © The Journal of Anglican Studies Trust 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1.

School of Religion and Theology, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.

References

2. Greer, Rowan A., Anglican Approaches to Scripture: From the Reformation to the Present (New York: Herder & Herder, 2006), pp. 13–31.Google Scholar

3. Greer, , Anglican Approaches to Scripture, pp. 13–14.Google Scholar

4. Wolf, William J. and Booty, John E. (eds.), The Spirit of Anglicanism (Wilton: Morehouse-Barlow, 1979), p. 165.Google Scholar

5. Anglican Approaches to Scripture, p. xviii.

6. Greer, , Anglican Approaches to Scripture, p. xviii.Google Scholar

7. Greer, , Anglican Approaches to Scripture, p. xix.Google Scholar

8. Greer, , Anglican Approaches to Scripture, p. xix.Google Scholar

9. Greer, , Anglican Approaches to Scripture, p. xxiii.Google Scholar

10. Greer, , Anglican Approaches to Scripture, p. xxiii.Google Scholar

11. Greer, , Anglican Approaches to Scripture, p. xvi.Google Scholar

12. I place ‘Southern’ in brackets because much of what I say may be applicable to the Africa more widely; however, my focus will be on Southern African Anglicanism.

13. Greer, , Anglican Approaches to Scripture, p. 161.Google Scholar

14. Greer, , Anglican Approaches to Scripture, p. ix.Google Scholar

15. Greer, , Anglican Approaches to Scripture, p. 2. See also Bernard, G.W., The King’s Reformation: Henry VIII and the Remaking of the English Church (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005).Google Scholar

16. I drop the bracket around ‘Southern’ at this point because my focus will be on Southern Africa. The earlier bracketing of ‘Southern’ was by way of invitation to my colleagues in other African countries. It will return later.

17. Greer, , Anglican Approaches to Scripture, pp. 3, 4.Google Scholar

18. Sundkler, BengtSteed, Christopher, A History of the Church in Africa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), p. 42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

19. Sundkler, and Steed, , A History of the Church in Africa, p. 44.Google Scholar

20. Sundkler, and Steed, , A History of the Church in Africa, p. 46.Google Scholar

21. Sundkler, and Steed, , A History of the Church in Africa, p. 64.Google Scholar

22. Here, I use another awkward bracket, signalling that though the Anglican Church of Southern Africa is indeed Southern African, much of what is documented is centred on South Africa.

23. Suberg, O.M., The Anglican Tradition in South Africa: A Historical Overview (Pretoria: University of South Africa, 1999), p. 10Google Scholar; Sundkler, and Steed, , A History of the Church in Africa, p. 64Google Scholar.

24. Suberg, , The Anglican tradition in South Africa, p. 10.Google Scholar

25. Suberg, , The Anglican tradition in South Africa, p. 10.Google Scholar

26. Suberg, , The Anglican tradition in South Africa, p. 10.Google Scholar

27. Comaroff, JeanComaroff, John L., Of Revelation and Revolution: Christianity, Colonialism and Consciousness in South Africa (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), pp. 76, 77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

28. Comaroff, and Comaroff, , Christianity, Colonialism and Consciousness in South Africa, p. 79.Google Scholar

29. Suberg, , The Anglican Tradition in South Africa, p. 11.Google Scholar

30. Suberg, , The Anglican Tradition in South Africa, p. 11.Google Scholar

31. Suberg, , The Anglican Tradition in South Africa, p.11.Google Scholar

32. Suberg, , The Anglican Tradition in South Africa, p. 12.Google Scholar

33. Suberg, , The Anglican Tradition in South Africa, p. 12.Google Scholar

34. Suberg, , The Anglican Tradition in South Africa, p. 12.Google Scholar

35. Suberg, , The Anglican Tradition in South Africa, pp. 12, 13.Google Scholar

36. Suberg, , The Anglican Tradition in South Africa, p. 13.Google Scholar

37. Suberg, , The Anglican Tradition in South Africa, p. 16.Google Scholar

38. Comaroff, and Comaroff, , Christianity, Colonialism and Consciousness in South Africa, p. 56.Google Scholar

39. Comaroff, and Comaroff, , Christianity, Colonialism and Consciousness in South Africa, p. 76.Google Scholar

40. Comaroff, and Comaroff, , Christianity, Colonialism and Consciousness in South Africa, p. 76.Google Scholar

41. Comaroff, and Comaroff, , Christianity, Colonialism and Consciousness in South Africa, p. 77.Google Scholar

42. Comaroff, and Comaroff, , Christianity, Colonialism and Consciousness in South Africa, p. 77.Google Scholar

43. Suberg, , The Anglican Tradition in South Africa, pp. 14, 15.Google Scholar

44. Suberg, , The Anglican Tradition in South Africa, p. 17.Google Scholar

45. Comaroff, and Comaroff, , Christianity, Colonialism and Consciousness in South Africa, p. 54.Google Scholar

46. Suberg, , The Anglican Tradition in South Africa, p. 21.Google Scholar

47. Guy, Jeff, The Heretic: A Study of the Life of John William Colenso 1814–1883 (Johannesburg: Ravan, 1983), p. 113.Google Scholar

48. Suberg, , The Anglican Tradition in South Africa, pp. 24, 25.Google Scholar

49. Suberg, , The Anglican Tradition in South Africa, p. 25.Google Scholar

50. Hinchliff, Peter B., The Anglican Church in South Africa: An Account of the History and Development of the Church of the Province of South Africa (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1963), pp. 98, 99.Google Scholar

51. Comaroff, and Comaroff, , Christianity, Colonialism and Consciousness in South Africa, pp. 161–64.Google Scholar

52. Comaroff, and Comaroff, , Christianity, Colonialism and Consciousness in South Africa, pp. 164, 165.Google Scholar

53. Comaroff, and Comaroff, , Christianity, Colonialism and Consciousness in South Africa, pp. 165, 166.Google Scholar

54. Comaroff, and Comaroff, , Christianity, Colonialism and Consciousness in South Africa, pp. 167–69.Google Scholar

55. Comaroff, and Comaroff, , Christianity, Colonialism and Consciousness in South Africa, p. 278.Google Scholar

56. Comaroff, and Comaroff, , Christianity, Colonialism and Consciousness in South Africa, p. 278.Google Scholar

57. Comaroff, and Comaroff, , Christianity, Colonialism and Consciousness in South Africa, p. 278.Google Scholar

58. Worsnip, Michael E., Between the Two Fires: the Anglican Church and Apartheid, 1948–1957 (Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press, 1991), p. 5.Google Scholar

59. Worsnip, , Between the Two Fires, p. 8.Google Scholar

60. Suberg, , The Anglican Tradition in South Africa, p. 29; Worsnip, , Between the Two Fires, p. 8.Google Scholar

61. Suberg, , The Anglican Tradition in South Africa, p. 29.Google Scholar

62. Worsnip, , Between the Two Fires, pp. 8, 9.Google Scholar

63. Worsnip, , Between the Two Fires, p. 9.Google Scholar

64. Worsnip, , Between the Two Fires, p. 10.Google Scholar

65. Worsnip, , Between the Two Fires, p. 10.Google Scholar

66. Cochrane, James R., Servants of Power: the Role of the English-speaking Churches in South Africa, 1903–1930 (Johannesburg: Ravan, 1987), p. 3.Google Scholar

67. Worsnip, , Between the Two Fires, p. 156, n31.Google Scholar

68. Worsnip, , Between the Two Fires, p. 156, n31.Google Scholar

69. Worsnip, , Between the Two Fires, p. 157, n31.Google Scholar

70. Cochrane, , Servants of Power, p. 2.Google Scholar

71. Cochrane, , Servants of Power, pp. 2, 3. The recent work by Bob Clarke sets out ‘to record the witness against racial discrimination by Anglican Church leaders and to suggest this made an important contribution to the liberation of South Africa from apartheid’; Clarke, Bob, Anglicans Against Apartheid: 1936–1996 (Pietermaritzburg: Cluster Publications, 2008), p. ix.Google Scholar

72. Terreblanche, Sampie, A History of Inequality in South Africa, 1652–2002 (Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press, 2002).Google Scholar

73. Rehle, Thomas et al. , ‘National HIV Incidence Measures: New Insights into the South African Epidemic’, South African Medical Journal 97.3 (2007), pp. 194–199.Google Scholar

74. Kairos theologians, The Kairos Document: Challenge to the Church (Braamfontein: Skotaville, revised 2nd edn, 1986).Google Scholar

75. Clarke, , Anglicans Against Apartheid.Google Scholar

76. Maluleke, Tinyiko S., ‘Black and African Theologies in the New World Order: A Time to Drink from Our Own Wells’, Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 96 (1996), pp. 3–19 (15).Google Scholar

77. England, Frank, ‘Mapping Postcolonial Biblical Criticism in South Africa’, Neotestamentica 38.1 (2004), pp. 88–99 (91).Google Scholar

78. England, ‘Mapping Postcolonial Biblical Criticism in South Africa’, p. 97.Google Scholar

79. Draper, Jonathan A., ‘Introduction’, in Draper (ed.), Commentary on Romans by Bishop John William Colenso (Pietermaritzburg: Cluster Publications, 2003), pp. 1–21; Jonathan A. Draper (ed.), The Eye of the Storm: Bishop John William Colenso and the Crisis of Biblical Inspiration (Pietermaritzburg: Cluster Publications, 2003); R.S. Sugirtharajah, The Bible and the Third World: Precolonial, Colonial and Postcolonial Encounters (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp. 110–39.Google Scholar

80. Draper, Jonathan A.West, Gerald O., ‘Anglicans and Scripture in South Africa’, in England and Paterson (eds.), Bounty in Bondage: the Anglican Church in Southern Africa — Essays in Honour of Edward King, Dean of Cape Town (Johannesburg: Ravan, 1989), pp. 30–52.Google Scholar

81. Moore, Stephen D.Segovia, Fernando F. (eds.), Postcolonial Biblical Criticism: Interdisciplinary Intersections (London and New York: T&T Clark, 2005)Google Scholar. See, for example, Sugirtharajah, R.S. (ed.), The Postcolonial Bible (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1998), pp. 91–116Google Scholar.

82. Ukpong, Justin S., ‘Rereading the Bible with African Eyes’, Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 91 (1995), pp. 3–14 (4).Google Scholar

83. Ukpong, , ‘Rereading the Bible with African Eyes’, p. 5.Google Scholar

84. Ukpong, , ‘Rereading the Bible with African Eyes’, p. 6.Google Scholar

85. Ukpong, , ‘Rereading the Bible with African Eyes’, p. 6.Google Scholar

86. Mosala, Itumeleng J., Biblical Hermeneutics and Black Theology in South Africa (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989), p. 67.Google Scholar

87. Mosala, , Biblical Hermeneutics and Black Theology, p. 67.Google Scholar

88. Frostin, Per, Liberation Theology in Tanzania and South Africa: A First World Interpretation (Lund: Lund University Press, 1988)Google Scholar; Mosala, Biblical Hermeneutics and Black Theology.

89. Mofokeng, T.‘Black Christians, the Bible and Liberation’, Journal of Black Theology 2 (1988), pp. 34–42 (34)Google Scholar; Mosala, , Biblical Hermeneutics and Black Theology, p. 41Google Scholar.

90. Ukpong, , ‘Rereading the Bible with African Eyes’;Ukpong, Justin S., ‘The Parable of the Shrewd Manager (Lk. 16:1-13): An Essay in the Inculturation of Biblical Hermeneutics’, Semeia 73 (1996), pp. 189–210.Google Scholar

91. Ukpong, , ‘Rereading the Bible with African Eyes’Google Scholar; Ukpong, , ‘The Parable of the Shrewd Manager’.Google Scholar

92. Mosala, , Biblical Hermeneutics and Black Theology, pp. 43–66.Google Scholar

93. Mosala, , Biblical Hermeneutics and Black Theology, pp. 31, 32.Google Scholar

94. Nadar, Sarojini, ‘Power, Ideology and Interpretation/s: Womanist and Literary Perspectives on the Book of Esther as Resources for Gender-Social Transformation’, PhD thesis (KwaZulu-Natal: University of Natal, 2003).Google Scholar

95. Madipoane (ngwana’ Mphahlele) Masenya, ‘A Bosadi (Womanhood) Reading of Proverbs 31:10-31’, in Dube (ed.), Other Ways of Reading: African Women and the Bible (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature; Geneva: WCC Publications, 2001), pp. 145–157.Google Scholar

96. Haddad, Beverley G., ‘African Women’s Theologies of Survival: Intersecting Faith, Feminisms, and Development’ (KwaZulu-Natal: University of Natal, 2000).Google Scholar

97. Mbuwayesango, Dora Rudo, ‘Childlessness and Women-to-Women Relationships in Genesis and in African Patriarchal Society: Sarah and Hagar from a Zimbabwean Woman’s Perspective (Gen. 16:1-16; 21:8-21)’, Semeia 78 (1997), pp. 27–36.Google Scholar

98. Mncube, Bernard, Biblical Problems and the Struggle of Women (Johannesburg: Institute for Contextual Theology, 1984)Google Scholar; Mosala, Bernadette I., Biblical Hermeneutics and the Struggle of Women (Johannesburg: Institute for Contextual Theology, 1984)Google Scholar; Kehilwe Plaatjie, Gloria, ‘Toward a Post-Apartheid Black Feminist Reading of the Bible: A Case of Luke 2:36-38’, in Dube (ed.), Other Ways of Reading: African Women and the Bible (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature; Geneva: WCC Publications, 2001), pp. 114–142Google Scholar.

99. Dube, Musa W. (ed.), Other Ways of Reading: African Women and the Bible (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2001); Teresa Okure, ‘Feminist Interpretation in Africa’, in Fiorenza (ed.), Searching the Scriptures: A Feminist Introduction (New York: Crossroads, 1993), pp. 76–85.Google Scholar

100. Boesak, Allan, Black and Reformed: Apartheid, Liberation, and the Calvinist Tradition (Johannesburg: Skotaville, 1984); Gerald O. West, Biblical Hermeneutics of Liberation: Modes of Reading the Bible in the South African Context (New York: Maryknoll; Pietermaritzburg: Orbis Books and Cluster Publications, 2nd edn, 1995).Google Scholar

101. Nadar, Sarojini, ‘A South African Indian Womanist Reading of the Character of Ruth’, in Dube (ed.), Other Ways of Reading: African Women and the Bible (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature; Geneva: WCC Publications, 2001), pp. 159–175.Google Scholar

102. West, Gerald O., ‘Shifting Perspectives on the Comparative Paradigm in (South) African Biblical Scholarship’, Religion and Theology 12.1 (2005), pp. 48–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

103. Punt, Jeremy, ‘Postcolonial Biblical Criticism in South Africa: Some Mind and Road Mapping’, Neotestamentica 37.1 (2003), pp. 59–85; Jeremy Punt, ‘Why Not Postcolonial Biblical Criticism in (South) Africa: Stating the Obvious or Looking for the Impossible?’, Scriptura 91 (2006), pp. 63–82; Gerald O. West, ‘Finding a Place Among the Posts for Post-colonial Criticism in Biblical Studies in South Africa’, Old Testament Essays 10 (1997), pp. 322–42.Google Scholar

104. Moore, and Segovia, (eds.), Postcolonial Biblical Criticism: Interdisciplinary IntersectionsGoogle Scholar; Segovia, Fernando F., ‘Mapping the Postcolonial Optic in Biblical Criticism: Meaning and Scope’, in Moore and Segovia (eds.), The Bible and Postcolonialism (London: T&T Clark, 2005), pp. 23–78Google Scholar; Sugirtharajah, R.S., ‘Postcolonial Biblical Interpretation’, in Sugirtharajah (ed.), Voices From the Margin: Interpreting the Bible in the Third World (Maryknoll: Orbis, 3rd edn, 2006), pp. 64–84Google Scholar. See SugirTharajah (ed.), The postcolonial Bible.

105. Dube, Musa W., ‘Readings of Semoya: Batswana Women’s Interpretations of Matt. 15:21-28’, Semeia 73 (1996), pp. 111–129Google Scholar; Dube, Musa W., ‘Toward a Postcolonial Feminist Interpretation of the Bible’, Semeia 78 (1997), pp. 11–26Google Scholar; Dube, Musa W., Postcolonial Feminist Interpretation of the Bible (St Louis: Chalice Press, 2000)Google Scholar; Nzimande, Makhosazana K., ‘Postcolonial Biblical Interpretation in Post-Apartheid South Africa: The gebirah in the Hebrew Bible in the Light of Queen Jezebel and the Queen Mother of Lemuel’ (Texas: Texas Christian University, 2005)Google Scholar.

106. Dube, , Postcolonial Feminist Interpretation of the Bible, p. 3.Google Scholar

107. Dube, , Postcolonial Feminist Interpretation of the Bible, p. 6.Google Scholar

108. Dube, , Postcolonial Feminist Interpretation of the Bible, p. 10.Google Scholar

109. Dube, , Postcolonial Feminist Interpretation of the Bible, p. 15.Google Scholar

110. Dube, , Postcolonial Feminist Interpretation of the Bible, p. 16.Google Scholar

111. Dube, , Postcolonial Feminist Interpretation of the Bible, pp. 16–21.Google Scholar

112. Dube, , Postcolonial Feminist Interpretation of the Bible, p. 49.Google Scholar

113. Dube, , Postcolonial Feminist Interpretation of the Bible, pp. 50, 51.Google Scholar

114. Dube, , Postcolonial Feminist Interpretation of the Bible, p. 122.Google Scholar

115. Sugirtharajah, R.S., Postcolonial Reconfigurations: An Alternative Way of Reading the Bible and Doing Theology (London: SCM Press, 2003), p. 126.Google Scholar

116. Sugirtharajah, , The Bible and the Third World: Precolonial, Colonial and Postcolonial Encounters, p. 249.Google Scholar

117. Nzimande, ‘Postcolonial Biblical Interpretation in Post-Apartheid South Africa’; Nzimande, Makhosazana K., ‘Reconfiguring Jezebel: A Postcolonial imbokodo Reading of the Story of Naboth’s Vineyard (1 Kings 21:1-16)’, in de Wit and West (eds.), African and European Readers of the Bible in Dialogue: In Quest of a Shared Meaning (Leiden: EJ Brill, 2008), pp. 223–258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

118. Peel, J.D.Y., Religious Encounter and the Making of the Yoruba (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000), p. 4.Google Scholar

119. Ganusah, Rebecca Yawa, ‘Pouring Libation to Spirit Powers Among the Ewe-Dome of Ghana: An Indigenous Religious and Biblical Perspective’, in West and Dube (eds.), The Bible in Africa: Transactions, Trajectories, and Trends (Leiden: Brill, 2000), pp. 278–291.Google Scholar

120. Okure, Teresa, ‘Reading from this Place: Some Problems and Prospects’, in Segovia and Tolbert (eds.), Reading from this Place: Social Location and Biblical Interpretation in Global Perspective (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995), pp. 52–66 (64).Google Scholar

121. Okure, , ‘Feminist Interpretation in Africa’, p. 77Google Scholar; West, Gerald O., ‘Indigenous Exegesis: Exploring the Interface between Missionary Methods and the Rhetorical Rhythms of Africa — locating local reading resources in the academy’, Neotestamentica 36 (2002), pp. 147–162.Google Scholar

122. Kanyoro, Musimbi R.A., ‘Threading More Beads in the Story of the Circle’, in Phiri and Nadar (eds.), African Women, Religion, and Health: Essays in Honor of Mercy Amba Ewudziwa Oduyoye (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2006), pp. 19–42.Google Scholar

123. Dube, Musa W.Kanyoro, Musimbi (eds.), Grant Me Justice! HIV/AIDS and Gender Readings of the Bible (Pietermaritzburg: Cluster Publications, 2004)Google Scholar. See, for example, Dube, Musa W. and Maluleke, Tinyiko S., ‘HIV/AIDS as the New Site of Struggle: Theological, Biblical and Religious Perspectives’, Missionalia 29.2 (2001), pp. 119–124Google Scholar; Madipoane (ngwana’ Mphahlele) Masenya, , ‘Between Unjust Suffering and the “Silent” God: Job and HIV/AIDS Sufferers in South Africa’, Missionalia 29 (2001), pp. 186–199Google Scholar; Madipoane (ngwana’ Mphahlele) Masenya, , ‘Killed by Aids and Buried by Religion: African Female Bodies in Crisis’, in Holter (ed.), Let My People Stay! Researching the Old Testament in Africa (Nairobi: Acton, 2006), pp. 131–146Google Scholar; West, Gerald O. and Zengele, Bongi, ‘Reading Job “positively” in the Context of HIV/AIDS in South Africa’, Concilium 4 (2004), pp. 112–124Google Scholar.