Reading the Bible in the Context of Christianity Worldwide

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingBook chapter Academic

Abstract

The worldwide Christian community constitutes the appropriate horizon for the last chapter written by Benno van den Toren. Since the second half of the twentieth century, the “centre of gravity” of the church is increasingly moving southward. The majority of the world’s Christians no longer live in the Middle East, Europe, or North America but in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. This change has raised the awareness that the Bible is not a book that belongs to the West. It can be and is read from many cultural perspectives. The chapter explores how from the very beginning the Christian Bible has been translated in different languages as it successively crossed ever new cultural boundaries. This translation is itself an example of how Scripture is read in multiple cultures and can be used as a model for cross- cultural hermeneutics. After introducing the hermeneutical implications of the process of cross- cultural translation, the chapter outlines some of the main approaches to Bible reading that have been developed in the context of the globalization and southward movement of the church since the latter half of the twentieth century such as inculturation hermeneutics, liberation hermeneutics, postcolonial hermeneutics, and Pentecostal hermeneutics. These reflect the need to take into account the role of culture, religious plurality, social tensions, global power relations, and personal spiritual involvement for understanding how people groups read the Christian Scriptures. The author argues for the need for an intercultural reading of the Scriptures in which different contextual readings can critically enrich each other. Thus modern Western readings are challenged to reflect in new ways on the question whether some readings are more able to do justice to the nature and content of the Christian Scriptures than others.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Bible Throughout the Ages: Its Nature, Interpretation and Relevance for Today
EditorsLydia Jaeger, Craig G Bartholomew
Place of PublicationGrand Rapids, Michigan
PublisherZondervan Academic
Pages296-314
Number of pages19
ISBN (Electronic)9780310139249
ISBN (Print)978-0310139232
Publication statusPublished - 2024

Publication series

NameThe Scripture Collective
PublisherZondervan Academic

Cite this