The Bible, Centres and Margins: Dialogues Between Postcolonial African and British Biblical Scholars

Description

There has rarely been an effort to address the missing dialogue between British and African scholars, including in regard to the role of British missionaries during the introduction ofthe Bible and Christianity to many parts of Africa. To break this silence, Musa W. Dube and Johanna Stiebert collect expressions from both emerging and established biblical scholars in the United Kingdom and (predominantly) southern African states. Divided into three sets of papers, these contributions range from the injustices of colonialism to postcolonial critical readings of texts, suppression and appropriation; each section complete with a responding essay. Questioning how well UK students understand Africancentred and generated approaches of biblical criticism, whether African scholars consider UK-centric criticism valid, and how accurately the western canon represents current UK based scholarship, these essays illustrate the trends and challenges faced in biblical studies in the two centres of study, and discusses how these questions are better answered with dialogue, rather than in isolation.

Johanna Stiebert is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at the University of Leeds, UK. Musa W. Dube is Professor of New Testament Studies at the University of Botswana, Botswana.

This collection of essays is a wonderful testimony of one-world biblical studies; the editors, both authorities in contextual biblical studies, present a high-level interchange between scholars from the global South and West about highly relevant topics of academy and life: power, gender and religion. This book is a true 'must-read' for scholars and students in contemporary biblical studies. * Joachim Kugler, University of Bamberg, Germany * Our globalised time has called forth this collection. [All those] who have contributed to this volume received their Bibles via European colonialism. But this is only part of the story, for what is clear from these essays is that the Bible is now, generations later, a thoroughly African and Asian book, albeit also a contentious post-colonial book. So while it is true that there is some 'talking back' to empire, there is as much talking among ourselves. We have been joined by collaborative European dialogue partners and our intersecting conversations make it clear that we are all working in a globalised world, where imperial understandings of "centre" and "margin" are being deconstructed and reimagined. * Gerald West, University of Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa * This is an important and stimulating book that raises important questions about the privileging of white Western modes of thought in Biblical Studies. Its accessible style makes it suitable for undergraduate and seminary courses on biblical interpretation and the content will provoke discussion and debate. * Journal for the Study of the Old Testament *