Bible and Postcolonialism – serie

Postcolonial studies have recently made significant inroads into biblical studies, giving rise to numerous conference papers, articles, essays and books. "Postcolonial Biblical Criticism" is the most in-depth and multifaceted introduction to this emerging field to date. It probes postcolonial biblical criticism from a number of different but interrelated angles in order to bring it into as sharp a focus as possible, so that its promise - and potential pitfalls - can be better appreciated. This volume carefully positions postcolonial biblical criticism in relation to other important political and theoretical currents in contemporary biblical studies: feminism; racial/ethnic studies; poststructuralism; and Marxism. Alternating between hermeneutical and exegetical reflection, the essays cumulatively isolate and evaluate the definitive features of postcolonial biblical criticism. Such a mapping of postcolonial biblical criticism as a whole has never before been undertaken in such explicit and detailed terms. The contributors include Roland Boer, Laura E. Donaldson, David Jobling, Tat-siong Benny Liew, Stephen D. Moore and Fernando F. Segovia.

Postcolonial studies has recently made significant inroads into biblical studies, giving rise to numerous conference papers, articles, essays and books. 'Postcolonial Biblical Criticism' is the most in-depth and multifaceted introduction to this emerging field to date. It probes postcolonial biblical criticism from a number of different but interrelated angles in order to bring it into as sharp a focus as possible, so that its promise - and potential pitfalls - can be better appreciated. This volume carefully positions postcolonial biblical criticism in relation to other important political and theoretical currents in contemporary biblical studies: feminism; racial/ethnic studies; poststructuralism; and Marxism. Alternating between hermeneutical and exegetical reflection, the essays cumulatively isolate and evaluate the definitive features of postcolonial biblical criticism. Such a mapping of postcolonial biblical criticism as a whole has never before been undertaken in such explicit and detailed terms. The contributors include Roland Boer, Laura E. Donaldson, David Jobling, Tat-siong Benny Liew, Stephen D. Moore and Fernando F. Segovia.

Since its emergence a few years ago, postcolonial biblical criticism has witnessed swift expansion and development in Biblical Studies.  This critical approach has been increasingly applied to biblical texts as well as modern and postmodern interpretations and interpreters of these texts, yielding an ever-growing body of dissertations, scholarly articles, and volumes.  In the process, this approach has become increasingly sophisticated as well in matters of method and theory.  This Postcolonial Commentary on the New Testament Writings represents a critical benchmark in postcolonial biblical criticism. Indeed, the Commentary stands as the most comprehensive application to date of postcolonial criticism to the biblical texts, with its focus on the entire corpus of the New Testament.  It places the reality and ramifications of imperial-colonial frameworks and relations at the centre of biblical criticism.  The various entries pursue their analysis across a broad range of concerns and through a number of different approaches.  They show, among other things, how texts and interpretations construct and/or relate to their respective imperial-colonial contexts; foreground literary, rhetorical, and ideological marks of coloniality and postcoloniality in both texts and interpretations; reveal how postcolonial reading strategies disrupt and destabilize hegemonic biblical criticism; and engage in critical dialogue with the visions and projects identified in texts as well as in interpretations.  Toward this end, the Commentary has recourse to a highly distinguished and diversified roster of scholars, making this a definite point of reference for years to come.

This book addresses a fundamental reality of our time: the great movement of people, for a variety of reasons, within and across countries and cultures. From this migration has emerged the 'diasporic intellectual': the state of dislocation and displacement has become a vantage point for reflection and interpretation. The same is true of theological studies in general and biblical criticism in particular. In this masterly treatment, Fernando Segovia focuses on the emerging transborder biblical interpreters from the Two-Thirds World now residing and working in the West, both in the United States and in Europe, and examines their multiple identities. He also explores how this state of 'in-betweenness' and homesickness affects, influences and informs biblical interpretation.

An exciting collection of essays connecting postcolonialism and the Gospel of John, written by a group of international scholars, both established and new, from Hispanic, African, Jewish, Chinese, Korean and African-American backgrounds. It explores important topics such as the appropriation of John in settler communities of the United States and Canada, and the use of John in the colonisation of Africa, Asia, Latin America and New Zealand.The interpreters represent communities of borderland dwellers, women in colonised settings, minority ethnic groups within colonised centres and others. In an era of rapid globalisation, increased travel, rising diasporic communities and neo-colonialism, it is crucial that biblical scholars find ways to address this world with critical skill and sensitivity. This book fills this need.

Postcolonial theory is one of the most challenging and, at the same time, contentious critical categories that have emerged in our time. Yet it offers great promise for opening up a whole new way of interpreting the Bible and interrogating colonial assumptions embedded in biblical interpretation. This engaging collection of essays explores the implications of postcolonial theory for biblical studies, and includes a number of textual reworkings. A truly international volume, it ranges from Sri Lanka to Botswana, Australia to the USA, and reflects postcolonial concerns from, for example, African-American, Hispanic-American, Feminist and Aboriginal perspectives. Besides the editor, contributors include Richard Horsley, Sharon Ringe, Randall Bailey, Kwok Pui-Lan, Fernando Segovia, Roland Boer, Musa Dube Shomanah and Bas Wielenga.