New Testament Studies in Contextual Exegesis. Neutestamentliche Studien zur kontextuellen Exegese – serie

This book demonstrates that the encounter between Christianity and various African cultures gives rise to a number of problems for Africans who become Christians. It draws attention to certain traditional African beliefs and practices that seem to be incompatible with Christianity and create problems for Africans who embrace Christianity. Against this background it argues for the need to inculturate Christianity. It contends that in this exercise African Christianity can learn from the attempts at inculturation found in the New Testament times and in the early church. It offers examples of how the early church sought to make use of non-Christian categories of thought and elements in its articulation of the Christian message and in worship. It suggests a few areas of Ghanaian and African life where inculturation could and should take place. These include funeral rites, widowhood rites, child-naming rites, the rites of marriage, libation and christology. It concludes by offering some guidelines for use in the process of the inculturation of Christianity in Africa today.

This study sets out to interpret the Marcan Temple incident (Mark 11,15-19) as a distancing device, by which the Marcan faction differentiates itself from other Jews, especially the anti-Roman revolutionaries who had turned the temple in Jerusalem into ‘a den of bandits’ during the Jewish revolt between 66 and 74 CE. It concentrates on the interactions between the Marcan faction and other Jewish factions in the context of its Jewish symbolic universe. The study concludes that the Marcan faction is ‘Jewish but differently’.

In this study, the First Farewell Discourse of Jesus (Jn 14) is read in the light of the Old Testament and Early Judaism. At the beginning of the chapter, influence of Psalm 42/43 can be shown. In the central part of the chapter, the subjects of loving God / Jesus and keeping the commandments seem to go back to Deuteronomic covenant theology. In the final part, prophetic announcements of eschatological salvation are echoed. Thus, Jn 14 makes use of the three parts of the Hebrew Bible: the Law, the Prophets and the Writings. This is important for Jewish-Christian dialogue. The English edition of this book is based on the German original of 1984. In a Postscript the contributions on the chapter since the first publication are reviewed, and an additional bibliography has been added.

Lk 22:35-38 is peculiar because it is never proclaimed except on Palm Sunday in the Year C. Although it is a pragmatic instruction on mission, it puzzles us like the Apostles in the Upper Room. The Lord shortly before his arrest, asserting the importance of the teaching, mandates preparedness for mission in the post-resurrectional period of the Church. The shepherd must be prepared to defend the sheep under his/her care, even to the extent of being called «lawless» according to world standards. Lk 22:35-38 thus in no way contradicts the prior mission training sendings, rather endows the missionary with greater strategic responsibility and commitment in pastoral care. The book highlights the contextual, hermeneutical, and theological dimensions in the final teaching of Jesus in the Lukan narration.

Eph 3:10 (Principalities and Authorities in the Heavenly Places) articulates the related cluster of terms that express the «Pauline» spirit world in Ephesians’. Through a psychological-hermeneutical study, this book contributes to provide a theologically-founded response to the immense challenges the spirit world apprehensions among the Igbo (Africans), pose to true discipleship in these settings. Identifying the strongly influential role played here by the Igbo traditional religion/world view(s) and the foundation of these biblical terms in the attempts at Weltbewältigung, the book highlights how proper appreciation of the Christological paraenetics of Eph enhances critical consciousness and cognitive reconstruction towards mature faith and societal betterment.

This book investigates the «acceptance motif» by reading Romans 15:7–13 as directed to a specific situation. Having situated Romans 15:7–13 within its historical setting, the study also locates Romans 15:7–13 within the argument of the entire epistle. The author then examines the syntax and the semantics of Romans 15:7–9a and interprets it within the Christological setting, in an attempt to establish the acceptance motif. The book also shows that Paul further appeals to the Jewish Scriptures in 15:9b–12 and demonstrates that the Scripture bears witness to the relationship between the Jews and the Gentiles. Such modus operandi allows a picture of Paul’s concept of acceptance in its distinctiveness.

The Johannine symbol of the good shepherd (Jn 10:1-18) is employed by the fourth evangelist from the Jewish cultural context, to communicate the Divine message of the redemption of humanity by Jesus Christ, who is the Symbol, the Son and the Revealer of the Johannine Father. This symbol is discussed here from the hermeneutical perspective in the context of Igbo in Nigeria, with particular reference to «Ofo», an Igbo ritual symbol. The symbol of the good shepherd depicts different meanings, depending on the exegetical approach of the interpreter, and among them is the depth of love which the Johannine Father has for the humanity. The «Ofo» similarly, symbolizes diverse values among which are, the virtue of truth, innocence, justice, power, emblem of unity, staff of authority and indestructibility of the individual or the group. Using the literary analysis of exegesis, the method of the intercultural hermeneutics, employed in the African method of biblical analysis, is applied in the discourse. With this method therefore, the findings from the analysis of the «Ofo» ritual symbol are used to read the results from the exegetical analysis of the symbol of the good shepherd because they have interface at the symbolic level. This feature enables the reader to grasp the message of the shepherd discourse of Jn 10:1-18.

This book traces the roots of the Christian belief in resurrection and the afterlife as presented by Paul in First Thessalonians.The Ghanaian author adopted mainly the approach of History of Religion (Religionsgeschichte) to his study of the Pauline exhortations on the fate of the dead and the living at the Lord’s parousia in First Thessalonians. He is of the view that neither the African Traditional Religion nor ancient Greek philosophy and mythology can give the background information on the Pauline exhortations in question but Paul’s origin as a Jewish Pharisee who believed in the resurrection of the dead and valued this belief he inherited from Judaism.The publication can help believers in Christ see death as an event which paves the way for them to begin a new life with God, their creator.