New testament interpretation and African culture: selections from 1 Corinthians as a test case

[摘要] English: New Testament interpretation and African culture is a study in hermeneutics. The study wasdesigned to determine the effect on Biblical interpretation where culture - in both the world ofthe reader and the world of the text - is taken seriously. The quest further sought to determinewhether a reading from the perspective of the African culture does not allow greaterunderstanding of the text than from dominant readings from Western perspectives. In order toachieve these objectives, the perspectives would be applied by interpreting selections from theFirst Letter to the Corinthians.This study is necessary because culture has always received a low profile in Biblicalinterpretation because of the misconceptions that view African culture as against the Christianfaith. Chapter 1 has also given a working definition of the category culture.It has been indicated that the category 'culture' in its complexity belongs to the core of humanexistence. People are a product of culture and as such culture was operative in the Biblicalauthors; it is operative in the text as a product of communication and it is eventually operative inthe reader and her/his audience. All communication occurs within the framework of culture.Anyone who reads a Biblical text does so from a particular cultural perspective in which she orhe stands. Both Paul and the Christians in 1 Corinthians are products of the Jewish and Greco-Roman culture. Chapter 2 is a survey of the category culture in New Testament interpretation. This has led to aproposition that throughout the hermeneutical shifts and dynamic history of interpretation cultureplays a very cardinal role and it is actually a premise of interpretation .. This has been tested in chapter 3 where the presence of culture in Paul, his congregations andletters has been tested, detected and affirmed. The entire study and interpretation of Paulinewritings is cultural friendly and utilises culture as a vehicle of communication.In chapter 4, African perspectives on 1 Corinthians are surveyed by testing selected tenets onsome of the pericopes of the text of 1 Corinthians. This important section finally leads to the study conclusion in chapter 5. In this final section a number of propositions are suggested whichslant towards the following:The hermeneut only labours in vain unless she or he strives to get acquainted with the culture ina given Biblical text. Equally, the culture of the hermeneut should be realised and controlled sothat it does not dominate hermeneutics otherwise hermeneutics becomes reduced to a meremental game with no concrete results and impact.African culture both enhances and hinders interpretation of a given pericope depending on thenature of that pericope. In conclusion, on the one hand, serious consideration of both the worlds/cultures in the text andin the hermeneut, and the conscious rightful positioning of culture can contribute to a betterunderstanding of the biblical text - specifically the First Letter to the Corinthians and can lead toa vibrant and realistic spirituality that can revitalise the Church of modern times. On the otherhand, however, culture can hinder interpretation and wherever it does, culture must itself beconverted. In other words, New Testament interpretation is a process where both inculturationand de-culturation become cardinal components of the hermeneutical process and our reading ofthe selected pericopes from 1 Corinthians validates this proposition.

[发布机构] University of the Free State