DOES CONTEXTUAL EXEGESIS REQUIRE AN AFFIRMING BIBLE? LESSONS FROM ‘APARTHEID’ AND ‘AFRICA’ AS NARCISSISTIC HERMENEUTICAL KEYS

Abstract

It has become almost impossible to critique the concept of contextual exegesis of the Bible in Africa. Moreover, “relevance” in biblical interpretation is implicitly understood as the texts of the Bible affirming the current socio-political project(s) of a group with a current claim to power. Clearly, such hermeneutics are ideologically determined efforts at seeking legitimacy for these socio-political projects. Criticism of or alternatives to such efforts in biblical interpretation are regarded with severe suspicion. Building forth on previous studies, this paper analyses the ways in which, first, “apartheid” and now, “Africa”, have functioned as such narcissistic hermeneutical keys. The critical religious and socio-political functions of the biblical texts are thus lost in this “political carnival” (J Ellul).