From Resource to Subject: A Critical Analysis of the African Context in Biblical Hermeneutics (1990s-Present)

Abstract

This article provides a comprehensive critical analytical evaluation of the pivotal epistemological shift in African biblical hermeneutics from using the African context as a resource for interpretation to treating it as the very subject of interpretation. Tracing the contours of this transition from the 1990s to the present, the article argues that this move constitutes a deliberate decolonial turn, aimed at asserting African intellectual agency and addressing the existential concerns of African communities in a post-colonial world. The analysis begins by contextualizing this shift within the broader, contested history of biblical interpretation. It highlights the philosophical and practical limitations of both Western historical-critical methods and the earlier African comparative approaches. The article then offers a detailed critical examination of the core methodologies and claims of the "subject" paradigm. This examination focuses on its postcolonial impulses, its engagement with concrete African realities (e.g., poverty, HIV/AIDS, corruption), and the specific, critical contributions of African women's hermeneutics. The article pays particular attention to the works of key scholars like Musa Dube, Madipoane Masenya, and Gerald West. It dissects their theoretical frameworks and practical applications. However, a central component of the analysis is a rigorous engagement with the significant philosophical, methodological, and practical challenges facing this approach. These challenges include the risks of cultural relativism, the problem of the hermeneutical circle, the ambiguous status of biblical authority, and the internal tensions within African scholarship itself. These tensions concern the homogenization of the "African context, particularly." The conclusion reflects on the future prospects of this hermeneutical trajectory. It considers its potential to foster truly authentic, transformative, and self-critical biblical scholarship for the African church and society. It also considers its implications for global theological discourse.