Doing biblical studies in poverty contexts: Some African experiences and concerns

This article discusses some aspects of doing critical biblical studies in poverty contexts. The church—and hence also many academic positions in biblical studies—is currently drifting southward, from predominantly Western, middle-class contexts into social contexts that more visibly reflect the global misdistribution of wealth. With examples from SubSaharan Africa, the article asks how biblical scholars in Sub-Saharan African contexts conceptualize a type of critical biblical studies that responds to the poverty challenges of their social and institutional contexts. After a brief introduction, the article is divided up in three parts. The first reflects on poverty in relation to two epochs in Africa’s experience with the Bible: colonial times, when colonial concepts of Africa were reflected in contemporary biblical studies, such as portraying Africans as slaves; and present postcolonial times, in which the newly established African guild of critical biblical studies faces various sorts of marginalization due to lack of funding. The second part analyses a few examples of how questions about poverty have been approached by African biblical scholars in the last two decades. The third part discusses two aspects of economy in relation to doing biblical studies in Sub-Saharan Africa today. One looks at the methodological and hermeneutic diversification of the field, more open to contextual experiences and concerns; the other deals with the growth of transnational solidarity, with a new focus on sharing research results and resources.