The Bible and the Hermeneutics of Liberation

273 Pages·2009·2.12 MB·English

by  Alejandro F. Botta

The BiBle and The
hermeneuTics of liBeraTion
semeia studies
Gale a. Yee, General editor
Editorial Board:
Jione havea
Jennifer l. Koosed
Tat-siong Benny liew
Jeremy Punt
erin runions
Ken stone
caroline Vander stichele
elaine m. Wainwright
number 59
The BiBle and The
hermeneuTics of liBeraTion
The BiBle and The
hermeneuTics of liBeraTion
edited by
alejandro f. Botta and Pablo r. andiñach
society of Biblical literature
atlanta
The BiBle and The
hermeneuTics of liBeraTion
copyright © 2009 by the society of Biblical literature
all rights reserved. no part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by
means of any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permit-
ted by the 1976 copyright act or in writing from the publisher. requests for permission
should be addressed in writing to the rights and Permissions office, society of Biblical
literature, 825 houston mill road, atlanta, Ga 30329 usa.
library of congress cataloging-in-Publication data
The Bible and the hermeneutics of liberation / edited by alejandro f. Botta and Pablo r.
andiñach.
p. cm. — (society of Biblical literature semeia studies ; no. 59)
includes bibliographical references.
isBn 978-1-58983-241-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. liberation theology. 2. liberty—Biblical teaching. i. Botta, alejandro f., 1960– ii.
andiñach, Pablo r.
BT83.57.B53 2009
230'.0464—dc22 2009022438
17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the united states of america on acid-free, recycled paper
conforming to ansi/niso Z39.48-1992 (r1997) and iso 9706:1994
standards for paper permanence.
To the memory of our teacher and friend, José severino croatto

contents
acknowledgments .........................................................................................................ix
abbreviations .................................................................................................................xi
introduction: The Bible and the hermeneutics of liberation:
Worldwide Trends and Prospects
Pablo R. Andiñach and Alejandro F. Botta ...........................................................1
overviews
liberation hermeneutics after liberation in south africa
Gerald O. West .......................................................................................................13
“it should Be Burned and forgotten!” latin american liberation
hermeneutics through the eyes of another
Hans de Wit ...........................................................................................................39
liberation hermeneutics in old europe, especially Germany
Erhard Gerstenberger ............................................................................................61
Texts and contexts
releasing the story of esau from the Words of obadiah
Jione Havea ............................................................................................................87
how to hide an elephant on fifth avenue: universality of sin and
class sin in the hebrew scriptures
Alejandro F. Botta ..............................................................................................105
True fasting and unwilling hunger (isaiah 58)
Mercedes L. García Bachmann .........................................................................113
Talitha Cum hermeneutics of liberation: some african Women’s
Ways of reading the Bible
Musa W. Dube ....................................................................................................133
Paul against empire: Then and now
Theodore W. Jennings Jr. ....................................................................................147
viii conTenTs
The Kingdom of God is not like You Were made to Believe: reading
Parables in the context of Germany and Western europe
Luise Schottroff ...................................................................................................169
a Mujerista hermeneutics of Justice and human flourishing
Ada María Isasi-Díaz ........................................................................................181
responses
liberation hermeneutics and india’s dalits
Monica Jyotsna Melanchthon ............................................................................199
until everyone has a Place under the sun
Lai Ling Elizabeth Ngan ....................................................................................213
liberation hermeneutics: a Pastoral Journey
Mortimer Arias ...................................................................................................225
Bibliography ..............................................................................................................235
contributors ..............................................................................................................256
acknowledgments
several colleagues and institutions provided support, inspiration, and encour-
agement for this project. abraham smith (Perkins school of Theology, southern
methodist university) first suggested to us the topic for this volume and was
instrumental in its forthcoming. abe read the manuscript thoroughly and offered
many valuable suggestions that improved the book considerably. We are very
grateful for his continuous encouragement and support. The project began to
take shape during Pablo andiñach’s visiting professorship at Perkins school of
Theology, where alejandro Botta was teaching before he moved to Boston uni-
versity. We are thankful to isedeT for providing Pablo a sabbatical leave and to
dean William d. lawrence and marjorie Procter-smith (then associate dean for
academic affairs at Perkins) for welcoming Pablo at Perkins in such a graceful
way and for their continuous support and encouragement of alejandro’s work.
We also want to thank alejandro’s research assistant at Boston university school
of Theology, ms. rachel Vogelzang, for her help in the formatting and style cor-
rection of the manuscript and her enthusiasm with the project.
several libraries provided us the necessary resources for our research: we
want to express our thanks to the library of isedeT in Buenos aires, to Bridwell
library (Perkins school of Theology), to Boston university school of Theol-
ogy library, and to andover-harvard Theological library (harvard university
divinity school). We also want to express our gratitude to dean ray hart and his
successor at Boston university school of Theology, dean mary elizabeth moore,
for their continuous support of alejandro’s research.
We also want to thank the semeia studies board and Gale Yee (general
editor) for accepting this volume for the prestigious semeia studies series. our
thanks to all those who participated in this project; we hope that the liberating
words of the Bible continue to be challenging to them as well as to the readers of
this volume.
finally, we dedicate this volume to the memory of our teacher at isedeT,
José severino croatto, whose life commitments and engaged scholarship are still
an inspiration for us.
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