Activist Hermeneutics of Liberation and the Bible: A Global Intersectional Perspective PDF
Preview Activist Hermeneutics of Liberation and the Bible: A Global Intersectional Perspective
Activist Hermeneutics of Liberation and the Bible Inspired by the current political moment around the globe in which upris- ings, protests, revolutions, and movements are on the rise, this book examines the intersections between the Bible and activism. It does this by showcasing intersectional readings of the Bible as an activist act and a tool for activism; historicizing the uses of the Bible within activist/freedom movements around the globe; and offering activist approaches to teaching the Bible. Each chapter in this volume provides a critical and substantive response from the discipline of Biblical Studies to global political trends. International in scope, with contributors from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, Latin America, Oceania, South Africa, and the United States, they address themes such as gender politics, racial injustices, violence toward women, political resistance, and activist hermeneutics and pedagogies. Together they harness the intellectual energies of minoritized Biblical schol- ars in a nonessentialist manner to reflect on the Bible as a tool for liberating social and political change. Reflecting on the activist potential of the Bible, this book will be of keen interest to scholars in Biblical Studies, Political Theology, and Religious Studies. Jin Young Choi is a professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, USA. Gregory L. Cuéllar is an associate professor of Old Testament at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, USA. Routledge New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology and Biblical Studies The Routledge New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology and Bibli- cal Studies series brings high quality research monograph publishing back into focus for authors, international libraries, and student, academic and research readers. This open-ended monograph series presents cutting-edge research from both established and new authors in the field. With specialist focus yet clear contextual presentation of contemporary research, books in the series take research into important new directions and open the field to new critical debate within the discipline, in areas of related study, and in key areas for contemporary society. African Churches Ministering ‘to and with’ Persons with Disabilities Perspectives from Zimbabwe Nomatter Sande The Fathers on the Bible Edited by Nicu Dumitraşcu The Theological Imperative to Authenticity Christy M. Capper The Political Theology of Pope Francis Understanding the Latin American Pope Ole Jakob Løland Transhumanism, Ethics and the Therapeutic Revolution Agents of Change Stephen Goundrey-Smith For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge. com/religion/series/RCRITREL Activist Hermeneutics of Liberation and the Bible A Global Intersectional Perspective Edited by Jin Young Choi and Gregory L. Cuéllar First published 2023 by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Jin Young Choi and Gregory L. Cuéllar; individual chapters, the contributors The right of Jin Young Choi and Gregory L. Cuéllar to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 9780367544966 (hbk) ISBN: 9780367616335 (pbk) ISBN: 9781003090274 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003090274 Typeset in Sabon by codeMantra Contents List of contributors vii Acknowledgments ix Activist Hermeneutics of Liberation and the Bible 1 JIN YOUNG CHOI AND GREGORY L. CUÉLLAR PART I The Bible and Activist Movements 23 1 My Light Is Darkness: Reading (the Bible) with Baldwin for #BLM 25 ADAM F. BRAUN 2 The Colonies Strike Back: How Latin-American Liberation Theology Saved Christianity in Post- Dictatorial Spain 41 LUIS MENÉNDEZ-ANTUÑA 3 Intersectionality in Biblical Studies: A Tool Toward Social Justice Activism? 60 MÓNICA ISABEL REY 4 Social Movements in Hong Kong and the Bible 83 SONIA KWOK WONG vi Contents PART II Empowering Activists with the Bible 107 5 Qohelet and Jaiba Politics: Ecclesiastes and Activist Resistance from a Puerto Rican Perspective 109 LYDIA HERNÁNDEZ-MARCIAL 6 Name of the Nameless: An Intercultural Reading of the Significance of Naming the Children in Hosea 1:2–9 123 ROYCE M. VICTOR PART III Activist Teachers of the Bible 139 7 “I Am No Longer a Professor”: A Pedagogy of Living Word Becoming Flesh 141 MELANIE A. DUGUID-MAY 8 Stuff the Bible: Psalm 137 154 JIONE HAVEA 9 #MeToo #BibleToo: Teaching Ethics of Sex with the Bible for Justice 165 KEUN-JOO CHRISTINE PAE 10 Epilogue: The Embodied Cost of Knowledge Activism 183 SAROJINI NADAR Index 191 Contributors Adam F. Braun is a lecturer in New Testament and Theology at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, USA. Jin Young Choi is a professor of New Testament and Christian Origins and the Baptist Missionary Training School Professorial Chair in Biblical Studies at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, USA. Gregory L. Cuéllar is an associate professor of Old Testament at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, USA. Melanie A. Duguid-May is a professor of Theology at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, USA. Jione Havea is a research fellow in Religious Studies at Trinity Methodist Theological College, Aotearoa New Zealand, and at Center for Christi- anity and Culture, Chares Sturt University, Australia. Lydia Hernández-Marcial is an assistant professor of Old Testament and Biblical Hebrew at Seminario Evangélico de Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico. LuisMenéndez-Antuña is an assistant professor of New Testament at Boston University School of Theology, USA. Sarojini Nadar holds the Desmond Tutu South African Research Chair in Religion and Social Justice at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. Keun-joo Christine Pae is an associate professor and Chair of Religion at Denison University, USA. Mónica Isabel Rey is a PhD candidate at Boston University, USA. Royce M. Victor is the bishop of the Diocese of Malabar of the Church of South India, India. Sonia Kwok Wong is an assistant professor at the Divinity School of Chung Chi College of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Acknowledgments This book project was initiated in 2017 when we, as minoritized biblical scholars, felt compelled to respond to a US political climate in which the pervasive mode of interpretation inspired racial hatred and polarized com- munities. Some of the labor in the earlier stages of this project was done within our base interpretive community, the Minoritized Criticism and Bib- lical Interpretation (MCBI) program unit of the Society of Biblical Litera- ture. Since the beginning, our intentions for this project have been to retool and even recalibrate the biblical interpretive enterprise with a social activ- ist impulse. As the editors and co-chairs of the MCBI steering committee, we are grateful to our colleagues (and co-conspirators) Margaret Aymer, Jacqueline M. Hidalgo, Uriah Y. Kim, and Eric A. Thomas. Very special thanks and acknowledgment to our former co-chairs, Fernando F. Segovia and Tat-siong Benny Liew. Their scholarly legacy, generous support, and continued friendship have been a source of inspiration. We also want to offer special thanks to Abraham Smith and Paul Myhre for their valuable feedback on early drafts of some chapters. Many people have helped us realize this collection of essays, and we are grateful for all of them. We started with 20 contributors from Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Oceania, Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, and the United States. But as racialized minority communities were dispropor- tionately impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, almost half of them faced such unprecedented hardships that they had to withdraw from the project. We especially commemorate the life and dedication of Alease A. Brown at the University of the Western Cape, who was enthusiastic about her writing on South Africa’s history of radical resistance, and who passed away at the peak of the pandemic. We sincerely appreciate our present contributors not just for their exhilarating scholarship but, more importantly, for how their scholarly writing constitutes an activist practice. For all of us tied to this project, activism is, indeed, engaging in healing work. Much of what this book is about stems from the activist witness of several liberationist social movements in general and Black Lives Matter in par- ticular. We appreciate their role in shaping what this book has become. The systemic oppression and racism that the global pandemic made glaringly
The list of books you might like
