Since the rise of African Biblical Hermeneutics, several different approaches have been developed in order to contextualize the Word within the African continent. However, excessive emphasis on context and culture runs the risk of generating a pseudo-biblical theology, not concretely founded on the Scriptures. Using Gen 4:1-16 as a study case, the article explores a dialogic approach to interpretation, respectful of both the biblical text and the receiving culture. Text and culture are placed “face to face” so that from their dialogue a call to action may arise addressed to the community of believers living in Ghana. After proposing an exegetical analysis of the text, the call to action in the text is brought into dialogue with a specific culture of Ghana (the Akan). With the help of traditional proverbs, the article analyses the assumptions with which the Akan culture encounters the text and the challenges that the text poses to the culture.
In the encyclical letter Laudato Sì, Pope Francis proposed an integral ecology, able to listen to the cry of the poor and the cry of the earth. This intuition is present in the ancient prophetic books of Israel where “the earth mourns” (Isa. 24:4) for the social injustice, for human inability to build a fraternal relationship. The article explores how the ecological reading of prophetic texts can become educational tools to guide Christian communities living in the Ghanaian context towards an ‘ecological conversion.’
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