The New Testament and Intercultural Exegesis in Africa*

Abstract

This study reviews the rise and development of intercultural exegesis in Africa, especially of the New Testament. Its origins are traced to 1996, when Justin S. Ukpong published an article introducing and applying the method of inculturation biblical hermeneutic to Lk. 16.1-13. In 1998, Jean-Bosco Matand used the same method to interpret Acts 15.1-35 and Gal. 2.11-14. In 2001 and 2003, this method was adopted by Antoine C.N. Cilumba and Chris U. Manus who called it intercultural exegesis or intercultural hermeneutics. The former applied it to Jn 2.23—3.36 while the latter extended it to many texts including Mk 1.40-45. Jean-Claude Loba-Mkole developed this method further in 2005, using the term intercultural biblical exegesis as well as intercultural biblical mediation to interpret Lk. 22.69 and Acts 7.56.

Intercultural Construction of the New Testament Canons

“…It is the combination of intercultural and construction perspectives that leads to the concept of intercultural construction, where the two perspectives together contribute to the process of building a renewed culture or a new interculture. Intercultural construction is also a meaning-construction strategy (Schnelle 2003) that is developed through dialogue among three frames of reference: original biblical cultures, church cultures, and contemporary target cultures (see Loba-Mkole 2010; 2011; 2013; 2014; see also Ukpong 1996 and Manus 2003, who did not explicitly include church cultures). An intercultural approach to canon will involve thinking about the nature and scope of canonical Scripture in each of these different cultural contexts, and bringing them into connection with each other, without any one being made subservient to another.…”