The Bible and the Third World
Precolonial, Colonial and Postcolonial Encounters

A comprehensive history of the Bible in the Third World.

R. S. Sugirtharajah (Author)

9780521773355, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 14 June 2001

318 pages
21.6 x 14 x 2.2 cm, 0.55 kg

'In this latest publication, R. S. Sugirtharajah, award winning author and editor, calls readers once again to a different set of voices, those from the margins. In this intriguing exploration of the role and use of the Bible in the Third World, Sugirtharajah moves deftly through the story of this history from precolonial to colonial to postcolonial times … In the world of academia so often filled with theoretical jargon, Sugirtharajah offers us a voice that must be heard. In a clear and engaging work bringing the voices of real people and real situations, he demonstrates that the relevance of postcolonial readings must be more than intellectual curiosity …'. Perspectives in Religious Studies

This innovative study moves briskly but comprehensively through three phases of the Third World's encounter with the Bible - precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial. It recounts the remarkable story of how an inaccessible and marginal book in the ancient churches of India, China and North Africa became an important tool in the hands of both coloniser and colonised; how it has been reclaimed in the postcolonial world; and how it is now being reread by various indigenes, Native Americans, dalits and women. Drawing on substantial exegetical examples, Sugirtharajah examines reading practices ranging from the vernacular to liberation and the newly-emerging postcolonial criticism. His study emphasises the often overlooked biblical reflections of people such as Equiano and Ramabai as well as better-known contemporaries like Gutiérrez and Tamez. Partly historical and partly hermeneutical, the volume will serve as an invaluable introduction to the Bible in the Third World for students and interested general readers.

Introduction
Part I. Precolonial Reception: 1. Before the empire
Part II. Colonial Embrace: 2. White men bearing gifts: diffusion of the Bible and scriptural imperialism
3. Reading back: resistance as a discursive practice
4. The colonialist as a contentious reader: Colenso and his hermeneutics
5. Textual pedlars: distributing salvation - colporteurs and their portable Bibles
Part III. Postcolonial Reclamations: 6. Desperately looking for the indigene: nativism and vernacular hermeneutics
7. Engaging liberation: texts as a vehicle of emancipation
8. Postcolonialising biblical interpretation
Afterword
Bibliography
Index of biblical references
Index of names and subjects.

Subject Areas: Bibles [HRCF]