Biblical Hermeneutics

1.
INTRODUCTION:
Biblical Hermeneutics as we all know is the art and science of
interpretation. The interpretation of the text can differ from one person to
the others. And one can interpret the scripture according to his or her
context. Besides that there are various kinds of approaches coming up on
reading of the Bible. Meterialistic reading, Deconstruction reading,
Autobiographical reading, Feminist reading etc. are few of them which spring
up. Out of which socio-political reading is one of them. Therefore this paper
will discuss in brief about socio-political reading of the scripture.
2. MEANING OF SOCIO-POLITICAL READING:

Socio-political is the combination of social and political. We can
also say that it is the way of life in the society and the politics. And with the
combination of socio-political reading of the scripture we tend to mean the
way one read the scripture according to the context of the way of living in
the society. It means contextualizing the scripture in the context of the
society and community.
It is often suggested that 'political readings' of Scripture are a recent
invention, more especially of Marxist thought. Martin Luther's two-kingdom
doctrine, which taught that the Church and the state occupied two quite
different spheres of responsibility, and which was very much a response to
his own political situation, paved the way for the privatization of religion,
especially in pietism. Luther himself, however, did not hesitate to draw the
most brutal political consequences from Scripture. Where sixteenth- and
seventeenth-century Protestantism read the whole Bible as the word of God,
pietism focused on the New Testament, and the soul's relation to Jesus. The
political context of the Old Testament was thereby lost to view. By 1790, in
his Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke is telling us that
politics and the pulpit 'have little agreement', a foretaste of countless angry
protests when church leaders have criticized political policies. [1]
3. SAROJINI NADAR VIEW ON SOCIO-POLITICAL READING:

Sarojini Nadar is a senior lecturer at the school of Religion and
Theology, University of KwaZuluNatal (South Africa). She is also the Director
of the Gender and Religion programme. She teaches Hebrew Bible and
specializes in the area of Feminist hermeneutics. According to her view to be
a socially engaged biblical scholar, it needs certain challenges and
responsibilities. In examining the focus areas of the motivation of social
engagement, the method of social engagement and the subsequent
representation of social engagement, she tried to show the importance of
hermeneutic of transformation. She focuses her reading of socio-political on

the basis of the transformation of the community. She holds the view that the
primary aim of socio-political reading is not only to change the academy but
to change and transform the societies. The challenge which remains is to
ensure that our work involves not only patronage, charity or an uncritical
acceptance of the hidden transcript of resistance, but a genuine engagement
with the community for social transformation. [2]
4. SOCIO-POLITICAL APPROACH OF DAVID BLEICH:

David Bleich approaches his theory from different angle. His
developing and his work is characterized by socio-literary and socio-political
context of interests. Bleichs work focuses on Subjective reading and on
human subjectivity. In his book Subjective Criticism, he also share that
reading processes are processes in which readers re-symbolize and
contextualize the texts. He firmly emphasizes the creative role of
community interests, goals, and epistemological assumptions in shaping or
in determining how readers within a community read.[3]
In a recent doctoral dissertation Mark Labberton notices the
coherence of such a general reader- oriented approach with the theological
principle that reading biblical texts is an activity of the whole community
,including the ordinary reader; not an exclusively activity. Bible reading
embraces Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female. [4] Thus Bleichs
view is that one should read the scripture and try to contextualize the given
text in order that the text can be understood according to the context of the
society and community.
5. READING WITH THE DISPOSSESSED:

Liberation theologians and other scholars read scripture not to
interpret differently but to change it according to the need and according to
the context. The scripture should be read according to the context of the
people. If the text is always read in social contexts that are dominated by
certain interests, then the perspective of the poor may uniquely qualify them
to find a message that eludes the affluent. Mesters acknowledge that in
interpreting from below the emphasis is not placed on the texts meaning in
itself but rather on the meaning the text has for people reading it. The
primary text for Mesters is the communitys experience of life. It is precisely
this emphasis on the socio-political location of the reader that prompts
Thiselton to ask some hard questions of the hermeneutics of liberation.
[5]Thus the reading of the scripture should be varied and whether it is
socially or politically, it should go in accordance with the line of the context
reading. The scripture should be read from the angle of the society on how
the situation or context of the mass shows. It should bring development and
transformation for the community as a whole.
6. THREE LEVELS OF READING TO BE UNDERSTOOD:

Reading from the socio-political perspective has to be understood
in three levels along the lines of: author centered criticism, text centered
criticism and the reader centered criticism. We will see in detail and in brief
about the three perspective.
6.1.Author Centered Criticism: Author centered criticism seeks to examine
the original intention of the author, or seeks to bring out the world behind
the text. Author centered criticism approaches the text, analysing it in its
historical, cultural, geographical, religious, ideological and literary context.
This considers the text as a product of author/editors, and the author/editors
are the product of an age and so it pays attention to the above mentioned
aspects. Without this there will be a fallacy of the absolute text; the fallacy of
hypostasizing the text as an authorless entity. Author centered criticism is
used to established the social world of the authors/editors in order to
establish the worldview of the person behind the text. On the other hand if
the worldview of the author is contesting the dominant worldview, it means
that the author has placed him/her on the opposing spectrum of the society.
6.2. Text centered criticism: Text centered criticism studies the inner
composition of the text and focuses on the world within the text, using the
criteria of harmony and appropriateness to study the aesthetic value of the
text under consideration.
6.3. Reader centered criticism: Reader centered criticism stresses the
importance of the readers perception of the text, or the world in front of the
text- the world of the reader.
Thus all the components, the author, the text and the reader would
be placed in a socially, defined location called margin. The term margin is
to be understood socially, politically and economically and not necessarily
geographically. The location called margin will be defined by assessing the
worldview of the author present in the text. This makes the text a meeting
point of worldview of the reader and the author.[6]
CONCLUSION:
In the conclusion, the question which is placed before us is, how do we
address the struggles of the society who are compelled to be integrated into
the unifying identities of the dominant? This question is very important as we
are surrounded by a number of ethnic conflicts that have ravaged the
society, community in different parts of the world. Millions have lost their
lives and displaced all over the world because of ethnic conflicts. Therefore
the transformation of the community, society is really necessary. The point of
our work is not only to change the academy but to change our societies. The
challenge for us is our genuine engagement with the community for social
transformation.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Nadar,Sarojini. Hermeneutics of Transformation? A Critical Exploration of the Model
of Social
Engagement between Biblical Scholar and Faith Communities. Gurukul Journal of
Theological Studies 20/1 (January 2009).
Thiselton, Anthony C. New Horizons in Hermeneutics. Grand Rapids,Michigan:

Zondervan Publishing
House,1992.
Vanhoozer Kevin J. Is There a Meaning in This Text?. Grand Rapids, Michigan:

Zondervan, 1998.
Vijaysingh,Jesudian. Reading from the Margin: Contesting Dominant Hermeneutical

Methods.
Gurukul Journal of Theological Studies20/1 (January
2009).
WEBLIOGRAPHY
http://web.archive.org/web/20020212083724/http://churchinfocus.org/herme
neutics.html(5 July
2011).
[1] http://web.archive.org/web/20020212083724/http://churchinfocus.org/hermeneutics.html
(5 July 2011)
[2] Sarojini Nadar, Hermeneutics of Transformation? A Critical Exploration of the Model of

Social Engagement between Biblical Scholar and Faith Communities,Gurukul Journal of Theological
Studies 20/1 (January 2009): 50-61.
[3] Anthony C.Thiselton, New Horizons in Hermeneutics (Grand Rapids,Michigan: Zondervan
Publishing House,1992), 531.
[4] Ibid., 532.
[5] Kevin J.Vanhoozer,Is There a Meaning in This Text? (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan,
1998

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1.

2. MEANING OF SOCIO-POLITICAL READING:

3. SAROJINI NADAR VIEW ON SOCIO-POLITICAL READING:

hermeneutic of transformation. She focuses her reading of socio-political on

4. SOCIO-POLITICAL APPROACH OF DAVID BLEICH:

5. READING WITH THE DISPOSSESSED:

6. THREE LEVELS OF READING TO BE UNDERSTOOD:

Thiselton, Anthony C. New Horizons in Hermeneutics. Grand Rapids,Michigan:

Vanhoozer Kevin J. Is There a Meaning in This Text?. Grand Rapids, Michigan:

Vijaysingh,Jesudian. Reading from the Margin: Contesting Dominant Hermeneutical

[2] Sarojini Nadar, Hermeneutics of Transformation? A Critical Exploration of the Model of

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