PARADIGM CHANGES IN THE BIBLE SCIENCES AND THE TEACHING OF BIBLICAL STUDIES IN THE NEW SOUTH AFRICA
Abstract
In 1991 a paper was read by Professor Canaan Banana of Zimbabwe in which he called upon biblical scholars to rewrite the Bible in order to make it more relevant to the people of Africa of the twentieth century. He substantiated this call by arguing that the Bible could easily be used by some to oppress others when we ignore the fact that it is the product of humans. This article endeavours to support Banana’s call, indicating that since the Reformation three paradigm changes have occurred in the field of Biblical Studies. These changes led to a new understanding of how the Bible came into being and how it should be read and applied to our circumstances. There is no need to rewrite the Bible if cognisance is taken of these paradigm shifts. Biblical scholars should ensure that these shifts are reflected in the new curricula of Religious Education and Biblical studies in post-apartheid South Africa.Downloads
Authors retain copyright and grant the Journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this Journal.
This is an open access journal, and the authors and journal should be properly acknowledged, when works are cited.
Authors may use the publishers version for teaching purposes, in books, theses, dissertations, conferences and conference papers.
A copy of the authors’ publishers version may also be hosted on the following websites:
- Non-commercial personal webpage or blog.
- Institutional webpage.
- Authors Institutional Repository.
The following notice should accompany such a posting on the website: “This is an electronic version of an article published in Scriptura, Volume XXX, number XXX, pages XXX–XXX”, DOI. Authors should also supply a hyperlink to the original paper or indicate where the original paper (http://scriptura.journals.ac.za/pub) may be found.
Authors publishers version, affiliated with the Stellenbosch University will be automatically deposited in the University’s’ Institutional Repository SUNScholar.
Articles as a whole, may not be re-published with another journal.
The following license applies:
