EARLY INDICATIONS OF THE BIBLE’S PLACE IN PUBLIC MORALITY: THE BATLHAPING, WILLIAM BURCHELL AND THE BIBLE
Abstract
William Burchell, the intrepid English explorer was one of the first travellers to bring a Bible among the Tlhaping people of southern Africa. Through a careful, close and cross-grained reading of Burchell’s account of his visit among the Tlhaping, I reflect on an emerging trajectory of the Bible’s place in public morality in South Africa. Though the focus of my paper is historical hermeneutics – attempting to analyse the foundational apprehensions that constitute what may be called a neo-indigenous biblical hermeneutic – the paper will also briefly explore the more modern territory of the Bible in contemporary “new” South African morality. In other words, the latter part of the paper will try to make sense of our present moment in which the Bible as a resource for public morality seems to be trapped between its neo-indigenous hermeneutical heritage and its neo-liberal future.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.
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