https://scriptura.journals.ac.za/pub/issue/feed Scriptura: Journal for Biblical, Theological and Contextual Hermeneutics 2025-06-27T08:51:18+00:00 Prof Marius J Nel scholar@sun.ac.za Open Journal Systems <p>Scriptura is an independent journal which publishes contributions in the fields of Biblical, theological, and contextual hermeneutics, broadly understood. It is international in scope, but special attention is given to topics and issues emerging from or relevant to Southern Africa. Scriptura publishes contributions in English but also in other languages relevant to the Southern African region (such as Afrikaans, Xhosa, Sesotho, Zulu, French and German).</p> https://scriptura.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/2173 Reimagining Tithing in the Selected New Prophetic Churches in South Africa: a Social Scientific Approach 2025-04-22T18:22:06+00:00 Mookgo Solomon Kgatle kgatles@yahoo.com <p><em>The new prophetic churches in South Africa and elsewhere in the continent practice giving. There are many aspects to the concept of giving, such as tithing, seeding, offerings, and so forth. Members of the new prophetic churches are expected to give a tenth of their income as an obligation of their membership. In current practice, the clergy are the main beneficiaries of tithes in the selected new prophetic churches. This article reimagines the practice of tithing in these churches through social-scientific theory. The article argues that the proceeds of tithes should not only benefit the pastors but also the rest of the congregants, particularly those who are living in poverty and the marginalised. This is achieved by introducing the practice of tithing from a biblical and historical point of view. The article also outlines the practices of tithing in Pentecostalism and applies the same in new prophetic churches in South Africa. The aim of the article is to demonstrate that tithing has the potential to benefit society and deal with social ills such as poverty. </em></p> 2025-04-22T18:21:30+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 Scriptura: Journal for Biblical, Theological and Contextual Hermeneutics https://scriptura.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/2234 How do Religious Icons Read-and-Write? 2025-05-14T02:25:12+00:00 Christo Lombaard cjs.lombaard@up.ac.za Lisel Joubert liseljoubert@sun.ac.za <p><em>This contribution starts off with a broad understanding of icons and their communication, and the implications this has for religious discourse today. The focus then moves to icons within the Christian Orthodox traditions to indicate aspects of the interaction of text, image and presence. The final part returns to the implication of “seeing” icons </em><em>for</em><em> reading texts and hence for the possibility of again in our age encountering God in texts. Analysing the communicative dynamics of icons from the Reformed strand of Protestant Christianity, a tradition which exhibits a stronger inclination to biblical hermeneutics than to icons as operative faith impulses, combines these two interpretative traditions as a service to the unfolding post-secular intellectual and societal climate unfolding internationally.</em></p> 2025-05-14T02:25:12+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 Scriptura: Journal for Biblical, Theological and Contextual Hermeneutics https://scriptura.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/2172 Hope from a Linear Reading of Lamentations 2025-06-27T08:51:18+00:00 Golden Muriwo gmuriwo@yahoo.com <p><em>This article investigates whether a linear reading of the book of Lamentations is able to produce the same results as a concentric reading. A number of scholars have argued that a concentric reading of the book of Lamentations results in a chiastic structure that places Lamentations 3 at the centre. Th</em><em>e</em><em> central part is anchored on the words of hope uttered by the </em><em>גבר</em><em>. Besides the concentric reading of the text, one may opt for a linear reading of the text. It is observed in this article that if one opts for a linear reading, three of the five laments end with an imprecation. Two of the five laments end with a prayer. Such a conclusion of the laments shows a hopeful ending rather than a doubtful ending. It is therefore argued that the hopeful tone from a concentric reading can still be found from a linear reading of the text of Lamentations.</em></p> 2025-06-26T20:08:30+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 Scriptura: Journal for Biblical, Theological and Contextual Hermeneutics https://scriptura.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/2201 Trauma Theory and Theological Engagement: An Appraisal on Trends in Trauma Hermeneutics 2025-05-20T03:30:39+00:00 Hassan Musa musahass735@gmail.com <p><em>Studies on trauma theory and its significance to biblical hermeneutics are largely unknown in Africa, especially </em><em>in the</em><em> West African context. But due to recent sad events of conflicts and violence</em><em>,</em><em> trauma is now being explored for possible engagement in biblical and practical theological scholarship. This essay is an appraisal on the crucial problem of trauma studies in an African context, from theological and pastoral perspectives. </em><em>Certain</em><em> issues have been highlighted as the background that leads to trauma studies in the history of the modern world and even in modern African contexts. The contribution that this essay provides is mainly in terms of introducing its readers to the possible meaning(s) of trauma, the various trends and types of trauma</em><em>,</em><em> as well as some of the useful materials and theological perspectives on engaging trauma theory. Thus if this study further generates more concern and interest </em><em>in</em><em> engaging the African human condition of trauma from more rigorous/critical theological, psychological and pastoral perspectives, with the possible aim of overcoming it, toward a state of good healing and the restoration of human dignity, then the aim of this essay </em><em>will </em><em>have been achieved.</em></p> 2025-05-20T03:30:39+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 Scriptura: Journal for Biblical, Theological and Contextual Hermeneutics https://scriptura.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/2266 Biblical Hermeneutics as a Site of Struggle: South African Sites of Contestation in the Late 1980s and Early 1990s 2025-06-25T12:12:00+00:00 Gerald West west@ukzn.ac.za <p><em>‘Hermeneutics’, or th</em><em>e theory of the interpretation of texts, was a substantive component of much biblical scholarship in the 1980</em><em> and 19</em><em>90s. Many articles or essays would begin with a definition of ‘hermeneutics’. Few, however, would be explicit about their own ‘theory of the interpretation of texts’, preferring to define ‘hermeneutics’ and then continue as if their own theory of the interpretation of texts was self-evident. Significantly, South African Black Theology, particularly in its second</em> <em>phase (in the late 1980s), was explicit about </em><em>its </em><em>theory of the interpretation of text. Situating itself within this trajectory, the Ujamaa Centre for Community Development and Research has attempted to be explicit about its hermeneutics since its inception in the late 1980s. This article locates the hermeneutic trajectory of the Ujamaa Centre within the formative hermeneutic debates in the late 1980s and early 1990s, drawing on the work of South Africans like Welile Mazamisa (whose work I along with other colleagues celebrate; see 2025-HTS: Honouring Prof Welile Mazamisa: The Reader, the Text, and Two Horizons), Bernard Lategan, Gunther Wittenberg, Jonathan Draper, Itumeleng Mosala, Takatso Mofokeng, and others. The Ujamaa Centre was fortunate at the time, in the early 1990s, in having the inclusive space of Bernard Lategan’s yearly Consultation on Contextual Hermeneutics, facilitated by the Centre for Contextual Hermeneutics at Stellenbosch University, as well as the inclusive publication practice of the journal Scriptura, which published the work of this Consultation and related biblical hermeneutic work. This yearly workshop identified biblical (and theological) hermeneutics as its core focus. My article tracks these formative conversations, reflecting on how this yearly workshop and Scriptura provided the safe space to be overt about the Ujamaa Centre’s emerging theory of the interpretation of texts.</em></p> 2025-06-24T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 Scriptura: Journal for Biblical, Theological and Contextual Hermeneutics