Reading Other-wise: Socially Engaged Biblical Scholars Reading with Their Local Communities

by Gerald O. West

How do ordinary Bible readers other than scholars collaborate with academics in interpretation that focuses on the various contexts and realities of their lives and local communities? Often neglected in the scholarly guild, these readers voices are heard throughout the essays in this volume, which explore interpretation at the intersection of faith communities and the academy from a variety of cross-cultural perspectives and locations, such as South Africa, India, Jamaica, Brazil, the United Kingdom, and the United States. This collection provides a rich array of resources and challenges, sharing insights that academics and nonacademics alike can offer to face the many struggles of our time.

178 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 2007

Reviews

[Louis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading Other-Wise is a fascinating read in the tradition of liberation theology. Two primary influences are evident. First, Gerald West's idea of the "ordinary reader" of the Bible. The ordinary reader is an untrained reader, someone who is not a Biblical scholar. He advocates for developing interpretive processes, such as interpretative communities, that include both Biblical scholars and ordinary readers. This bears great similarity to an approach advocated by the Campbells in the early church history of the Disciples of Christ in the United States. They believed the Bible should always be interpreted in community and that the community provided many of the corrections. I have always been drawn to this approach of interpretation. Adding the ordinary reader and de-emphasizing hierarchy includes an important development in such an approach. The scholar can learn from the ordinary reader what is hidden to them and the ordinary reader similarly can discover hidden meanings from the Biblical scholar. In many ways, this is also similar to ideas of Luther and other reformers.

Second, there was a strong influence of an African approach to liberation theology, which brings a different twist from the more familiar Latin America based liberation theology. In particular, this adds sensitivity to issues of slavery and power from a different angle.

One of the primary ideas rumbling in my mind throughout this was how a postmodern liberation theology actually bears great similarity to some of the approaches to Biblical interpretation of the early reformers. I am sure this comment would not be appreciated by some conservative Christians as well as some liberation theologians. And, of course, there are many important differences. Yet, both emphasized the ordinary reader (although I prefer the idea of the "intuitive reader" suggested by one contributor to the book) and pointed to the problems in traditional Biblical scholarship.