Text and Context: Vernacular Approaches to the Bible in Global Christianity is an eclectic collection of essays that stands self-consciously downstream from the work of R.S. Sugirtharajah. His writings prioritize the vernacular in order to dislodge “mainstream Western theories as dominant in biblical criticism and lift up voices that had long been lost” (1), but that older sense of vernacular (meaning “distinct to a region” or “local”) has been eroded by globalizing forces. So, while Melanie Baffes, the editor of the volume, holds onto the term “vernacular,” she is working with an altered definition.
Rather than delineating local as opposed to global, Baffes is using “vernacular” to mark out a non-geographical concern. Here, the term delineates what is learned from life situations and it is set against what is learned from academic investigation so that the dichotomy is not vernacular/global, but vernacular/academic. In her own terms, vernacular marks out “experience-primary” against “idea-primary” (2).
The shift is apparent in the first essay: “Defining a Pentecostal Hermeneutic for Africa.” In this piece, Marcus Nel argues that what is different about Pentecostal readings of Scripture is not how they are done but where they are situated in the life of the church. That is all well and good, but it would not traditionally be considered a vernacular insight. Readers attracted by the phrase “vernacular approaches” in the book’s subtitle will be puzzled finding that the only real appearance that “Africa” makes in the essay is in the title
In this book, vernacular (experience-primary) is tied to the broader category of context and academic (idea-primary) is tied to the category of text. But this is a somewhat cumbersome rubric because the terms which are grouped together on each side of the equation do not clearly measure the same factors. For example, academic and text both sit together but the first term delineates a way of reading and the second that which is read. Context can be approached academically just as much as text.
The goal of Text and Context is to explore what it means to read the Bible in ways that hold the (distinctly defined) vernacular and the academic together and thus give both text and context their proper due. Following Edward Said, Baffes suggests that the key is to read contrapuntally by allowing both sides of the hermeneutical equation to retain distinctive voices (2-3). The text and the context may say something different from one another and we need not resolve the differences.
The issues raised by such an approach find no uniform resolution in these essays. The chapter by Anna Kasafi Perkins, “Resisting Definitive Interpretation: Seeing the Story of the Exodus through Caribbean(ite) Eyes,” answers by submerging the text under the context. She suggests that the experiences of the readers ought to suppress the ideological agenda of the text (44-45). Her reading is adjudicated by the agenda of liberation and she argues that the text must itself be held “accountable to the world for its lack of innocence” (46). In one sense this is a highly pragmatic approach. Biblical texts are read because of pragmatic concerns (they are useful for informing the human struggle for liberation) and under the authority of pragmatic concerns (they are allowed shaping-agency in so far as they contribute to the human struggle for liberation).
A different current is discernable in Christopher D. Marshall’s essay “Offending, Restoration, and the Law-Abiding Community: Restorative Justice in the New Testament and in the New Zealand Experience.” He admits that the New Testament “does not prescribe a set of criminal-justice norms” (204) but nonetheless wants the Parable of the Prodigal Son to inform the criminal-justice system. The context (in this case, restorative-justice practices) contributes not by criticizing the text, but by casting new light on it, and the ideology of the text is now treated as agenda-setting for the context. The Christian community is called upon to live in accord with this parable “in all its offensive glory” (223).
The value of Text and Context lies in drawing these different approaches together so that they can be considered alongside one another. Although on the surface Marshall’s and Perkins’ approaches are distinct, it is too simplistic to suggest the difference between them is nothing more than whether text or context sits higher than the other. Is Marshall actually any less pragmatic than Perkins? What warrants Perkins’ decision to prioritize liberation or Marshall’s decision to use the parable to speak to modern mechanisms of justice? Tensions are evident but the collection is more about celebrating the “many-voiced” conversation of biblical interpretation than it is about settling issues (6).
Some of the essays in the collection are particularly strong. Peter Enns forges an innovative way to connect text and context. He argues that the hermeneutics of the New Testament apostles should be normative for the church, but that the extent of their application must be adjudicated by the ways their own context limits them. Murayama Yumi traces the development and thought of two Japanese theologians from the turn of the 20th century (Ebina Danjō and Uchimura Kanzō). The two came to very different positions on the imperial policies of Japan, and the article works to trace how differences in their contexts led to different readings of the same (biblical) text. Matt Tomlinson offers a fascinating exploration of how Genesis 1:26 has been entextualized in Fiji. Entextualization is the process whereby a discourse takes on a fixed form suitable for wide circulation in a society and thus involves the mutually transforming relations of text and context.
At times it is difficult to see how these chapters fit together in a single conversation. The issue of text and context that is raised by the title is too broad and the vernacularity of the subtitle is not well-defined enough to keep all these concerns together. A firmer hand and stronger voice from Baffes would have put together a more coherent and thus more satisfying volume.
Further, it may be that contrapuntal readings of the Bible leave too much hanging to be feasible in the life of the church. Where text and context resonate, we have a number of established strategies for listening to and applying them. Where they are dissonant, moving forward means choosing to prioritize one or the other. Baffes’ collection explores what these processes look like but does not provide much in the way of constructive material for advancing our understanding of these tricky negotiations.
Such concerns limit the value of this book, but I am grateful for the impetus it provides to think about these issues. I can see Text and Context being useful for classes or groups which want to think about broad issues of hermeneutics beyond introductory material. Those attracted by the words “vernacular” and “global” in the subtitle will likely be perplexed until they get their bearings.
Tyler Horton is a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge (Faculty of Divinity) and a theological educator with SIM (Serving in Mission) Canada.
Tyler Horton
Date Of Review:
June 30, 2022