Knut Holter and Louis C. Jonker et al. on Global Hermeneutics

Knut Holter and Louis C. Jonker (eds.), Global Hermeneutics? Reflections and Consequences, International Voices in Biblical Studies 1 (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2010), ix + 93pp, ISBN 9781589834774.

This is the first volume in a new series – International Voices in Biblical Studies – from the Society of Biblical Literature. The general editors of the series are Louis C. Jonker and Monica J. Melanchthon.

Interestingly, this is billed as an online, open-access series ‘aimed at facilitating the distribution and impact of works written in numerous regions of the world well beyond their respective spheres’. The series is ‘peer-reviewed and publishes monographs, anthologies, conference proceedings, and even individual articles’, with submissions being ‘particularly encouraged from seven regions: Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, Middle East–South Asia, Northeast Asia, Pacific, and Southeast Asia’.

So, this particular volume is available in its entirety as a pdf here.

The blurb:

‘Jewish and Christian communities all over the world engage in biblical interpretation. Why, then, is it so difficult for biblical scholars from different parts of the globe to understand one another? Within the global enterprise of biblical studies and interpretation there are different centers and margins. This essay volume explores the global context within which our interpretations and studies take place. Three case studies from completely different parts of the world illustrate how interpretation takes place in their respective contexts. Before the volume ends with an afterword in which the knots of the book’s arguments are tied, two scholars reflect on the consequences of global hermeneutics on biblical interpretation and translation respectively. This book – the first in a new online series started by the International Cooperation Initiative of the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) – hopes to stimulate and facilitate a global hermeneutic in which centers and margins fade.’

Two reviews of the collection of essays can be found here (by Susanne Scholz) and here (by Gerrie Snyman).