New testament interpretation and African culture: selections from 1 Corinthians as a test case

English: "New Testament interpretation and African culture" is a study in hermeneutics. The study was designed to determine the effect on Biblical interpretation where culture - in both the world of the reader and the world of the text - is taken seriously. The quest further sought to determine whether a reading from the perspective of the African culture does not allow greater understanding of the text than from dominant readings from Western perspectives. In order to achieve these objectives, the perspectives would be applied by interpreting selections from the First Letter to the Corinthians. This study is necessary because culture has always received a low profile in Biblical interpretation because of the misconceptions that view African culture as against the Christian faith. Chapter 1 has also given a working definition of the category culture. It has been indicated that the category 'culture' in its complexity belongs to the core of human existence. People are a product of culture and as such culture was operative in the Biblical authors; it is operative in the text as a product of communication and it is eventually operative in the reader and her/his audience. All communication occurs within the framework of culture. Anyone who reads a Biblical text does so from a particular cultural perspective in which she or he stands. Both Paul and the Christians in 1 Corinthians are products of the Jewish and Greco- Roman culture. Chapter 2 is a survey of the category "culture" in New Testament interpretation. This has led to a proposition that throughout the hermeneutical shifts and dynamic history of interpretation culture plays a very cardinal role and it is actually a premise of interpretation . . This has been tested in chapter 3 where the presence of culture in Paul, his congregations and letters has been tested, detected and affirmed. The entire study and interpretation of Pauline writings is cultural friendly and utilises culture as a vehicle of communication. In chapter 4, African perspectives on 1 Corinthians are surveyed by testing selected tenets on some of the pericopes of the text of 1 Corinthians. This important section finally leads to the study conclusion in chapter 5. In this final section a number of propositions are suggested which slant towards the following: The hermeneut only labours in vain unless she or he strives to get acquainted with the culture in a given Biblical text. Equally, the culture of the hermeneut should be realised and controlled so that it does not dominate hermeneutics otherwise hermeneutics becomes reduced to a mere mental game with no concrete results and impact. African culture both enhances and hinders interpretation of a given pericope depending on the nature of that pericope. In conclusion, on the one hand, serious consideration of both the worlds/cultures in the text and in the hermeneut, and the conscious rightful positioning of culture can contribute to a better understanding of the biblical text - specifically the First Letter to the Corinthians and can lead to a vibrant and realistic spirituality that can revitalise the Church of modern times. On the other hand, however, culture can hinder interpretation and wherever it does, culture must itself be converted. In other words, New Testament interpretation is a process where both inculturation and de-culturation become cardinal components of the hermeneutical process and our reading of the selected pericopes from 1 Corinthians validates this proposition.