In this essay, I discuss hermeneutical approaches to the debate on homosexuality in the African context. I argue that the hermeneutics of Rudolf Bultmann offers a way of understanding the debate. I start with a general discussion of the response to homosexuality in Africa and follow that with a narration of perspectives from church leaders in Africa and proceed to discuss the work of Bultmann and in the last section apply the hermeneutical insights to point a way forward.
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Paul Germond and Steve de Gruchy, Aliens in the Household of God: Homosexuality and Christian Faith in South Africa (Cape Town: David Philip, 1997).
PlusNews Service, 19 January, 2010.
Ephraim Kasozi, “African Bishops Unite to Denounce Homosexuality,” Sunday Monitor, 29 August 2010, n.p. [cited 12 February 2015]. Online: http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/998598/-/x4kdcm/-/index.html.
William L. Sachs, Homosexuality and the Crisis of Anglicanism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 1.
See Human Rights Watch, 2008.
Rodney Muhumuza, “Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni, Signs Controversial Anti-Gay Bill,” The Huffington Post, n.p. [cited 12 February 2015]. Online: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/24/ugandan-president-signs-anti-gay-bill_n_4845722.html.
Andrew Rice, “Enemy’s Enemy,” New Republic, 4 August 2004, n.p. [cited 12 February 2015]. Online: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/politics/enemys-enemy.
Laurenti Magesa, “The Challenge of African Women Defined Theology for the 21st Century,” in Challenges and Prospects of the Church in Africa: Theological Reflections of the 21st Century (eds. N.W. Ndung’u and P.N. Mwaura; Nairobi: Paulines Publications, 2005), 88–101.
The Most Rev. Peter J. Akinola, “Position of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) on the Bill for an Act to Prohibit Marriage Between Persons of Same Gender, Solemnization of Same and for Other Matters Relating Therewith,” 5. Cited 12 February 2013. Online: http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/CoNposition.pdf.
Rudolf Bultmann, “Liberal Theology and the Latest Theological Movement,” in Faith and Understanding 1 (Fortress Texts in Modern Theology; ed. Robert Funk; trans. Louise P. Smith; Minneapolis, Minn.: Augsburg Fortress, 1987), 28–52.
R.A. Johnson, The Origins of Demythologizing: Philosophy and Historiography in the Theology of Rudolf Bultmann (Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 1974), 34. I am indebted to Johnson for his insightful analysis which I have gained from in preparing this paper.
Rudolf Bultmann, “The Problem of Demythologizing,” in The Hermeneutics Reader: Texts of the German Tradition from the Enlightenment to the Present (ed. and intro. Kurt Mueller-Vollmer; New York, N.Y.: Continuum, 1989), 248.
Rudolf Bultmann, “Ethical and Mystical Orientation in Early Christianity,” in The Beginnings of Dialectical Theology (ed. J.M. Robinson; Richmond, Va.: John Knox Press, 1969[1920]), 221–235.
Marc Epprecht, “Sexuality, Africa, History,” The American Historical Review 114, no. 5 (December 2009): 1258–1272, esp. 1258–1259.
Gerald O. West, The Academy of the Poor: Towards a Dialogical Reading of the Bible (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999), 154–162.
Jeffrey John, Permanent, Faithful, Stable: Christian Same-Sex Partnerships (Affirming Catholicism; 2nd rev. ed.; London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 2000).
D. Sherwin Bailey, Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1955).
Michael Carden, Sodomy: A History of Christian Myth World (London: Equinox, 2004), 58–60.
Masiiwa Ragies Gunda, The Bible and Homosexuality in Zimbabwe: A Socio-Historical Analysis of the Political, Cultural and Christian Arguments in the Homosexual Public Debate with Special Reference to the Use of the Bible (Bamberg: University of Bamberg Press, 2010), 263.
Martii Nissinen, Homoeroticism in the Biblical World: A Historical Perspective (trans. Kirsi Stjerna; Minneapolis, Minn.: Augsburg Fortress, 1998), 46. See also Mark D. Jordan, The Invention of Sodomy in Christian Theology (Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, 1997).
Origen, “Origen Against Celsus,” in Ante-Nicene Fathers 4 (ed. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson; Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 2012), 518.
Andrew Mein, “Threat and Promise: Old Testament on Sexuality,” in An Acceptable Sacrifice?: Homosexuality and the Church (eds. Duncan Dormor and Jeremy Morris; London: SPCK, 2007), 22–32.
Peter Kasenene, Religious Ethics in Africa (Kampala: Fountain Publishers, 1998), 15.
Canaan S. Banana, “The Case for a New Bible,” in “Rewriting” the Bible: The Real Issues: Perspectives from Within Biblical and Religious Studies in Zimbabwe (eds. Isabel Mukonyora, J.I. Cox and E.J. Verstraelen; Gweru: Mambo Press, 1993), 18–19.
Donald J. Wold, Our of Order: Homosexuality in the Bible and the Ancient Near East (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 1998), 17.
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In this essay, I discuss hermeneutical approaches to the debate on homosexuality in the African context. I argue that the hermeneutics of Rudolf Bultmann offers a way of understanding the debate. I start with a general discussion of the response to homosexuality in Africa and follow that with a narration of perspectives from church leaders in Africa and proceed to discuss the work of Bultmann and in the last section apply the hermeneutical insights to point a way forward.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 998 | 111 | 13 |
Full Text Views | 242 | 4 | 1 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 92 | 5 | 3 |