Contemporary Social Concerns and Christian Scriptures: Hermeneutical Explorations

Webinar hosted by the Department of Christian Studies of the University of Madras

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Biblical interpretation has come a long way, passing through literal, allegorical, analogical, ecclesial, evangelical, contextual approaches, and so on. The modern era saw the blossoming of historical critical method in its various strands of ‘criticisms’, which explored the Bible with critical depth. The contemporary approach, however, has come to centre round the hermeneutical method that opens up an interpretative engagement with texts. What has come to significantly inform this method is a set of approaches which privilege the reader as the starting point and the reader’s response as a meaningful way of discovering the meaning of the Biblical texts. When it begins with the reader, it is the context of the reader which counts as the anchor of the meaning-making process. ‘How can the contemporary reader, represented by various contexts, especially the contexts of marginality, subalternity and oppression, can read and find the liberative meaning in the Bible?’ is therefore a significant question that arises from the hermeneutical opening.

This seminar poses the question in the present-day context and tries to bring about inspiring conversations on the subject.

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