Majority World Voices
What is Majority World?
"More Christians now live in the Majority World than in Europe and North America. Yet most theological literature does not reflect the rising tide of Christian reflection coming from these regions. If we take seriously the Spirit's movement around the world, we must consider how the rich textures of Christianity in the Majority World can enliven, inform, and challenge all who are invested in the ongoing work of theology." - Majority World Theology, Introduction
Why Read Majority World Voices?
We should read Biblical / theological studies works from female scholars and from Latin American, African, and Asian perspectives to:
become familiar with important hermeneutical and theological issues and decisions arising from and for specific contexts and groups. The purpose is to gain an appreciation of the impact that dimensions of identity and context have on biblical interpretation—at personal, ecclesial, and broader levels.
develop constructive critical reading skills and openness to biblical interpretations from different points of view.
recognize the fundamental importance and means of articulating a set of theological commitments in various contexts.
"At Every Voice we believe that Christian theological education should reflect the rich diversity of the global body of Christ. Since we serve a Triune God who seeks to reconcile people to himself and to one another, we work to cultivate a spirit of kingdom diversity and reconciliation within our academic institutions and societies. And with the conviction that everyone has been created in God’s image and therefore has something to contribute to the conversation, we emphasize the value of listening to all voices, especially those that have often been marginalized in the largely Western-dominated academy."
Every Voice offers a database of biblical/theological works authored by majority world authors:
Start Here:
Whole Bible Commentaries:
Hermeneutics
Voices from the Margin: Interpreting the Bible in the Third World.
Scripture and Its Interpretation: A Global, Ecumenical Introduction to the Bible.
Theology
Practical Ministry
Recommendations for “Marginal Voices” by Dr. M. Daniel Carroll R.
Latin America
M. Daniel Carroll R., “Liberation Theology – Latin America,” in The Oxford Illustrated
History of the Bible, ed. J. Rogerson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 316–29, 378–79.
“Biblical Scholarship for the People? Considering lo popular in Central American Biblical Studies.” SBL Forum, Summer, 2004. http://www.sbl- site.org/Article.aspx?ArticleId=289
Justo González, Santa Biblia: The Bible Through Hispanic Eyes (Nashville: Abingdon, 1996), chs. 3 & 5 (77–90 & 103–13).
M. Daniel Carroll R., “Latino/Latina Biblical Interpretation.” In Scripture and its Interpretation: An Ecumenical, Global Introduction to the Bible, ed. M. Gorman (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2017), 311–23.
“Processing the Processes of Migration: Insights from Book of Daniel.” Apuntes, 41, no. 1 (2021). https://scholar.smu.edu/apuntes/vol41/iss1/6/
Christian Paz, “Another Problem for Latinx: Not many Latinos in the US use the term. Even fewer elected officials do,” The Atlantic (November, 2021) https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/11/latinx-future-progressive- congress-latino/620764/
Fernando F. Segovia, “Introduction: Approaching Latino/a Biblical Criticism: A Trajectory of Visions and Missions,” in Latino/a Biblical Hermeneutics: Problematics, Objectives, Strategies, ed. Francisco Lozada Jr. and Fernando F. Segovia, SBLSS (Atlanta: SBL Press, 2014), 1–39.
Gregory Lee Cuellar, Voices of Marginality: Exile and Return in Second Isaiah 40–55 and the Mexican Immigrant Experience. American University Studies VII/271 (New York: Peter Lang, 2008), ch. 3 (64–104).
Loida Martell-Otero, Zaida Maldonado Péreez, and Elizabeth Conde-Frazer, Latina Evangélicas: A Theological Survey from the Margins (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2013), chs. 1 & 5 (1–13 & 73–89).
Lisa Isherwood, “An Interview with Ada María Isasi-Díaz,” Feminist Theology 20, no.1 (2011): 8–17.
Jean Pierre Ruiz, “The Bible and Latino/a Theology,” in The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Latino/a Theology, ed. Orlando O. Espín (Chichester: Wiley, 2015), 111–27.
Leticia Guardiola-Saenz, “Mujerista Criticism,” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies, ed. Julia M. O’Brien (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014).
Africa
Bungishabaku Katho, “African Biblical Interpretation.” In Scripture and its Interpretation: An Ecumenical, Global Introduction to the Bible, ed. M. Gorman (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2017), 284–97.
Philip Jenkins, The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), chs. 1 & 2 (1–41). Additional readings for graduate students:
Knut Holter, “Being Like the Cushites: Some Western and African Interpretations of Amos 9:7.” In New Perspectives on Old Testament Prophecy and History: Essays in Honour of Hans M. Barstad, ed. R. I. Thelle, T. Stordalen, and M. E. J. Richardson, VTSup 168 (Leiden: Brill, 2015): 306–18.
Jeremy Punt, “Popularising a Prophet (Isaiah) in Parliament: The Bible in Post- Apartheid, South African Public Discourse,” Religion and Theology 14, nos. 3–4 (2007): 206–23.
Grant LeMarquand, “Bible, Crosses, Ong, Guns and Oil: Sudanese ‘Readings’ of the Bible in the Midst of Civil War,” Anglican and Episcopal History 75, no. 4 (2006): 553–79.
Temba Rugwhiji, “Towards the Quest for Transforming Old Testament Scholarship: The Impact of Political Socio-Political Crises on Scholarship in Zimbabwe,” Old Testament Essays 27, no. 3 (2014): 1009–34.
“The Inconceivable Start of African American Christianity” – Christianity Today (February 21, 2018).
Eddie Glaude, Exodus! Religion, Race, and Nation in Early Nineteenth-Century America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), ch. 1 (3–18).
Albert J. Rabateau, “African-Americans, the Exodus, and the American Israel.” In African American Christianity: Essays in History, ed. Paul E. Johnson (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1994), ch. 1 (1–17).
Esau McCaulley, Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2020), ch. 1. Additional reading for graduate students:
Rhondda Robinson Thomas, Claiming Exodus: A Cultural History of Afro-Atlantic Identity, 1774–1903 (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2013), ch. 4 (83–111).
Asian
Sun, “Recent Research on Asian and Asian American Hermeneutics Related to the Hebrew Bible,” CBR 17, no. 3 (2019): 238–65.
Hwang, “The Book of Jeremiah as Case Study in Asian Contextual Theology,” Asia Journal of Theology 35, no. 1 (2021): 21–37.
John M. Prior, “‘Failed Migrants Return’: A Transforming Word from the Book of Ruth.” In God’s People on the Move: Biblical and Global Perspectives on Migration and Mission, ed. vanThanh Nguyen and John M. Prior (Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2014), ch. 19 (132–43).
Bo Lim, “Theological Interpretation.” In T&T Clark Handbook of Asian and Asian American Biblical Hermeneutics, ed. Seung Ai Yang and Uriah Y. Kim, T&T Clark Handbooks (New York: T&T Clark, 2017), 141–59.
Lee, “The Authority of the Bible in the Multiscriptural Context of Korean Christianity.” In The Oxford Handbook of the Bible in Korea, ed. Won W. Lee, Oxford Handbooks (New York: Oxford University Press, 2022), 41–52.
Russell Jeung, “Evangelical and Mainline Teaching on Asian American Identity,” Semeia 90/91 (2002): 211–36.
Young Lee Hertig, “Subversive Banquets of Vashti and Esther.” In Mirrored Reflections: Reframing Biblical Characters, ed. Young Lee Hertig and Chloe Sun (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2010), 15–29. Additional reading for graduate students:
Timothy Tseng, “Second-Generation Chinese Evangelical Use of the Bible in Identity Discourse in North America,” Semeia 90/91 (2002): 251–67.
Female Voices
A. Ogden Bellis, “Introduction.” In A. Ogden Bellis, Helpmates, Harlots, and Heroes: Women’s Stories in the Hebrew Bible, 2nd. ed. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2007), 3–34.
Carol L. Meyers, “Reconsidering Ancient Israelite ‘Patriarchy,” AJS Perspectives (4/5/2022), 1–5. http://perspectives.ajsnet.org/patriarchy-issue/reconsidering-ancient-israelite-patriarchy/
Carol L. Meyers, “Was Ancient Israel a Patriarchal Society?”, JBL 133, no. 1 (2014): 8–27.
A. W. Benckhuysen, The Gospel According to Eve: A History of Women’s Interpretation (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2019), 7–22, 200–29.
Eunny Lee, “Women’s Doings in Ruth: A Feminist Biblical Theology of Providence.” In After Exegesis: Feminist Biblical Theology, ed. Patricia K. Tully and Jacqueline E. Lapsley (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2015), ch. 3 (31–43).
Heath Thomas, “Justice at the Crossroads: The Book of Lamentations and Feminist Discourse.” In Tamar’s Tears: Evangelical Engagements with Feminist Old Testament Hermeneutics, ed. Andrew Sloane (Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2012), ch. 9 (246–73).
J. Pokrifka, “Patriarchy, Biblical Authority, and the Grand Narrative of the Old Testament,” in Tamar’s Tears, ch. 10 (274–314). Additional reading for graduate students:
Jacqueline E. Lapsley on Judg. 19–21, “A Gentle Guide: Attending to the Narrator’s Perspective in Judges 19–21.” In Jacqueline E. Lapsley, Whispering the Word: Hearing Women’s Stories in the Old Testament (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2005), 35–67.