This is part of the Postmodern sessions

1. Reading the Bible in
Postmodern Contexts and
Concepts
Joshva Raja
Session 6.

2. Reading list
 Richard Bauckham Bible and Mission: Christian Witness
in a Postmodern World.
 Cumbria: Paternoster Press. 2003. pp.83-110
 J Richard Middleton & Brian J W Trugh is
Stranger…pp.85-142.
 The Bible and Culture Collective (George Aichele et el)
The Postmodern Bible. Yale
 University Press. 1997.
 A K M Adam Postmodern Interpretation of the Bible: A
Reader Chalice Press, 2000.
 David Jobling, Tina Pippin, Ronald Schleifer (ed) The
Postmodern Bible Reader
 Oxford: Blackwell, 2001.

3. Interpreting the Bible from God’s
viewpoint
 Bible – The Word of God = Logos?
Bible
Logos

4. Historical Question
Bible
History
Reality

5. Structuralists
 Universal Meaning
Meaning
within the
Structure
Universal
Structure
and
meaning

6. Postmodern reading
Text
Meanings
with people
not with text
texts
texts

7. Bible and Mission
 Richard Bauckham (sub title - Christian
Witness in the Postmodern World)
 9/11 as clash between Global economic
liberalism and the Fundamentalism
 God is universal Religion is particular?
 Bible embodies a movement from
particular to Universal

8. Mission as Hermeneutics
 Particular to Universal a. temporal from
creation to eschatological –Mission is a
movement into a future b. spatial from
one place to another place – mission is a
movement into new horizons c. people
from person to person and from people to
people – mission is a movement to new
people. (Bauckham)

9. Examples
 Parable of the Seed – Mark 4:26-29 –
Growing from seed to harvest –
eschatological
 Parable of the Mustard seed – Mark 4:30-
33
 From one to Many – Abraham
 From Israel to all nations
 To all by the way of least

10. Theologies in the Bible!
 Adonai/Elohim a Universal God or God of
Israel De 4:35 You were shown these things so that
you might know that the Lord is God; besides him there
is no other.
 De 4:39 Acknowledge and take to heart this day that
the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth
below. There is no other.
 God diversifies and includes all? Isa
19:19Isa 19:25 The Lord Almighty will bless them,
saying, "Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my
handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.
 God is God of particular as well

11. Movements and Counter movements
in Bible
 Temple and Tent Movements
 Priesthood to Anti-priest movements
 Monarchy to Counter movements
 Jerusalem centred to Samaria and North

12. Sin in the Bible
 Centralisation
 Power orientation
 Self centred
 Materialism
 Homogenising
 Absolutizing
 Judging
 Not responding

13. Postmodern Spirituality
 Paul Heelas and Linda Woodhead, The
Spiritual revolution,
 ‘Life as’ Spirituality to ‘subjective-life’
spirituality
 Life as (wife, daughter, teacher and so on)
 Subjective life not lived for others’
expectations but to lived to satisfy one’s
own self’s needs, desires, relationships…

14. Antitotalizing Biblical Metanarrative
 J Richard Middleton and B J Walsh
 Biblical Narrative (p88ff) – Christian story
works against totalization!
 Two main cases are: 1. Radical sensitivity
to suffering that pervades the biblical
narrative from the exodus to the cross
2.God’s overarching creational intent that
delegitimates any narrow partisan use of
the story

15. Atitotalising Mission of Jesus
 Be Holy as I am holy (Lev 19:2)
 Be merciful as I am Merciful (Lk 6:36)
 Jesus says love your enemies (Mt 5:43-44)
 Jesus declared temple as a den of robbers
(Mt 11:17)
 Jesus movement as counter movement
culmination at the cross

16. Global Issues and Mission response
 Progress attitude – Ecological disaster – Mission
response is to develop an Ecological awareness
through a theological importance (Ecotheology
as Mission response?)
 Modernization, liberalzation and human
attainment elminate poverty – no mind to share
resources – a theology of liberation of the poor!
– Let my people go! - Making poverty as
History – A Mission response?

17. Global Issues and Mission 2
 Modernisation enable people to murder Female
foeticide through scanners – Abuse of Women are
prevalent in the Modernised society – Mission is to
provide space for women to raise their voices –
feminist theology helps?! As mission?
 Modernised people are to supposed to respect their
own and other’s human dignity but now more
distinctions, more discrimination, more exploitation in
the name of colour, race, caste and so on… rationally
justified at times – Black theologies and Dalit
theologies as expression of mission today

18. Global Issues and Mission 3
 Modernised religion is supposed to establish a
better understanding between religions but
brought clashes of civilisations and religions and
raised fundamentalists – Dialogue between
different cultural and religious communities as
mission
 Technology and Media are agents of
Modernisation and human development but they
help people to conduct war from rooms and kill
people’s lives as a cowboy game! – Prophetic
engagement with the use of media and
technology as mission

19. Global issues and Mission
 Neo-Liberalism has made life as a package and
product to be sold and purchased – Life has become
less than money – It has become the only sole
narrative of the world – Alternative communities and
Alternative world orders such as World Social forum
and their voices as mission?!
 Non-proactive Invovlement and ignorance of these
issues within the churches alienates them from doing
mission in the contemporary world – discussing non-
real issues as primary issues can distract our attention
to ignore threatening issues stated above