Susan Smith,
School of Theology, University of
Auckland, New Zealand.
Email:
se.smith@auckland.ac.nz
Abstract
The Interface between the Biblical Text, Missiology, Postcolonialism and Diasporism
In the latter decades of the 20th
century, missionary practice shifted from an emphasis on “saving souls” to an
emphasis on the liberation and development of peoples. The emergence of
liberationist reading strategies in the early 1970s with their aim of freeing
people from economic exploitation was perhaps the most significant factor
underpinning this shift. Today, postcolonialism and diasporism are poised to
influence further missiological developments which build on those seismic shifts
associated with liberationist reading strategies. These are concerned primarily
with identifying, understanding and assessing the effect of international
capitalism’s economic exploitation of peoples, while post-colonial methodologies
focus of all aspects of domination – colonial, cultural, religious, and
economic.
Post colonial criticism seeks to liberate the hermeneutical task from the
effects of Euro-centric and Euro-American cultural and religious imperialism. A
hermeneutics of diaspora identifies displacement as a privileged place of
interpretation. The influence of a postcolonial hermeneutic and a diasporic
hermeneutic means that more than ever missiology becomes an ethical task that
seeks to subvert political, economic, cultural and religious systems that seek
to rule from the centre. When post-colonial and diasporic categories are applied
to missiology, then context becomes the entry-point in articulating a vision for
the future. Both interpretative processes invite them to understand how Jesus
in his ministry critiqued by word and action the hegemonic political and
religious institutions of 1st century Palestine.