Church, Culture and Hermeneutics I - Identity and Belonging (DP0161W)

Content

This unit has been designed for the TransFormation Program.

This unit explores the role of culture as a hermeneutical (interpretive) tool that shapes ways of being the church. Students will be equipped with skills in reading and understanding culture, as well as develop basic skills in biblical hermeneutics. Students will engage with a variety of speakers and readings to observe how both cultural and biblical hermeneutics can bear on questions of communal identity and belonging, intercultural and intergenerational community life. These observations will form the basis for students to explore their own cultural contexts and hermeneutical practice, and to offer a response to these questions in a faith-based context.

Learning outcomes

Pedagogy

To help students engage and explore cultural frameworks and recognise their own bias, lectures will be interactive, and include guided discussions and workshops, student-led reflections on hermeneutics and practice.

Indicative Bibliography

• Chan, Simon. Grassroots Asian Theology: Thinking the Faith from the Ground Up. Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2014.
• Havea, Jione, ed. Theological and Hermeneutical Explorations from Australia : Horizons of Contextuality. Fortress Academic, 2021.
• Jeung, Russell. At Home in Exile: Finding Jesus among My Ancestors and Refugee Neighbors. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2016.
• Lee, Hak Joon, ed. Intersecting Realities: Race, Identity, and Culture in the Spiritual-Moral Life of Young Asian Americans. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2018.
• Maggay, Melba Padilla. Global Kingdom, Global People: Living Faithfully in a Multicultural World. Cumbria, CA: Langham, 2017
• Mburu, Elizabeth. African Hermeneutics. Cumbria, CA: Langham, 2019.
• McCaulley, Esau. Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope. Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2020.
• Rah, Soong-Chan. Many Colors: Cultural Intelligence for a Changing Church. Chicago: IL: Moody, 2010.
• Richards, E. Randolph and Brandon J. O'Brien. Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible. Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2012.
• Shin, Sarah. Beyond Colorblind: Redeeming Our Ethnic Journey. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2017.
• Woodley, Randy. Shalom and the Community of Creation: An Indigenous Vision. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2012.
• Yoder, Laura S Meitzner, ed. Living Radical Discipleship. Cumbria, CA: Langham, 2021.

Assessment