BIBLICAL RESISTANCE HERMENEUTICS IN THE CARIBBEAN CONTEXT

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Biblical Resistance Hermeneutics within a Caribbean Context An Overview This work explores the concept of biblical resistance hermeneutics within the Caribbean context. This approach emphasizes the significance of biblical texts for lived experiences instead of viewing the Bible merely as a product of historical and contextual conditions. It also addresses the challenges of integrating biblical hermeneutics with social praxis in the Caribbean, particularly within Christian communities with a legacy of slavery. Additionally, it investigates the social and hermeneutical context of a post-independence Caribbean, raising hermeneutical questions concerning text/context, oral/written, and reading/practice. This work employs Historical Materialist, Postcolonial, and Contextual Bible Study reading strategies as analytical tools. These strategies help identify the socio-ideological interests, theological agendas, and social practices that contributed to the creation of biblical texts, examine interpretations of the letter to Philemon in the New Testament, engage in a resistant reading of Philemon, and develop a strategy for biblical resistance reading. This strategy is not only critically aware of the cultural significance of contextual realities (cultural literacy consciousness) but also stems from a commitment to and involvement in social struggle (praxis of and for resistance), thereby empowering both the material conditions of interpreters and the origins of biblical texts. This biblical resistance reading strategy aims to bridge the gap between the social nature of existence and matters of faith. It has implications for how we interpret and define the Bible, theological perspectives in the Caribbean, worship practices, and Caribbean hermeneutical methods. It does not prioritize the socio-ideological interests, theological agendas, and social practices that shaped biblical texts over the socio-cultural and historical realities faced by readers during interpretation; instead, it acknowledges both aspects. Prioritizing one over the other undermines the Bible as a cultural weapon of resistance. The biblical resistant hermeneutic developed in this work is the rst of its kind within the Caribbean context.

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