A Poetics of Postcolonial Biblical Criticism
God, Human-Nature Relationship, and Negritude
- Biblical Studies & Commentaries
- Publisher: Cascade Books (Wipf and Stock)
- Published: 2019
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Publisher's Description
Telling in current biblical postcolonial discourse that draws insights from the works of Aime Cesaire, Frantz Fanon, and postcolonial theorists is the missing contribution of Leopold Sedar Senghor, the architect of Negritude. If mentioned at all, Senghor is often read through conclusions drawn by his critics or dismissed altogether as irrelevant to postcolonialism. Restored to its rightful place, Senghorian Negritude is a postcolonial lens for reading Scripture and other faith traditions with a view to reposition, conscientize, liberate, and rehabilitate the conquered, and enable them to reclaim their faith traditions and practices that once directed a mutual relationship between God, human, and nature--a delicate symbiosis before the French colonial advent in West Africa. A keen eye for cross-cultural analysis and contextualization enriched this volume with an intriguing reading of scripture, Ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman texts in conversation with other faith traditions, particularly Senegalese Diola Religion. As a Poetics of Postcolonial Biblical Criticism, Negritude is an optic through which people of faith may look around themselves, critically reread their sacred texts, reassess their vocation, and practice mutuality with God and nature on the heels of chilling climate change. Enshrined in this innovative argument is a call for introspection and challenge for people of faith to assume their vocation--human participatory agency.
Endorsements (2)
“In an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural tour de force, Senegalese-American New Testament scholar Aliou Niang introduces two new voices into current debates about African Traditional Religion, ecology, postcolonialism, and the Bible: Léopold Sédar Senghor whose seminal ideas on Négritude and a ‘civilization of the universal’ have been neglected for too long, and the earth-centered wisdom of Niang’s own native Diola culture—glimpses of ancient indigenous survival knowledge strikingly relevant in times of global ecological crisis. A fascinating book!”
“In a brilliant deployment of scholarly insights from multiple fields and subfields in biblical studies—from history of religions to comparative religions to exegesis and reception history—Aliou Niang’s A Poetics of Postcolonial Biblical Criticism is as compelling in its theoretical and methodological framing and appropriations of Senghorian Negritude as it is in its engagement with the multipositionality and multilocality of the postcolonial hermeneut. Forceful, yet unapologetic, Niang’s A Poetics is a refreshing read of the Bible, of African (Diola) culture, and of biblical interpretation itself. It is a veritable gift of Africana hermeneutics to the field of biblical scholarship.”
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