Introducing Feminist Cultural Hermeneutics: An African Perspective

Introductions in Feminist Theology

by Misimbi R.A. Kanyoro

Introducing feminist cultural hermeneutics is constructed as a collective story of African women doing 'communal theology'. It begins with tales of a child marriage and an unfaithful husband, told with the aid of biblical texts. Kanyoro explains and analyzes the cultural resources, the experiences, and the practices of African women, and the role of cultural hermeneutics in reading the Bible. At the center of the book stands an African woman's reading of the book of Ruth, and the concluding chapters analyzes the cultural hermeneutics and address the issue of the accountability of the Church, its women's organizations, of women in Africa, and of African women theologians.

Paperback

First published September 1, 2002

Reviews

[E. · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting exploration of how culture affects religion, particularly approaches to the Bible, among African women. In this book Kanyoro reads the Book of Ruth with women from her home region and they provide interestingly different questions and comments based upon their cultural situations. I'll be teaching Ruth in Bible study and it will be interesting to use these questions and comments to discuss different perspectives.

[Alice Pederkoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Story based, easy to approach without a ton of domain specific knowledge. An interesting sociological-theological look at the challenges Christian African women face in their liberation struggle.

[Debbie Blane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written and informative. I will be using much of the material in both a class that I will teach on Women and Men in the Bible at the Nile Theological College next term, and also in my doctoral work at UNISA (The University of South Africa). One of the things which this book has in common with others is the belief many Africans have that anything which challenges tradition and/or culture is a Western imposition instead of Scriptural. Reading books by African women (and men, see my review on Three Generations of African Women) helps to form arguments of Africans to other Africans. I can share the struggle by understanding it from the indigenous viewpoint as much as I am able.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book shoved me into an existential crisis about how to handle Scripture. But Kanyoro's experiences doing exegesis with African women are really interesting.