Hermeneutics and Justice Seminar

This seminar raises questions concerning our inherited methods of biblical interpretation developed as they were by the beneficiaries of colonisation may (inadvertently?) perpetuate theologies of oppression and injustice. Our inherited Western hermeneutics values a heavily rationalistic, objective reading of Scripture, detached from the context of the reader. These interpretative methods seldom produce theology to challenge the power and the privileged. This seminar will instead explore a hermeneutical method that is embodied, contextual, cruciform, and liberation.

Speaker: John Scheepers is the founder and director of the Isiphambano Centre for Biblical Justice. John holds a master’s degree from Stellenbosch University, researching the intersection of evangelical theology and (in)justice in the South African Church. He is currently pursuing a second Masters specialising in African Christianity, through Durham University (UK). John is married to Jo-ann and they have two teenage sons.