Reading the Bible Around the World: A Student’s Guide to Global Hermeneutics

Parish Clergy Award

It's an exciting time to be reading the Bible. As we increasingly encounter readers with perspectives, experiences, and cultures different from our own, we can incorporate new ideas and approaches to interpreting Scripture. When diverse interpretations from various social locations are gathered together, we gain new vistas and a fuller image of the text.

In Reading the Bible Around the World, a crosscultural team of scholars describes and workshops global readings in biblical interpretation, focusing on passages in both the Old and New Testaments. By presenting a range of readings from different regions and people groups, with particular attention to marginalized groups, the authors demonstrate the importance of contextually sensitive approaches. They help us build up key values for reading Scripture in the twenty-first century: self-awareness, other-awareness, and true dialogue.

Who we are shapes how we read. Guided by these expert teachers, readers will gain a deeper understanding of the influence of their own social location and how to keep growing in biblical wisdom by reading alongside the global Christian community.

Federico Alfredo Roth (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) is on the faculty of Azusa Pacific University in biblical and religious studies and practical theology.

Justin Marc Smith (PhD, University of St. Andrews) is on the faculty of Azusa Pacific University in biblical and religious studies and practical theology.

Kirsten Sonkyo Oh (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) is on the faculty of Azusa Pacific University in biblical and religious studies and practical theology.

Alice Yafeh-Deigh (PhD, Princeton Theological Seminary) is on the faculty of Azusa Pacific University in biblical and religious studies and practical theology.

Kay Higuera Smith (PhD, Claremont Graduate University) is on the faculty of Azusa Pacific University in biblical and religious studies and practical theology.