What is Missiological Hermeneutics? Biblical hermeneutics is the study of how to interpret the Bible. Missiology is the study of the theology, methods and purpose of Christian mission. When you put the two together, Missiological Hermeneutics is about how we can rightly interpret the Bible with particular reference to how such interpretation will impact the mission of God.
In the first section of the unit we introduce five key principles of biblical hermeneutics which irrespective of culture need to be understood. Specifically, (1) literary context (that is, the context that surrounds a specific Bible text within the larger document); (2) historical-cultural background; (3) word meanings; (4) grammatical relationships; and (5) literary genre (the global literary context of which the text is a part: letter, apocalyptic, narrative, parable, etc.). These five hermeneutical principles will then be used to do an exegesis of two biblical passages.
Section two of our unit introduces the matter of culture, both that of the interpreter and the culture of those receiving the biblical message. Consideration is given to a biblical framing of the gospel which leads to the development of a process of contextualisation. It is proposed that we consider a two-way path when interpreting the biblical text. Sometimes we start with the Bible and then interpret with a view to a target culture. The other approach is to begin with a cultural question or problem, understanding the culture’s issues and then return to the biblical text to understand how it might be applied to the specific matter of concern.
The final section of the unit explores examples of contextualisation both, Chinese and African. These give rich pictures of how Scripture might be interpreted and applied in these diverse situations. Sessions 9 and 10 introduce the controversial areas of ‘Insider Movements’ and polygamy and asks what are the interpretive issues that relate to these areas.