Reading Romans at Ground Level

Jonathan D. Groves

Description

Many pastors in the provincial towns and rural villages of Malawi struggle to find practical relevance in the letter to the Romans. While the majority of church leaders have received little or no formal Bible and ministry training, they often face formidable challenges from African traditional practices, folk Islam, poverty and poor education – creating barriers to authentic Christian discipleship. Reading Romans at Ground Level uses field research to characterize pastoral ministry in provincial-rural Malawi. By examining current preaching practice, it shows that Malawian pastors mostly use individual verses from Paul’s letter within inductive needs-driven sermons or gospel calls for conversion. In this book, a three-horizon contextual approach is used to investigate how the letter might be applied biblically to address contemporary African socio-cultural and pastoral issues. It demonstrates surprisingly rich parallels between the way Romans might have been heard by its original recipients in the slums of Ancient Rome, and its potential meaning for Christians living in poverty in rural Africa today.

Informations

• Publié par: Langham Creative Projects
• Date de parution: 14 février 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 2
• EAN13: 9781783689194
• Langue: English

Extrait

With over a hundred languages spoken daily in Greater London, cross-cultural awareness for effective Christian communication is no longer a mere optional extra. Whether we live and minister in Birmingham, Bradford or Blantyre, it is now quite simply essential. Added to this is a second major challenge highlighted by Jonathan Groves – “The rapid growth of the church in Malawi has far outstripped the ability of African theological institutions and correspondence courses to supply trained church leaders”. Groves has brought together these dual global challenges in a book that takes serious account of the three horizons of biblical interpretation. The sheer richness and relevance of Romans are revealed, often in new and unexpected ways, as Groves pays careful attention to the role of text and context at each horizon. The Word and Spirit of God will bring true change in church and society through the use of the hermeneutical approaches presented in this timely book. Dedicated and determined teachers and preachers will benefit hugely from this highly significant and exciting study of the one Pauline letter that we all thought we knew inside out!
Dr Derek Newton
former MTh Programme leader
International Christian College, Scotland
The engagement of the peoples of Africa with the biblical text is both vast in extent and profound in depth. No one can fully understand sub-Saharan Africa today without some appreciation of the role of the Bible in the life of society. Equally no one can claim a comprehensive knowledge of contemporary biblical interpretation without paying serious attention to the use of the Bible in African communities. Greatly needed therefore are sophisticated and detailed studies like Jonathan Groves’ analysis of the interpretation of Paul’s letter to the Romans in the context of provincial-rural Malawi. This is a pioneering and important contribution to our understanding both of the Book of Romans and of grassroots biblical hermeneutics in the African context.
Kenneth R. Ross
formerly Professor of Theology
University of Malawi

Reading Romans at Ground Level
A Contemporary Rural African Perspective
Jonathan D. Groves
Foreword by David W. Smith
Global Perspectives Series

© 2015 by Jonathan D. Groves
Published 2015 by Langham Global Library
an imprint of Langham Creative Projects
Langham Partnership
PO Box 296, Carlisle, Cumbria CA3 9WZ, UK
www.langham.org
ISBNs:
978-1-783689-20-0 Print
978-1-783689-18-7 Mobi
978-1-783689-19-4 ePub
978-1-78368-875-3 PDF
Jonathan D. Groves has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the Author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher or the Copyright Licensing Agency.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Groves, Jonathan D., author.
Reading Romans at ground level : a contemporary African
perspective.
1. Bible. Romans--Study and teaching--Malawi. 2. Church
work--Malawi. 3. Christian life--Malawi.
I. Title
227.1’0071’06897-dc23
ISBN-13: 9781783689200
Cover & Book Design: projectluz.com
Langham Partnership actively supports theological dialogue and a scholar’s right to publish but does not necessarily endorse the views and opinions set forth, and works referenced within this publication or guarantee its technical and grammatical correctness. Langham Partnership does not accept any responsibility or liability to persons or property as a consequence of the reading, use or interpretation of its published content.

Converted to eBook by EasyEPUB
Contents

Cover


Foreword


Preface


Abstract


Acknowledgments


1 Introduction


1.1 Research Questions


1.2 Educational Context: Need for Biblically Trained Leaders


1.3 Cultural Context: African Traditional Religion and Worldview


1.4 Ecclesiastical Context: The Church in Malawi


1.5 Hermeneutical Context: African Biblical Interpretation


1.6 Kerygmatic Context: Preaching in Malawi


1.7 Literary Context: Romans in Malawi


1.8 Outline of Study


2 Research Methods


2.1 Introduction


2.2 Basic Questionnaires at Conferences


2.3 Supplementary Questionnaires at Conferences


2.4 Detailed Interviews with Senior Pastors


2.5 Small Groups Discussions


2.6 Contextual Bible Studies


2.7 Summary


3 Modelling the Third-Horizon


3.1 Introduction


3.2 Profile of Church Leaders


3.3 Socio-Cultural and Pastoral Issues


3.4 Discussion


4 From Rome to Malawi


4.1 Introduction


4.2 Between Three Horizons


4.3 Using Verses in Preaching


4.4 Reading Romans in Malawi: Popular Verses


4.5 Discussion


5 Romans and Ministry


5.1 Introduction


5.2 Using Paragraphs in Preaching


5.3 Reading Romans in Malawi: Paragraphs


5.4 Summary


6 Conclusion


Bibliography


Tables


Figures


Appendix A Basic Questionnaire


Appendix B Supplementary Questionnaire & Interview Sheet


Issues in Malawian Life and Culture


Use of the Letter to the Romans


Issues in Life and Romans


Romans in Specific Areas of Life


How to Interpret Romans


Appendix C Chichewa Bible Translations


About Langham Partnership


Our vision is to see churches in the majority world equipped for mission and growing to maturity in Christ through the ministry of pastors and leaders who believe, teach and live by the Word of God.


Our mission is to strengthen the ministry of the Word of God through:

Endnotes
Foreword
This study of Paul’s epistle to the Romans combines wide knowledge of contemporary Western scholarship on this letter with a sensitive awareness of the context of African believers in rural Malawi, and it moves skilfully between these very different situations in the effort to create hermeneutical bridges between them. At the same time, the author is deeply aware of the influence of a third culture, that of the modern Western world, both on himself and on the European missionaries who first announced the message of Christ to traditional African peoples. This work is clearly motivated by a deep concern that the Bible might be liberated from received traditions of interpretation when they inhibit its transformative power in contexts of great poverty, suffering and oppression. Underpinning this desire is an evident sense of respect, fellowship and concern for those African Christians whose lives are lived in an uneasy conversation between their traditional worldview, their faith in Jesus, and the ever-encroaching culture of Western modernity. Jonathan Groves has reflected at length on the challenges thrown up by this situation and his resultant study is a pioneering piece of work which may be said to break fresh ground in contextual and inter-cultural theology.
The specific ideas suggested here with regard to points of contact between the Pauline gospel and the concrete pastoral and ethical dilemmas facing contemporary African believers reveal the writer’s serious engagement with the church in Malawi and his understanding of its specific religious and cultural context. At the same time, he is obviously abreast of current debates in New Testament studies in the academy and handles areas of disagreement over the recent scholarly interpretation of the letter to the Romans with wisdom and insight.
The most significant aspect of this work concerns the discovery of surprising connections between the context of the first hearers of this letter in the slums of the imperial city of ancient Rome and that of poor Christians in the contemporary setting of rural Africa. These correspondences provide rural Malawian believers with the possibility of insight into the meaning of many texts, meanings which remain hidden from prosperous and comfortable readers in the Global North whose material circumstances are so utterly different from those of both the original receptors of Paul’s letter, and poor Christians living on the underside of the process of globalization today. In the following pages Groves makes excellent use of Peter Oakes’ illuminating reconstruction of a primitive Christian community, living and meeting in the squalid and dangerous tenement blocks in first century Rome, which first heard this letter read. Indeed, this present study exemplifies Oakes’ conclusion that, while there is a place for acade