
<h3>The Bible in Africana Life</h3>
<p>Is one of many foundational texts found in African and Black Diasporan settings NRSV version and tools <a href="http://www.anova.org/sev/">http://www.anova.org/sev/</a></p>
<p>Others include the following:</p>
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<p>the Qu’ran <a href="http://www.al-islam.org/quran/">http://www.al-islam.org/quran/</a></p>
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<p>Talmud <a href="http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/talmud.htm#t01">http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/talmud.htm#t01</a></p>
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<p>Tao Te Ching <a href="http://www.wam.umd.edu/~stwright/rel/tao/TaoTeChing.html">http://www.wam.umd.edu/~stwright/rel/tao/TaoTeChing.html</a></p>
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<p>Book of Mormon <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/bm/contents">http://scriptures.lds.org/bm/contents</a></p>
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<p>and other sacred texts from around the world</p>
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<p>Given the major role that Christianity has played in shaping Western ideas, the Bible can be seen as perhaps the most important text in the American Diaspora</p>
<p>Its impact on Black life has been mixed - it has been a source of community stabilization and destabilization</p>
<h3>Africana Biblical Interpretation</h3>
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<p>Heterogeneous rather than monolithic</p>
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<p>Conditioned by theological norms within faith communities and socio-political exigencies</p>
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<p>Tends to place a very high value on the authority of the Bible</p>
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<p>Bible is seen as conversation partner</p>
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<p>Expositors work within and outside of ecclesial structures</p>
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<p>Biblical authority and social realities simultaneously limit and give license to creative interpretation</p>
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<h3>Problematizing Biblical Values</h3>
<p>Scholars have begun to raise significant questions about the relationship between Africana peoples and sacred texts. Some of the more intriguing are the following:</p>
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<p>Why should African Americans read themselves into a sacred text not of their own creation? -- see, for example, Vincent Wimbush's article "Introduction: Reading Darkness, Reading Scriptures," in his edited volume African Americans and the Bible: Sacred Texts and Social Textures (New York, 2000): 1-43.</p>
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<p>Should 21st century Christians find a creative means to honor the text of lived experience while reading critically and faithfully that of the Bible?</p>
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<p>Should African Americans read the Bible primarily from an Afrocentric point of view that reflects an Africana ethos? -- see, for example, the "Introduction" and essays in Randall C. Bailey (ed.), Yet With a Steady Beat: Contemporary U.S. Afrocentric Biblical Interpretation. Semeia Studies 42 (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2003).</p>
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<p>In what ways may interpretive media be created to contextualize the Bible in light of Africana experience? - this question informs the work of the African-American Biblical Hermeneutics Section of the Society of Biblical Literature -- see <a href="http://www.hrpj.com/aabhs.htm">www.hrpj.com/aabhs.htm</a>.</p>
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