BiAS 7 – The Bible and Politics in Africa
the Pentecostal churches which have now opened the doors to women in
ministry.
Conclusion
The journey that started in 2009 and which is now maturing into a book
of various contributions on the subject of Bible and politics in Africa has
been and remains predicated on the assumption that we are called to be
“socially engaged biblical scholars” agreeing “that the Bible must be read
from the perspective of the poor and marginalized, that the Bible must
be read with the poor and marginalized, that Bible reading is related to
social transformation, and that the Bible must be read critically” (West
1995:454). These are convictions that run through the different contribu-
tions the readers will encounter in this volume. Unless we make contri-
butions towards the betterment of our respective communities and the
world at large, we think we would have failed in our calling for two ma-
jor reasons: As we engage with the Bible, we are aware that we are deal-
ing not with a piece of ancient literature only but with a collection of
writings considered holy and sacred by believers meaning we do not
seek an audience for the Bible, it already has a huge following. We there-
fore engage with the Bible not only to understand its history but also as a
way to addressing our concerns, we may differ on how we do this but we
agree that doing so is necessary (Rogerson 2000:47). It is in this context
that Joerg Rieger (2007:300) argues “one of the basic reasons why relig-
ions have the power to change the world and to ‘birth global peace and
justice’ is because they hold collective power that is more in touch with
the voiceless than governments or anyone else.” This fact alone means it
is almost impossible for Africa to follow the secularization that hap-
pened in Europe in the manner it happened there; rather we need to
admit that the Bible is a resource and force that can be appropriated for
good, even if it has been appropriated for evil sometimes. Further, we
are driven by the realization that “the ultimate context is the divine pur-
pose that justice-righteousness should be realized in human society on
earth” (McConville 2006:99). This is what we desire in common than a
single political system or economic system or social system; we seek
justice, equality and equity for all in the world. The fact that we do not
agree on the ways to justice and peace is absolutely normal. First be-
cause the field of politcs is by nature a field of diversity and second the
Bible is in itself a document of diversity. Thus the topic “Bible and poli-