Recently, OCMS welcomed Professor David Horrell, Emeritus Professor of New Testament Studies at the University of Exeter, to deliver a lecture on Decolonising New Testament Studies: Towards a Truly Global Discipline. Our church building was well filled, with a large online audience joining from around the world.
This month OCMS relaunched its established MBL lecture programme after some months’ absence, welcoming Professor David Horrell, Emeritus Professor of New Testament Studies at the University of Exeter, to deliver a lecture on Decolonising New Testament Studies: Towards a Truly Global Discipline. Our church building was well filled, with a large online audience joining from around the world.
Professor Horrell began by noting how the standard histories of New Testament scholarship tell a largely European story. The discipline’s “canon” of important scholars, questions and methods reflects a particular history, yet is often treated as universal. Decolonising the discipline, he suggested, means critically examining those assumptions, widening the voices and perspectives recognised as part of the field, and addressing the structures that keep the “metropole” dominant over the “periphery.”
He then introduced scholars whose work has too often been overlooked. These included John William Colenso on Romans in the nineteenth century; A. J. Appasamy, who read John’s Gospel through the Indian tradition of bhakti; and John Mbiti on New Testament eschatology in an African context. Among more recent voices, he discussed Elsa Tamez’s Latin American reading of justification by faith and Monodeep Daniel’s Dalit reading of the Corinthian letters. What these scholars share is an explicit engagement with their own context, and with the theological and ethical questions the text raises there.
Professor Horrell closed by asking what a truly global discipline might look like. He pointed beyond a model where knowledge flows outward from the West, and beyond separate “mosaic” traditions that never meet. He advocated a solidarity-based approach of mutual learning, in which different perspectives are respected and also enter into honest conversation, and critique, with one another.
The lecture was followed by a lively discussion, with questions from both the room and online, and attendees had the chance to speak with Professor Horrell afterwards. Although the lecture is not publicly available, if you would like to listen to it, please contact Sonja Woodman at , who can make a link available for a limited period.
Next Lecture Series
The programme continues with a three-lecture series on Mission in Vulnerability, inspired by Zechariah 4:6: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit.” The first lecture, Mission and Vulnerability: Some Theological Considerations, will be given by our Executive Director, Dr Paul Bendor-Samuel, on Tuesday 13 October at 2.00pm UK time, in person at OCMS and live online. Drawing on years of mission service overseas and his leadership of Interserve, Paul will explore how vulnerability might shape our understanding and practice of mission in a wounded world. We would be delighted to welcome you. Register here.