The PhD journey is humbling. I was reading a couple books today that Knut loaned to me. I wanted to engage them before passing them back in a couple weeks. One is a 2015 festschrift (book in honor of) for Hans de Wit.
One of the books that Hans de Wit edited was a key link to getting me connected with intercultural hermeneutics. This 2015 book. New Perspectives on Intercultural Reading of the Bible, is not available at Amazon.com or bookfinder.com, and even on the publishers website! I think it is too new.
As I’m reading it, is hear of others in this sub-field of biblical studies who have fascinating theoretical frameworks, such as Focault (post-structuralism) to Levinas and his “philosophy of the other.”
The reality is that it is good to be aware of these various theoretical approaches, but delimit the scope of one’s own PhD project to what is pragmatic and strategic for one’s project. While a bit frustrating to constantly be confronted with what I don’t know, it is good to keep humble.
For me, Hans-Georg Gadamer is my theoretical framework.
After I chose him, I was please to see that others, like Gerald West in South Africa, had incorporated Gadamer as well, but in a different project.
To balance out these white guys, here are some other theologians I engage.
So, between some reading and time working on the laptop with other resources, I took breaks with some laundry and clipping the lawn. I also have a friend in China, and we were emailing back and forth in seemingly another world, but so cool to be in touch.
It is supposed to be a nice day tomorrow, so I sent out an email to a few friends here to see if anyone wanted to go on a hike with me tomorrow. Anya, much to my disappointment, doesn’t like to hike. So, far no takers.
Anya is off with Oda in Stavanger. They took the bus in. Anya is going to introduce Oda to Starbucks and then go see a movie. It should be a good memory-making experience.
With blessings,
Beth
Ah, one never learns it all! And as the fields of study continue to differentiate into smaller and smaller portions, it can overwhelm. I find comfort in John 20:30-31 and 21:25 as I get older and realize how much I have NOT learned. I have learned the important stuff, I think!