Encountering Diversity in Indian Biblical Studies

Zhodi Angami is Professor of New Testament and Dean of Postgraduate Studies at Eastern Theological College, Jorhat, India. He earned a PhD in New Testament from the University of Divinity, Australia. His special areas of interest are Jesus, the Gospels, the history and formation of the Bible and tribal interpretation of the Bible. His publications include Tribals, Empire and God: A Tribal Reading of the Birth of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel (2017) and The Making of the Bible (2017). David J. Chalcraft is Professor of Sociology at Liverpool John Moores University, UK, and formerly Chair of Biblical Studies at the University of Sheffield (2011-2014). He has long been associated with the analysis of classical sociology and with the use of sociology in biblical studies, editing such volumes as Social Scientific Old Testament Criticism (1995), Sectarianism in Early Judaism: Sociological Advances (2007) and Theories, Methods and Imagination (with Frauke Uhlenbruch and Rebecca S Watson) (2014).

A Biblical Masala: An Orientation to Our Book, David J. Chalcraft; SECTION I: Historical Episodes of Biblical Studies in India from a British Perspective; 1. Strategies Past, Present and Future: The Context and Variety of Biblical Studies in Indian Culture and Society, David J. Chalcraft; 2. English and Indian Readings of Naboth’s Vineyard: The Role of Identity and Context in the Sociological Meaning and Use of Biblical Texts, David J. Chalcraft; 3. Nation and Text: The Biblical Roots of Hindu Nationalism, Hugh S. Pyper; SECTION II: Readings with a Social Conscience; 4. Holiness School’s Response to Economic Injustice: Reading Leviticus 25 in the Multi-Religious and Cultural Context of India, P. Joseph Titus; 5. A Dialogue between Indian and Biblical Social Settings: Reading the Two Parables of Rich Men (Luke 12.16-21 and 16.19-31) Contextually, V.J. John; SECTION III: Dalit/Madiga Hermeneutics; 6. The Context of Dalit Christians in Rural Andhra Pradesh: Christian Faith, Caste and Culture, Jeeva Kumar Ravela; 7. Encountering the Bible: Listening to the Voices of Madiga Christians, Jeeva Kumar Ravela and David J. Chalcraft; 8. Why Are Times Not Kept by the Almighty?’ – Job, Violence and God: A Dalit Contextual Reading of Job 24, Jeeva Kumar Ravela; SECTION IV: Tribal Hermeneutics; 9. An Introduction to Tribal Interpretation of the Bible, Zhodi Angami; 10. Reading Amos 6.1-7 in the Light of Mizo Values and Ethos, K. Lallawmzuala; 11. Seeing Jesus through Tribal Eyes, Zhodi Angami; 12. A Tribal God for a Tribal People: Reading the Creation Narratives of Genesis and the Prologue of John’s Gospel from an Angami Perspective, Zhodi Angami; SECTION V: An Empirical Turn? The (Visual) Ethnography of Biblical Encounter; 13. The Use of the Bible in the Institutional Body Language of Christian Schools in India: Mediating Western; Christian; or Western-Christian Culture in Contemporary India?, Sally Elton-Chalcraft; 14. ‘Bad Fellows’ Doing a ‘Cursed Job’: Reading the Bible with ‘Ordinary’ Autowallahs in Chennai, Arren Bennet Lawrence.