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Intercultural Hermeneutics of the Bible in Aotearoa-New Zealand
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Intercultural Hermeneutics of the Bible in Aotearoa-New Zealand

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444). This special issue belongs to the section "Religions and Theologies".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 August 2024) | Viewed by 12546

Special Issue Editor

Dr. John Hans de Jong

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Theology, Laidlaw College, Auckland 0650, New Zealand
Interests: biblical studies; bible translation; missions history; Māoritanga

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to contribute article on “Intercultural Hermeneutics of the Bible in Aotearoa-New Zealand”. The encounters between foreigners who brought the Bible and the Indigenous peoples of Aotearo-New Zealand, now known as Māori, and the subsequent effects of these encounters is a complex and contested area of thought and research.

This Special Issue aims to explore the intercultural encounters that began with those who brought the Bible and its message, and the Indigenous people of Aotearoa who not only received the Bible but themselves carried it to other Māori. The specific focus of this Special Issue is on the intercultural hermeneutics of these encounters. How was the message of the Bible communicated from one culture understood and appropriated by a vastly different culture? And how do those intercultural hermeneutics continue to work themselves out in the present? This subject aligns with the aims and scope of the Religions journal to provide “studies of religious thought and practice to promote critical, hermeneutical, historical, and constructive conversations.”

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Te reo Māori [Māori language] translation of the Bible, examining past and/or contemporary issues.
  • Intertextual patterns of divergence and correspondence between the contextualized European Christianity of the missionaries and Te Ao Māori [Māori world/worldview].
  • Distinctive Māori approaches to Te Paipera Tapu [the Bible] past and/or contemporary.
  • The role of the Bible and Christianity in Te Tiriti Waitangi [the Treaty of Wiatangi] in understanding Māori and Pākeha.

Any article may include several of these research areas and/or others. We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200–300 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editor (jdejong@laidlaw.ac.nz) or the Assistant Editor of Religions (religions@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors to ensure proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

Deadline for abstract submission: 8 April 2024

Deadline for full manuscript submission: 30 June 2024

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. John Hans de Jong
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Aotearoa-New Zealand
  • Māori
  • Christianity
  • Bible
  • colonialism
  • missonaries
  • ātua

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 222 KiB  
Article
Authenticity and Divine Accommodation in a 19 Century Māori Context
by Bradford Joseph Haami
Religions 2024, 15(10), 1211; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15101211 - 5 Oct 2024
Viewed by 1089
Abstract
How did early 19th Century Māori assess the authenticity of the gospel narrative based on their own traditional worldview? This essay explores the thoughts of Whangataua, an ancestor of the author from the Ngāi Tahu and Rangitāne tribes of the upper Manawatū River [...] Read more.
How did early 19th Century Māori assess the authenticity of the gospel narrative based on their own traditional worldview? This essay explores the thoughts of Whangataua, an ancestor of the author from the Ngāi Tahu and Rangitāne tribes of the upper Manawatū River region in the North Island of New Zealand. How might Whangataua and his contemporaries have negotiated the authenticity of the gospel narrative shared by the missionary William Colenso between 1846 and 1852? This paper explores the cultural and intellectual negotiation that took place when Māori first heard the gospel message by comparing the story of the virgin birth of Jesus from the book of Luke with the traditional narrative of Tamatea-ure-haea and his wife Iwipupu. The intersection between the virgin conception narrative and Māori tribal beliefs held by 19th Century rangatira (principal chiefs) reveals an overlapping of realities where Māori worldview could become an agent of divine accommodation and authenticity for the gospel narratives. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Intercultural Hermeneutics of the Bible in Aotearoa-New Zealand)
20 pages, 288 KiB  
Article
A Historical–Contextual Analysis of the Use of “Tapu”, “Utu” and “Muru” in the Māori New Testament and Book of Common Prayer
by Samuel D. Carpenter
Religions 2024, 15(9), 1109; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15091109 - 13 Sep 2024
Viewed by 2503
Abstract
Building on Wittgenstein’s theory of ordinary language use and Lamin Sanneh’s insights into the effects of biblical translations in vernacular languages, this essay examines how the translation process in Niu Tireni (New Zealand/Aotearoa) in the 1830s contextualized or indigenized Christian concepts of the [...] Read more.
Building on Wittgenstein’s theory of ordinary language use and Lamin Sanneh’s insights into the effects of biblical translations in vernacular languages, this essay examines how the translation process in Niu Tireni (New Zealand/Aotearoa) in the 1830s contextualized or indigenized Christian concepts of the sacred/holy (tapu), the price (utu) paid by Christ for the sin of the world, and God’s forgiveness (muru) due to that sacrifice (utu). Through translation, therefore, Christian scripture was changed, or acquired new cultural referents. On the Māori side of the translation process, the result of reapplying fundamental Māori concepts to Christian narratives and theological categories was to re-map the Māori mental universe—so that it, also, was not the same as it was before the translation came into being. Through translating the scriptures into the indigenous tongue, they had become a Māori (native/indigenous) possession. In so doing, however, the original cultural framework had flexed towards—if not become drastically reformed by—a biblical understanding of sacred and redemptive time and the actions of a Supreme Creator/Te Atua acting within human history but neither identical with that history nor with creation itself. Nevertheless, we are also presented with a picture of intersecting but not always corresponding meanings as the result of cross-cultural translation—with creative misunderstandings or an epistemic “middle ground” (following Richard White) of multiple meanings being one of the inevitable results. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Intercultural Hermeneutics of the Bible in Aotearoa-New Zealand)
11 pages, 270 KiB  
Article
The Māori and Ancient near Eastern Pantheons in the Context of Genesis 1 in te reo Māori
by Lyndon Drake
Religions 2024, 15(8), 984; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15080984 - 14 Aug 2024
Viewed by 1828
Abstract
The recent test translation of Te Paipera Tapu (the Bible in the Māori language) has aroused considerable debate for its use in Genesis 1 of the names of atua Māori (Māori divine beings). These names of atua have been used instead of names [...] Read more.
The recent test translation of Te Paipera Tapu (the Bible in the Māori language) has aroused considerable debate for its use in Genesis 1 of the names of atua Māori (Māori divine beings). These names of atua have been used instead of names of features of the natural world, which stands in contrast to the use of other kupu Māori (Māori words) in the earlier translation and its revisions. In this paper, I outline relevant members of the Māori pantheon and of some ancient Near Eastern pantheons, which are not identical. I then discuss the Hebrew text of Genesis 1 in its ancient literary context, making proposals about the use of the names of atua Māori in translations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Intercultural Hermeneutics of the Bible in Aotearoa-New Zealand)
8 pages, 190 KiB  
Article
“Not my God”–Challenging the Usage of ‘Te Atua’ as Māori Terminology for the God of Christianity
by Eugene Fuimaono
Religions 2024, 15(8), 941; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15080941 - 3 Aug 2024
Viewed by 2549
Abstract
The usage of the term ‘Te Atua’ for God within Māori contexts has been largely accepted and unchallenged, yet its appropriateness is questioned due to its colonial origins and misalignment with Māori epistemologies. This paper explores the disqualification of ‘Te Atua’ as a [...] Read more.
The usage of the term ‘Te Atua’ for God within Māori contexts has been largely accepted and unchallenged, yet its appropriateness is questioned due to its colonial origins and misalignment with Māori epistemologies. This paper explores the disqualification of ‘Te Atua’ as a Māori term for God through historical analysis and Māori scholarly perspectives. By applying a Kaupapa Māori research rubric which aligns to four statements—1. The source is related to being Māori; 2. Is connected to Māori philosophy and principles; 3. Takes for granted the validity and legitimacy of Māori, the importance of Māori language and culture; and 4. Is concerned with the struggle for autonomy over our own cultural well-being—this paper argues that the term ‘Te Atua’ fails to meet these criteria. I propose that in accordance with Māori epistemologies, we can discern alternative terms for the blanket term ‘God’ that resonates with whakaaro Māori. This paper is a response to the recent Māori language translations of scripture, advocating for the re-indigenizing of the reo Māori bible to make it relevant to an increasingly non-Christian Māori audience and calls for a reimagining of Christianity that is authentically Māori. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Intercultural Hermeneutics of the Bible in Aotearoa-New Zealand)
22 pages, 359 KiB  
Article
Nephilim in Aotearoa New Zealand: Reading Māori Narratives of Tāwhaki with Gen 6:1–4’s Ancient Divine Heroes
by Deane Galbraith
Religions 2024, 15(5), 568; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050568 - 30 Apr 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3321
Abstract
The 2023 Bible Society New Zealand’s translation of sample biblical passages into the Māori language, He Tīmatanga, caused controversy by incorporating names of Māori gods. Those who objected typically assumed inconsistency with the Bible’s purported monotheism. But ‘monotheism’, in the sense that [...] Read more.
The 2023 Bible Society New Zealand’s translation of sample biblical passages into the Māori language, He Tīmatanga, caused controversy by incorporating names of Māori gods. Those who objected typically assumed inconsistency with the Bible’s purported monotheism. But ‘monotheism’, in the sense that only one god exists, is not present in the Bible. Moreover, missionary adherence to monotheism in the mid-nineteenth century widely assumed a ‘degeneration model’ that also promoted European religious, moral, and cultural superiority. This article adopts a hermeneutical strategy to counter monotheistic misreadings of the Bible, and their racist effects, by reading Māori stories of the ancient divine hero Tāwhaki alongside the ancient divine heroes who feature in Gen 6:1–4’s account of the Nephilim. First, the comparison provides resources for the translation of Gen 6:1–4 into the Māori language and worldview. Second, the Tāwhaki narratives stimulate a reappraisal of longstanding problems in the interpretation of Gen 6:1–4, especially the meaning of the phrase “the sons of the gods”. Supported by analysis also of the Sumerian King List, this article argues that all three major interpretations of “the sons of the gods” are fundamentally consistent: they are gods, elite human rulers, and also Sethites. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Intercultural Hermeneutics of the Bible in Aotearoa-New Zealand)
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