Includes bibliographical references (pages 283-297) and indexes.

Part I. Precolonial Reception : -- 1. Before the empire : the Bible as a marginal and a minority text : -- India : liturgical and iconic usage -- China : the surrogate Bible : monuments and manuscripts -- Africa : Latin Bible and local controversies -- Part II. Colonial Embrace : -- 2. White men bearing gifts : diffusion of the Bible and scriptural imperialism : -- Venerable versions and paucity of Bibles -- Cheap Bibles and scriptural imperialism -- Marks of colonial hermeneutics -- 3. Reading back : resistance as a discursive practice : -- An emancipator as emancipator of texts: Olaudah Equiano and his textual allusions -- Confluence of histories : William Apess and textual reclamations -- Textual conversations : K.N. Banerjea and his Vedas -- Textual management : Pandita Ramabai and her Bible -- African emancipatory movements and their Bibles --4. The colonialist as a contentious reader : Colenso and his hermeneutics : -- Out of the mouths of the heathen -- Cleansing the contradictions -- Exegetical contestation -- The sacred text improved and restored -- Situating Colenso in the colonial discourse -- 5. Textual pedlars : distributing salvation : colporteurs and their portable Bibles : -- Bartering the word of God -- Errant readers and indecent cultures : effects of the Society's Bible -- The colporteur's book -- Changed by the text -- Omens out of the Book : non-readerly use and non-textual attitudes -- Construction of racial images -- Part III. Postcolonial Reclamations : -- 6. Desperately seeking the indigene : nativism and vernacular hermeneutics -- Vernacularization and biblical interpretation -- The vernacular in metropolitan context -- Some affirming and constructive thoughts -- 7. Engaging liberation : texts as a vehicle of emancipation : -- Classical liberation hermeneutics -- Radical reading within the margins : peoples' appropriation of the Bible -- Identity-specific readings -- 8. Postcolonializing biblical interpretation : -- Streams of postcoloniality -- Postcolonial criticism and biblical studies -- Liberation hermeneutics and postcolonial criticism : shall the twain meet? -- Some deck-clearing exercises -- Consequences, concerns and cautions.

Print version record.

This is a comprehensive history of the Bible in the Third World from precolonial days to the postcolonial period. It examines the work of theologians from the non-Western world. The volume is an invaluable guide to anyone interested in learning about the impact of the Bible on Third World cultures.

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