African Literacies and Western Oralities?

African Literacies and Western Oralities? PDF Author: William A. Coppedge
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1725290375
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
How do twenty-first century Christians communicate the Bible and their faith in today’s mediascape? Members of the International Orality Network (ION) believe that the answer to that paramount question is: orality. For too long, they argue, presentations of Christianity have operated on a printed (literate) register, hindering many from receiving and growing in the Christian faith. Instead, they champion the spoken word and narrative presentations of the gospel message. In light of the church’s shift to the Global South, how have such communication approaches been received by majority world Christians? This book explores the responses and reactions of local Ugandan Christians to this “oral renaissance.” The investigation, grounded in ethnographic research, uncovers the complex relationships between local and international culture brokers—all of whom are seeking to establish particular “modern” identities. The research conclusions challenge static Western categorizations and point towards an integrated understanding of communication that appreciates the role of materiality and embodiment in a broader religious socioeconomic discourse as well as taking into account societal anticipations of a flourishing “modern” African Church. This book promises to stimulate dialogue for those concerned about the communication complexities that are facing the global church in the twenty-first century.

African Literacies and Western Oralities?

African Literacies and Western Oralities? PDF Author: William A. Coppedge
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1725290375
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 316

Get Book Here

Book Description
How do twenty-first century Christians communicate the Bible and their faith in today’s mediascape? Members of the International Orality Network (ION) believe that the answer to that paramount question is: orality. For too long, they argue, presentations of Christianity have operated on a printed (literate) register, hindering many from receiving and growing in the Christian faith. Instead, they champion the spoken word and narrative presentations of the gospel message. In light of the church’s shift to the Global South, how have such communication approaches been received by majority world Christians? This book explores the responses and reactions of local Ugandan Christians to this “oral renaissance.” The investigation, grounded in ethnographic research, uncovers the complex relationships between local and international culture brokers—all of whom are seeking to establish particular “modern” identities. The research conclusions challenge static Western categorizations and point towards an integrated understanding of communication that appreciates the role of materiality and embodiment in a broader religious socioeconomic discourse as well as taking into account societal anticipations of a flourishing “modern” African Church. This book promises to stimulate dialogue for those concerned about the communication complexities that are facing the global church in the twenty-first century.

Orality and Literacy

Orality and Literacy PDF Author: Walter J. Ong
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134461615
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
This classic work explores the vast differences between oral and literate cultures offering a very clear account of the intellectual, literary and social effects of writing, print and electronic technology. In the course of his study, Walter J. Ong offers fascinating insights into oral genres across the globe and through time, and examines the rise of abstract philosophical and scientific thinking. He considers the impact of orality-literacy studies not only on literary criticism and theory but on our very understanding of what it is to be a human being, conscious of self and other. This is a book no reader, writer or speaker should be without.

Character Theology

Character Theology PDF Author: Tom Steffen
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1666778591
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
Character Theology provides a natural, universal way for the world to engage God through his chosen cast of characters. As the media eras continue to change (oral to print to digital-virtual), too many Bible scholars, and consequently pastors and Bible teachers in the West and beyond, lack capability to effectively communicate Scripture to Millennials, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha. These generations find little if any relevance in the Christianity promoted by those stuck in modernity’s sticky abstract systematic theology. Character Theology relates, sticks, and transforms these generations. Why? Because people grasp and engage God most naturally and precisely through his interaction with biblical characters and their interaction with each other! Characters communicate the Creator’s characteristics. The roadmap to the recovery and expansion of Christianity in the twenty-first century will be through Bible characters.

Orality, Literacy, and Colonialism in Southern Africa

Orality, Literacy, and Colonialism in Southern Africa PDF Author: Jonathan A. Draper
Publisher: Society of Biblical Lit
ISBN: 1589831179
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 279

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Book Description
Literacy is essentially about the control of information, memory, and belief, and with colonialism in Southern Africa came the Bible and text-based literacy monitored by missionaries and colonial authorities. Old and new oral traditions, however, are beyond the control of empire and often carry the resistance, hopes, and dreams of colonized people. The essays in this volume recover aspects of Southern Africa's rich oral tradition. The authors, from disciplines such as anthropology, African literature, and biblical studies, delineate some of the contours of the indigenous knowledge systems which sustained resistance to colonialism and today provide resources for postapartheid society in Southern Africa.

Intra-African Pentecostalism and the Dynamics of Power

Intra-African Pentecostalism and the Dynamics of Power PDF Author: Amos B. Chewachong
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1666735671
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
In an era when African Pentecostalism stretches its vibrant mosaic across continents, Intra-African Pentecostalism and the Dynamics of Power examines the pulsating heart of this phenomenon within Africa itself. The book explores the complex interplay of faith and power through the lens of Nigeria’s Winners’ Chapel and its expansion into Cameroon. What compels a movement to evangelize fervently within its own continent, making it both the preacher and the audience? The book exposes the reverse missionary flow to the northern hemisphere as a backdrop for a more profound story unravelling within Africa. Here, the mother church exerts a magnetic pull, ensuring fidelity, as charismatic leaders, like Bishop Oyedepo, maintain their spiritual gravitas. It is a story not just of spirituality but of strategic moves and socio-political undercurrents that shape identities and beliefs. Employing rich narratives and rigorous research, this book looks in depth at Winners’ Chapel’s transnational missions, highlighting the complexities of allegiance, identity, and the propagation of the prosperity gospel. It challenges readers to see beyond conventional religious discourse, into the depths where faith intersects with culture and power. The book invites us to understand the multi-dimensional influence of African Pentecostalism and to grasp the nuances of a faith that is transforming the continent from within.

Every Leaf, Line, and Letter

Every Leaf, Line, and Letter PDF Author: Timothy Larsen
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 0830841768
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description
Christians within evangelicalism have always had a high regard for the Bible. How has the eternal Word of God been received across various races, age groups, genders, nations, and eras? This collection of historical studies focuses on evangelicals' defining uses—and abuses—of Scripture, from Great Britain to the Global South, from the high pulpit to private devotions and public causes.

Postcolonial Literature and the Impact of Literacy

Postcolonial Literature and the Impact of Literacy PDF Author: Neil ten Kortenaar
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139499548
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
Examining images of literacy in African and West Indian novels, Neil ten Kortenaar looks at how postcolonial authors have thought about the act of writing itself. Writing arrived in many parts of Africa as part of colonization in the twentieth century, and with it a whole world of book-learning and paper-pushing; of school and bureaucracy; newspapers, textbooks and letters; candles, hurricane lamps and electricity; pens, paper, typewriters and printed type; and orthography developed for formerly oral languages. Writing only penetrated many layers of West Indian society in the same era. The range of writers is wide, and includes Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka and V. S. Naipaul. The chapters rely on close reading of canonical novels, but discuss general themes and trends in African and Caribbean literature. Ten Kortenaar's sensitive and penetrating treatment of these themes makes this an important contribution to the growing field of postcolonial literary studies.

Orality, Literacy, and Colonialism in Southern Africa

Orality, Literacy, and Colonialism in Southern Africa PDF Author: Jonathan A. Draper
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004130861
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
Literacy is essentially about the control of information, memory, and belief, and with colonialism in Southern Africa came the Bible and text-based literacy monitored by missionaries and colonial authorities. Old and new oral traditions, however, are beyond the control of empire and often carry the resistance, hopes, and dreams of colonized people. The essays in this volume recover aspects of Southern Africa's rich oral tradition. The authors, from disciplines such as anthropology, African literature, and biblical studies, delineate some of the contours of the indigenous knowledge systems which sustained resistance to colonialism and today provide resources for postapartheid society in Southern Africa. Paperback edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org)

The African Imagination

The African Imagination PDF Author: Abiola Irele
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780195086195
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
This collection of essays from eminent scholar F. Abiola Irele provides a comprehensive formulation of what he calls an "African imagination" manifested in the oral traditions and modern literature of Africa and the Black Diaspora. The African Imagination includes Irele's probing critical readings of the works of Chinua Achebe, Edward Kamau Brathwaite, Amadou Hampat B , and Ahmadou Kourouma, among others, as well as examinations of the growing presence of African writing in the global literary marketplace and the relationship between African intellectuals and the West. Taken as a whole, this volume makes a superb introduction to African literature and to the work of one of its leading interpreters.

From Orality to Orality

From Orality to Orality PDF Author: James A. Maxey
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1630871230
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
In this groundbreaking work, Bible translation is presented as an expression of contextualization that explores the neglected riches of the verbal arts in the New Testament. Going beyond a historical study of media in antiquity, this book explores a renewed interest in oral performance that informs methods and goals of Bible translation today. Such exploration is concretized in the New Testament translation work in central Africa among the Vute people of Cameroon. This study of contextualization appreciates the agency of local communities--particularly in Africa--who seek to express their Christian faith in response to anthropological pauperization. An extended analysis of African theologians demonstrates the ultimate goals of contextualization: liberation and identity. Oral performance exploits all the senses in experiencing communication while performer, text, and audience negotiate meaning. Performance not only expresses but also shapes identity as communities express their faith in varied contexts. This book contends that the New Testament compositions were initially performed and not restricted to individualized, silent reading. This understanding encourages a reexamination of how Bible translation can be done. Performance is not a product but a process that infuses biblical studies with new insights, methods, and expressions.