Living In Different Worlds Simultaneously Or: A Plea For Contextual Integrity

Chapter Summary

This chapter first outlines the different kinds of contextuality: didactic contextuality, interpretive contextuality, productive contextuality, rhetorical contextuality, literary contextuality, canonical contextuality, and meta-theoretical contextuality. If the above distinction between at least seven types of contextuality prove to be helpful at all, it becomes clear that a plea for contextual biblical scholarship" in (South) Africa (or for that matter, anywhere else) could be confusing to some of us. What kind of contextuality are we talking about? In what way does this contextuality interact with other types of contextuality in biblical interpretation? The chapter presents a plea for contextual integrity by addressing these questions. Finally, the author gives some concluding statements about the deliberations during the four days of the Stellenbosch conference.

Keywords: canonical contextuality; contextual biblical scholarship; contextual integrity; didactic contextuality; interpretive contextuality; literary contextuality; meta-theoretical contextuality; productive contextuality; rhetorical contextuality