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128
Book Reviews
Esther E. Acolatse,Power, Principalities, and the Spirit: Biblical realism in Africa and
the West (Grand Rapids,MI: William E. Eermans Publishing Company, 2018). 243
pp. $20.67 paperback.
Power, Principalities and the Spirit by Esther Acolatse is an example of the hermeneutical boldness and biblical sagacity arising out of the global south in the 21 centuries. The rise of religion in the global south—characterized by a burgeoning Pentecostal and Charismatic fervor—is demanding a fresh biblical hermeneutical outlook. The monopoly of western enlightenment epistemo- logical interpretation of the biblical text comes under serious scrutiny in this work. The western suspicion of the mythological and the enchanted worldview favored by African peoples are brought into creative dialogue through theolog- ical scholarship.
The goal of this work is to move the north-south postcolonial hermeneuti- cal discourse beyond the interpretive polarizations that has been ongoing for the past sixty years. It was rather apropos and serendipitous that the foreword of the book was written by Lamin Sanneh, a senior and well-respected African scholar who sadly passed away in January of this year. The book is a work of fine scholarship yet friendly to the non-academic reader in its avoidance of theological jargon and superfluous technical language. The two-hundred and forty-three pages are divided into six chapters with a helpful introduction that orientates the reader for the journey ahead.
The first chapter introduces us to the Ghanaian Methodist Churchman and scholar of the Hebrew Bible, Kwesi Dickson. Schooled in both the African and Western guilds, Dickson is presented by Acolatse as an exemplar African scholar who sought to apply the Bible meaningfully to his African context. For Dickson, the enchanted worlds of the biblical writers and his African reality are contiguous and affords no epistemic discontinuity. This, Acolatse points out, is in stark contrast to the demythologized approach presented by Rudolph Bultmann. Acolatse notes, “The biblical language of the powers, for Bultmann, belongs to a historical epoch where though forms had not yet been formed by scientific thinking” (53). Dickson’s elucidations on the reality of the cross and resurrection help reappraise the mythic worldview and draw attention to the centrality of spiritual transformation.
In Chapter two, Acolatse examines Bultmann’s understanding of myths and mythological language. Acolatse challenges Bultmann’s demythologization as a project that narrowly sought to respond to a Western scientific world without regard to how mythological language and understanding has been used and applied in different contexts. The works of Graham Twelftree and Walter Wink
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are curated to poignantly elucidate the use of power language in the New Tes- tament and its relevance for our time.
Chapter three examines further the language of myths and how it has been conceived in theological and psychological literature in pre-modernity and postmodernity. In this chapter, Acolatse argues with some force that mytho- logical language is both relevant indeed pertinent for our understanding of the message of the Bible, the Lordship of Christ, as well as the humanity and divinity of Christ. She notes, coupled with imagination, myths become indis- pensable for the life of faith for the Christian believer. In Chapter four Karl Barth’s less rigidly scientific and more pastoral approach to biblical exegesis is employed and engaged. Barth’s more balanced approach to the language of “principalities and powers” is brought into dialogues with William Abraham, Kwame Bediako, Nim Wariboko and Amos Yong.
Chapter five takes a constructive turn as Acolatse considers how we should properly understand the language of principalities and power in the New Testament. In this chapter she highlights thoughtful examples of how “power language” has been employed and applied in the various Christian contexts in the history of the church. Ephesians 6:10–20 is used to gather hermeneutical cues from various periods in Christian history that have sought to meaningfully and contextually engage with power language. In the conclud- ing chapter Acolatse, focus her attention on pneumatology and more specif- ically the pneumatology of John R. Levision. The focus on the Spirit that has been reintroduced via the global Pentecostal and Charismatic movement has the potential of taking us beyond the north-south hermeneutical bifurcative impasse.
What I find most arresting about this work is the way it unapologetically challenges the interpretative hegemony of western scientific approaches through one of its principle purveyors: Rudolf Bultmann. There is a compelling maturity with her approach that is often not felt in postcolonial hermeneutical literature. I liked also the fact that Acolatse did not shy away from critiquing African approaches and methods as she did with her treatment of Kwesi Dick- son. I did feel however, that the book was limited in its maintenance of the north-south binary discourse. The inclusion of African American hermeneu- tical approaches would have supported the intercultural project of the work. GreatworksthatprovidehermeneuticalinsightstoScripturebeyondthenorth- south binary from African American perspectives such as Cain Hope Felder’s Stony the RoadWeTrod: African American Biblical InterpretationsandTroubling Biblical Waters; and Vincent Wimbush’s Theorizing Scriptures; Scripturalectics: The Management of Meaning; and MisReading America: Scriptures and Differ- encewould have strengthen the work.
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The works of womanist biblical scholarship also belongs in this discourse such as, Womanist Interpretations of the New Testament: The Quest for Holistic and Inclusive Translation and Interpretationby Clarice J. Martin;Re-Reading for Liberation: African American Women and the Bibleby Renita J. Weems;Woman- ist Interpretation and Preaching in the Black Church by Katie Geneva Cannon; An African Methodology for South African Biblical Sciences: Revisiting the Bosadi (Womanhood) Approach by Madipoane J. Masenya; Marginalized People, Lib- erating Perspectives: A Womanist Approach to Biblical Interpretation by Kelly Brown Douglas;OurMothers’Gardens:DiscreteSourcesof ReflectionontheCross in Womanist Christology by JoAnne Marie Terrell; “This Little Light of Mine”: The Womanist Biblical Scholar as Prophetess, Iconoclast, and Activist by Mitzi J. Smith to name but a few.
Overall this is an excellent book that should be essential reading for students and scholars of missiology, theology, biblical and intercultural studies.
Clifton R. Clarke
Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California cliftonclarke@fuller.edu
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