Projects

2014-2020:

Potentials and problems of popular inculturation hermeneutics in Maasai biblical interpretation

During 2014-2020, VID Specialized University hosted a project entitled “Potentials and problems of popular inculturation hermeneutics in Maasai biblical interpretation.” The project was funded by the Norwegian Research Council, and it was directed by Professor Knut Holter. Other participants were Beth Elness-Hanson (Ph.D. student), Zephania Shila Nkesela (Ph.D. student), and Hoyce Mbowe (Postdoc researcher).

The Bible plays increasing roles in Maasai contexts and the project aimed at investigating the “potentials” (for liberation and development) and “problems” (of oppression and marginalization) of popular biblical interpretation.

Publishing highlights (cf. below) were Elness-Hanson’s monograph in 2017 and then three books in 2020: monographs by Mbowe and Nkesela and an anthology edited by Knut Holter and Lemburis Justo.

Researchers

Beth Elness-Hanson
(USA)

…has done a PhD entitled “Generational Curses in the Pentateuch: An American and Maasai Intercultural Analysis,” completed and defended in 2016. The PhD was supervised by Professor Knut Holter, and the members of the PhD committee were Professor Madipoane Masenya (University of South Africa), Professor Fernando Segovia (Vanderbilt University, USA), and Professor Marta Høyland Lavik (VID Specialized University, Norway).

Zephania Shila Nkesela
(Tanzania)

…has done a PhD thesis entitled “A Maasai Encounter with the Bible: Nomadic Lifestyle as a Hermeneutical Question,” completed and defended in June 2018. The PhD was supervised by Professor Knut Holter, and the members of the PhD committee were Dr Lechion Peter Kimilike (Open University, Tanzania), Dr Ntozakhe Cezula (Stellenbosch University, South Africa), and Professor Kari Storstein Haug (VID Specialized University, Norway).

Hoyce Mbowe
(Tanzania)

…has done a postdoctoral project entitled “Maasai Women and the Old Testament: Towards an Emancipatory Reading”, supervised by Professor Knut Holter.

Knut Holter
(Norway)

…has done research on “Popular inculturation hermeneutics in Maasai biblical interpretation: Some postcolonial perspectives”.

Publications

  • Elness-Hanson, Beth: Generational Curses in the Pentateuch: An American and Maasai Intercultural Analysis. New York: Peter Lang, 2017 (Bible and Theology in Africa, 24).

  • Elness-Hanson, Beth: “YHWH in the Kimaasai Bible,” in Knut Holter and Lemburis Justo (eds.): Maasai Encounters with the Bible. Nairobi: Acton (2020), 121-145.

  • Holter, Knut: “What shall we do with the Canaanites? An ethical perspective on Genesis 12:6,” Old Testament Essays 30 (2017), 337-347. Full text: https://www.scielo.org.za/pdf/ote/v30n2/09.pdf

  • Holter, Knut: “The Maasai and the ancient Israelites: An early 20th century interpretation of the Maasai in East Africa,” Scriptura 116 (2017:2), 66-74. Full text: https://scriptura.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/1314

  • Holter, Knut: “Relocating Keil & Delitzsch: Reading a mid-19th century biblical commentary from Germany with early 21st century theology students from Tanzania and Norway,” in Uta Andrée, Ruomin Liu, and Sönke Lorberg-Fehring (eds.), Transkulturelle Begegnungen und interreligiöser Dialog. Hamburg: Missionshilfe Verlag, 2017, 279-288. Full text: https://www.missionsakademie.de/files/11_SITMA_inhaltneu.pdf

  • Holter, Knut and Lemburis Justo (eds.): Maasai Encounters with the Bible. Nairobi: Acton, 2020.

  • Holter, Knut: The Maasai and the ancient Israelites: Religio-cultural parallels,” in Knut Holter and Lemburis Justo (eds.): Maasai Encounters with the Bible. Nairobi: Acton (2020), 107-119.

  • Lyimo-Mbowe, Hoyce Jacob: Maasai Women and the Bible: Towards an Emancipatory Reading. New York: Peter Lang, 2020 (Bible and Theology in Africa, 29).

  • Lyimo-Mbowe, Hoyce Jacob: “Reading Genesis 1:27 with Maasai research participants,” in Knut Holter and Lemburis Justo (eds.): Maasai Encounters with the Bible. Nairobi: Acton (2020), 25-41.

  • Nkesela, Zephania Shila: A Maasai Encounter with the Bible: Nomadic Lifestyle as a Hermeneutic Question. New York: Peter Lang, 2020 (Bible and Theology in Africa, 30).

  • Nkesela, Zephania Shila: “Abraham’s solution to the land crisis in Genesis 13:8-9,” in Knut Holter and Lemburis Justo (eds.): Maasai Encounters with the Bible. Nairobi: Acton (2020), 43-58.