The Globalization of Hermeneutics

Abstract

"It was my ˜rst year of doctoral studies, and I found myself sharing a small o¯ce with a Singaporean. Somehow we had gotten into a discussion of cultural diˆerences. He was describing the old Chinese tradition of newlyweds living with in-laws. I remarked that it was hard for me to imagine living that way. After all, didn’t the Bible teach that “a man shall leave his father and mother”? Courteously but pointedly he reminded me that extended families more often than not lived together in Biblical times, so that his culture was closer to the Biblical practice in this respect than mine was.1 I had not learned the term yet, but I had experienced a classic example of a lesson in the “globalization” of Biblical hermeneutics"