In Faith and Freedom in Galatia: A Senegalese Diola Sociopostcolonial Hermeneutics, Niang argues that the apostle Paul is a sociopostcolonial hermeneut who acted on his self-understanding as Gods messenger to create/form, through faith in the cross of Christ, free communities--a self definition that echoes some features of ancient Graeco-Roman and modern colonial lore. This above thesis is bolstered with contributions from social sciences, postcolonial theories, biblical hermeneutics, and an exegetical analysis of Gal 2:11-15 and 3:26-29--a method Niang calls a Senegalese sociopo stcolonial hermeneutics.
The dissertation compares the French colonial objectifications of Diola people, of Sénégal, West Africa, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to the Graeco-Roman objectifications of the descendents of the ancient Celts (the Gauls/Galatians of Asia Minor) as savage beasts, primitive, irreligious, fickle, bibulous, and warmongering barbarians who threatened civilization; and therefore, must be tamed and civilized/colonized. Insight was drawn from Graeco-Roman writers, modern classicists, epigraphical evidence unearthed in Asia Minor, and ethnographical conclusions on the Diola socioreligious world to show that colonial typologies were overdrawn. Both Gauls/Galatians and Diola people had their own civilizations re gulated by complex divine judicial systems that required delicate rituals of confessions/reconciliation for wrongdoers.
The exegetical and concluding sections emphasize Pauls role in bringing about an alternative mode of community construction. He does this through a countercolonial story of faith in Jesus Christ that dismantles enslaving and negative colonial typologies, decolonizes and powerfully reshapes the mind of the colonized into free children of God who share a new common identity in Christ--an inclusive and egalitarian people in the community of God (Gal 3:26-29). In response to French colonization, Aline Sitoé, a Diola prophetess, exercised an alternative community construction parallel to that of the apostle Paul. Niang concludes that Paul was a subversive countercolonist par excellence and sociopostcolonial hermeneut whose Good News has the power to transform people from their ethnocentric binarism into a new creation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TCU/oai:etd.tcu.edu:etd-02012008-150123 |
| Date | 01 February 2008 |
| Creators | Niang, Aliou C. |
| Contributors | David L. Balch |
| Publisher | Texas Christian University |
| Source Sets | Texas Christian University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf, application/octet-stream |
| Source | http://etd.tcu.edu/etdfiles/available/etd-02012008-150123/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to TCU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
Page generated in 0.0106 seconds