2.3 Methods for Textual and Contextual Analysis
2.3.2 Textual and Contextual Methodologies
The discourse on liberation and postcolonial biblical hermeneutics has revealed that the two sub-theoretical frameworks are entirely linked with political and economic location of the reader. This points to the fact that the Bible is not only a product and a record of class struggles, but it is also a site of similar struggles acted out by oppressors and oppressed, exploiters and exploited of our society even as they read the Bible (Mosala, 1986:196).4 This
4 West (1995:73) quotes Bernadette Mosala from Mosala, B. (1986:187) “Black Theology and the Struggle of the Black Woman in Southern Africa,” in Mosala, I. J. and Tlhagale B. (eds) (1986) The Unquestionable Right To Be Free, Skotaville, Johannesburg.
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is the very reason why the two contexts of Habakkuk and Malawi are brought into dialogue.
We shall now look at textual and contextual methodologies that are used in our efforts of establishing what is happening in the two contexts. A number of methods will be used to analyze the text. Textual analysis is in two parts.
2.3.2.1 Approaches for Analyzing the Socio-Historical Context of Habakkuk
The first part deals with the socio-historical background of the book of Habakkuk. Because we are interested in the community that produced the text of Habakkuk, a sociological approach and historical critical method will be used to analyze the socio-historical world of the text. Mosala (1989:54) reminds us of the fact that sociological approaches to the Bible often raise and address political issues in the Bible. With the help of social scientific tools, we will be able to discover the scenes and historical setting behind the text. Wilson observes that:
… the social sciences can help the reader to be self-conscious about the role that social and cultural forces play in shaping literary perceptions. Each of us approaches the Old Testament with a view of reality that has been nurtured by the social and cultural situations in which we have lived (Wilson, 1984:5-6).
Therefore, sociological approach is what West (1995:64-74) calls “reading behind the text”
because it aims at uncovering scenes behind the text. He considers this approach to be a new way of answering historical question that pays more attention on the social life of the text and the reader, in which social scientific criticism completes the task of historical criticism by providing more or less detailed social referential readings of the biblical text (West, 1995:63).
This explains why this study employs sociological and historical critical methods to analyze the socio-historical context of Habakkuk.
2.3.2.2 Approaches for Literary Analysis of Habakkuk
The second part is the literary analysis of the book of Habakkuk. Literary criticism assists in analyzing the text itself focusing on the literature and the language of the text. This approach involves close reading of biblical texts with careful attention to their literary forms and textures (Olson, 2010:13). “In the text” mode of reading the Bible will be employed here. The questions that arise in literary approaches range widely from detailed attention to the meaning of individual words and sentences to the significance and shape of successively larger literary contexts in which the given text is situated (Olson, 2010:13). Literary criticism is aimed at understanding the language of Habakkuk in order to find the meaning of the text in its
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original context. This analytical process will include genre analysis of the work of Habakkuk.
Sparks (2010:55) points out that the term genre is widely used with reference to human discourse. He says:
To inquire about the genre of verbal discourse, whether of a spoken utterance or written text, is to ask about the sort of discourse that it is. Utterances might be “commands,” “questions,”
“poem,” or “stories,” just as texts might be “biographies,” “histories,” “letters,” or “newspaper articles.” When we identify verbal discourse using one of these labels, we imply that we know something about how that type of discourse works and that we have the competence to understand it to some degree (2010:55).
The book of Habakkuk is poetic in form and one of the objectives of this study is to see how poetry contributes to our context‟s understanding of the message of Habakkuk. The book has a variety of classic biblical genres typical of prophetic books which are used in unusual ways for surprising rhetorical purposes (Bruckner, 2012:295). The genre of the work of Habakkuk has been variously described as a liturgical composition, a prophetic imitation of a cultic liturgy, a report of a visionary experience, and a wisdom text that centres on the question of theodicy (Sweeney, 1991:63-4). Such variety in description warrants genre analysis of Habakkuk for a more precise theological appropriation and clearer understanding of its relevance to the contemporary Malawian context.
In seeking to grasp what the text is trying to do in a particular context, rhetorical criticism is utilized because it aims to present a persuasive reading and analysis of a biblical text within a given interpretive community or context. Rhetorical criticism is helpful because it links with historical-critical, sociological and literary methods thereby providing a useful link between the literary and the socio-historical context (Olson, 2010:24). It helps to analyze the language used by the biblical text, which in large part was influenced by the ways of imperial powers.
Elisabeth Fiorenza (2007:5) points out that certain biblical writings use imperial language as anti-language. She adds that anti-languages are often used by those on the margins of society, who speak in code so that not everybody can understand them. It is used by outsiders for constructing a reality that is an alternative reality to that of the dominant society (Fiorenza, 2007:5). Therefore, rhetorical interpretation is conscious that it is undertaken in real-world contexts, in which the interpreter has an immediate relationship with the intended audience (Olson, 2010:24).
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2.4.2.3 Approaches for Analyzing the Malawi Socioeconomic and Political Context The Malawi socio-economic and political context will be analyzed using a sociological approach and historical method. Postcolonial theory and liberation theory will also be used as tools for analyzing political and economic aspects of both Malawi context and the biblical text. We are doing this knowing that our use of postcolonial theory will have a strong economic orientation because of the use of liberation theory. Here, it needs to be pointed out that I am going to use elements of Marxist theory particularly when I deal with the biblical material. This entails that when analyzing political and economic aspects of Habakkuk, the study will focus extensively on postcolonial economic analysis in terms of theory; however, it will draw on aspects of Marxist theory through the work of Norman Gottwald, Roland Boer and Gerald West. Likewise, the work of Per Frostin (1988) that identifies both within Ujaama theology in Tanzania and black theology in South Africa a sort of Marxist orientation will be used in that sense. Succinctly, I will be using forms of postcolonial and Marxist theory.
The 1992 pastoral letters will serve as analytical framework for analyzing the socio-economic context of Malawi. The two letters contribute theological categories to the appropriative pole in this research that help us understand what Habakkuk is doing with his poetry. Since interviews will not be conducted, the study will rely on documents for data collection. These documents will be analyzed using narrative research, which is one of qualitative techniques.
It is a form of research in which the researcher analyzes the lives of individuals by asking one or more individuals to narrate their life stories (Shah & Al-Bargi, 2013:258). The present study will employ document review since there are no interviews. Bowen (2009:27) says document analysis is systematic procedure for reviewing or evaluating documents – both printed and electronic (computer-based and internet-transmitted) material.
“For qualitative researchers,” observes Miller and Alvarado (2005b:349), “documents are distinctive in one respect: unlike interviews and observational episodes, documents exist before the researcher seeks to use them as data.” Documents contain text (words) and images that have been recorded without a researcher‟s intervention (Bowen, 2009:27). Atkinson and Coffey, quoted by Bowen (2009:27), refer to documents as “social facts,” which are produced, shared and used in socially organized ways. Like other analytical methods in qualitative research, document analysis requires that data be examined and interpreted in order to elicit meaning, gain understanding and develop empirical knowledge (Bowen,
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2009:27). In this study, document analysis will be performed for exploration of the book of Habakkuk and its socio-historical context. It will also be carried out to investigate the Malawian socio-economic and political situation. Various documents will be used as research material in this study. Since the study focuses on economics and politics which belong in class analytical categories and concepts, a socio-historical mode of analysis will be used to analyze these documents.
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CHAPTER THREE
THE SOCIO-HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF MALAWI