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Reading the Bible from the Margins

Currents in Theology and Mission, April, 2006 by Mark W. Bartusch

Reading the Bible from the Margins. By Miguel A. De La Torre. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2002. xii and 196 pages. Paper. $20.00.

De La Torre, a Cuban American who teaches at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, has written an important and provocative book highlighting the significance of a reader's social location for understanding the Bible. He points out how our interpretations of the Bible are culturally conditioned and not infrequently self-interested. He calls for a return to the text itself (lest we confuse our interpretations with the Bible itself) and invites the reader to consider interpretations from the perspective of the marginalized.

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In the introduction, he explains his purpose as exposing "the reader to a new way of 'seeing' biblical texts." By "reader" he has in mind white Euroamericans who, in the United States, typically enjoy a variety of privileges afforded them by the present social structure. He includes among the new perspectives those of African Americans, Asians, Hispanics, women, women of color, and gays. De La Torre writes: "It is not my intention to try to convince the reader of the validity of scriptural interpretations arising from the depths of oppression. Instead, the book provides persons of the dominant culture with a window into a world with which they are unfamiliar, even when this world is but a few blocks away from where they live" (p. 11). His fundamental thesis is that reading from the margins is not just an interesting alternative "to the way we've always done it," nor is it no more than what some more cynically minded folks might refer to as the politically correct thing to do these days. Rather, he suggests that "to read the Bible from the margins is to grasp God in the midst of struggle and oppression" (p. 4).

The strength of the book lies in the first four chapters. In chapter 1, De La Torre discusses the social process of reading, defines key terms and concepts for his study, and demonstrates how sometimes modern readers have a tendency to impose meanings on ancient biblical texts that are anachronistic. Chapter 2 notes how readings from the center/dominant culture serve to defend and reinforce the center's power and privilege at the expense of minority groups and encourages a material rather than a metaphoric or spiritual approach to the Bible in order better to enter into the real-life experience of the marginalized. Chapters 3 and 4 address the issue of how the Bible has been used to justify racism, classism, and sexism. In chapter 5, "Who Do You Say That I Am?" De La Torre follows Matt 25:40 and considers how Jesus is a woman, gay, black, poor; that is, how Jesus is all of those (the lost, the least, the last) whom the dominant culture marginalizes. The last two chapters draw attention to the public witness of the Christian community on behalf of and in solidarity with the marginalized, drawing on biblical texts and images to help readers be more Christlike.

Throughout the book, De La Torre provides illustrations from his own experience as an Hispanic male in the United States.

Reading the Bible from the Margins encourages us to think critically about our own social location: how who we are and where we live help shape the way we read and understand the Bible. Here is an invitation to rethink the Bible and to contemplate the possibility that what we have always assumed the Bible says or means is not necessarily the case; sometimes, the Bible looks and sounds different when viewed through other lenses. Fine examples include his discussion of the sabbath commandment (pp. 6-8) and of the Parable of the Vineyard Owner (pp. 76-81).

Some may find De La Torre's ideological approach to the Bible unfamiliar and discomforting. Nevertheless, it is clear that the author affirms both the authority of the Bible and the centrality of the gospel for Christian faith and life. The reader will not always agree with De La Torre's conclusions or his interpretations of the biblical text, but the interested and thoughtful reader will be rewarded by engaging his ideas. While the book is intended primarily for undergraduate students (it grew out of a class he teaches at Hope College), seminarians, parish pastors, and congregations would benefit from De La Torre's alternative perspectives on the biblical text as the global church continues to wrestle with how to be faithful to the gospel in diverse settings.

Mark W. Bartusch

Valparaiso University

Reading the Bible from the Margins

Currents in Theology and Mission, April, 2006 by Mark W. Bartusch

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