CBI as a (Biblical Studies) Discipline

“Contextual Biblical Interpretation” (CBI) as a concept has been useful because of its broad and inclusive scope. The article identifies a number of conceptual parameters of CBI. First, CBI includes biblical studies work in which the context of biblical reception is the subject of interpretation. Second, the context of reception is an inhabited or peopled context and these actual local context-based people are the subjects of interpretation. Third, the different forms of CBI each include a commitment to forms of social and theological transformation. Fourth, the various forms of CBI, while accountable to reception context-based readers are each “biblical” in that they may use of the resources of biblical studies, while challenging and changing the discipline. Fifth, CBI contributes to the changing of the discipline of biblical studies through its careful conceptual work, creating communities of theoretical and methodological reflection within forms of action-reflection praxis.