Developing an Original Nigerian Contextual Hermeneutics: Reading Scripture Through the Lens of Nigerian Experience

Biblical hermeneutics in Nigerian Christianity is simultaneously rich in creative contextual reading strategies and underdeveloped as a systematic scholarly discipline. The development of an original Nigerian contextual hermeneutics, one that systematically integrates Nigerian cultural epistemologies, African biblical scholarship, and engagement with the global hermeneutical tradition, represents a significant scholarly contribution to African biblical studies. This study develops an original Nigerian contextual hermeneutics, drawing on the Nigerian cultural, social, and theological context to propose a systematic interpretive framework for Scripture that is both contextually authentic and exegetically responsible. A constructive hermeneutical methodology is employed through six stages: historical survey of hermeneutical practices in Nigerian Christianity from the early mission period to the present; critical engagement with the global hermeneutical tradition, from Schleiermacher and Gadamer to feminist and liberation hermeneutics, with specific attention to African biblical scholars including Adamo, Dube, and West; phenomenological research with 50 Nigerian lay Bible readers from diverse denominational and cultural backgrounds on their actual hermeneutical intuitions and community reading strategies; theoretical construction drawing on Nigerian cultural epistemological resources including Yoruba orature, Igbo communal wisdom traditions, and Hausa-Fulani oral narrative; synthesis into the original Nigerian Contextual Hermeneutical Framework; and validation through consultations with African biblical studies scholars. Original contributions include a Three-Horizon Nigerian Reading Model integrating the text's original horizon, the Nigerian cultural horizon, and the community of interpretation horizon, a set of contextual interpretive protocols for specific genres and themes, and a methodology for community-engaged biblical interpretation adapted for Nigerian cultural reading practices. The framework constitutes an original scholarly contribution to African biblical hermeneutics.

Keywords: Nigerian contextual hermeneutics, biblical interpretation, African biblical studies, original contribution, hermeneutical framework