Journal: Conspectus
Volume: CONSPECTUS 40:1 (Oct 2025)
Article: The Author-Intended Meaning: The Priority Of Scripture Over Culture As A Key To The Future Of African Christianity
Author: Kevin Smith

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The Author-Intended Meaning: The Priority Of Scripture Over Culture As A Key To The Future Of African Christianity

Kevin Smith

South African Theological Seminary

About The Author

Kevin is a lover of one God, a husband to one wife, a father to one son, and a student for life. He holds doctorates in Biblical Greek and Old Testament. He has worked for SATS since 2004, serving as the Academic Dean until 2018, and as the Principal since then. Kevin’s first love is studying and teaching the Bible, but he is also passionate about theological education.

Email: [email protected]

This article: https://www.sats.ac.za/conspectus/author-intended-meaning-priority https://doi.org/10.54725/conspectus.2025.2.1

Abstract

The faithfulness and vitality of Christianity are inseparable from its hermeneutic. As the center of Christianity shifts to the Global South, the future of African Christianity depends on whether Scripture will interpret culture or culture Scripture. The growing influence of reader-centered hermeneutics in African pulpits and scholarship poses a serious challenge, as these approaches risk elevating cultural concerns above the authority of God’s Word.

This article argues that only a hermeneutic of trust that seeks the author-intended meaning of Scripture can sustain the revival currently underway in Africa. The argument is developed through a literary-theological method that combines philosophical reasoning, biblical precedent, and historical precedent. By weaving together these threads, the author advances a cumulative case for prioritizing the author-intended meaning of Scripture.

The case unfolds in three stages. Firstly, drawing on the philosophical work of E. D. Hirsch, it shows that the author-intended meaning is the only defensible way of securing determinate meaning in a text. Secondly, following Abner Chou, it demonstrates that the biblical writers themselves—prophets, apostles, and Christ—interpreted Scripture contextually, canonically, and christocentrically, thereby modelling a faithful and normative hermeneutic. Thirdly, it highlights Byang Kato, the

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father of African evangelicalism, who insisted that Scripture must judge culture rather than the reverse.

Taken together, these arguments call for a renewed commitment in African biblical studies and theology to an author-, canon-, and Christ-centered hermeneutic. Such an approach is not a Western imposition but has a biblical, theological, and African basis. The article concludes that the long-term health of African Christianity depends on recovering this he...