Abstracts
Résumé
Cet article présente une herméneutique sri lankaise du récit de Joseph (Gn 37-50) en lien avec une tentative de paix authentique au Sri Lanka. De façon générale, une paix authentique est un phénomène rare en dehors des limites de groupes restreints. Les conflits tendent à s’aggraver, au point d’atteindre le niveau de conflits armés en contexte de pauvreté. Ils s’accompagnent souvent d’économies de guerre dont profitent ultimement les riches. Le Sri Lanka pourrait obtenir une paix durable si une solidarité pouvait être créée parmi les dépossédés des diverses ethnies. Gn 37-50 révèle quatre défis à la paix au Sri Lanka : 1) constituer Benjamin ou créer une solidarité parmi les dépossédés ; 2) souligner l’importance de la fraternité/sororité pour la survie de la nation menacée par les économies politiques existantes qui bénéficient à l’élite nationale et globale ; 3) comprendre la paix comme renonciation ; et 4) comprendre et manifester le pardon.
Abstract
This article presents a Sri Lankan hermeneutic of the Joseph Story (Genesis 37-50) in relation to grassroots peacemaking in Sri Lanka. On a global scale, peacemaking at the grassroots level is a rare phenomenon outside of the confines of small groups. Conflicts are often aggravated and even reach the point of armed struggles due to conditions of dispossession. These eventually lead to war economies which are ultimately beneficial to the rich. Sri Lanka could achieve sustainable peace if solidarity could be created among the dispossessed of the ethnic divide. Genesis 37-50 reveals four challenges to peacemaking in Sri Lanka, namely, (i) constituting Benjamin or creating solidarity among the dispossessed of the ethnic divide, (ii) highlighting the importance of brotherhood/sisterhood for the survival of the nation which is jeopardized by the existing economic policies which are beneficial to the national and global elite, (iii) understanding peace as renunciation, and (iv) understanding and interpreting forgiveness.
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Appendices
Biographical note
Shirley Lal Wijesinghe is professor in the Department of Western Classical Culture and Christian Culture in the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. He also coordinates an ecumenical course in Contextual Theology at the Asian Institute of Missiology, Colombo, Sri Lanka. He has served as a resource person on contextual hermeneutics in India, Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Italy, Senegal, USA and Chile.
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