Global Voices in Biblical Scholarship

  Sponsors: Yacouba Sanon and Federico Villanueva

The Research Group “Global Voices in Biblical Scholarship” is starting a three-year study on “Biblical Lament in Global Perspectives.” For 2026, we will focus on how imprecatory prayers have been used in contexts of war, colonization, and genocide in the Majority World (MW) for the sake of those who suffer. We hope to include one paper from each region of the MW (Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America). Each presentation explicates what imprecatory prayer means in a particular MW context, how this compares with biblical imprecatory prayer, and what new meanings emerge through the process of interpretation. The goal is to demonstrate how imprecatory prayer can be of help to those in contexts of war.

Please send paper proposals to [email protected] or [email protected] by March 4, 2026. 

Friday, November 20

1:00–3:00 PM

Presiding: Federico Villanueva and Yacouba Sanon

Federico Villanueva (Asia Graduate School of Theology Manila and Ateneo de Manila University): “Imprecatory Prayer and Colonization: Asian-Philippine Context” (20 minutes)

Discussion (5 minutes)

Oleksandr Geychenko (Odesa Theological Seminary) and Ksenia Trofymchuk (Eastern European Institute of Theology): “Imprecations as the Protest of Powerless: A Ukrainian Perspective” (20 minutes)

Discussion (5 minutes)

Yacouba Sanon (Faculte de Théologie Évangélique de l'Alliance Chrétienne, FATEAC, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire): “Imprecatory Prayer and Spiritual Warfare in African Christianity” (20 minutes)

Discussion (5 minutes)

Havilah Dharamraj (South Asia Institute of Advanced Christian Studies): “The Metaphor of Rape in Imprecations in Ancient West Asia and in the Song of Deborah (Judg 5:24-31): A South Asian Reading’’ (20 minutes)

Discussion (5 minutes)