Suli: Re-Storying Inheritance

Contextual and Biblical Hermeneutics from Samoa and Moana-nui.  “E se’i le futi ae toto le suli.”  A doctoral thesis by latuivai Kioa Latu, published in 2025 by Piula Publications, Apia Samoa and Missionshilfe Verlag, Hamburg, Germany.

“SULI: Re-Storying Inheritance: Contextual and Biblical Hermeneutics from Samoa and Moana-nui takes on, with critical erudition and lamentation, the contagious combination of the Christian Bible, law, and politics in the interpretation and regulation of land issues in Samoa. Through a contextual, relational, and decolonial lens, Latu presents a provocative Suli hermeneutics to investigate biblical inheritance narratives and the role of Samoan Christianity in their reception, but also as a gesture towards reaffirming ‘ele’ele or land as the birthing center for understanding being and knowing in Pasifika. This is a call for a theological re-storying to safeguard land as inheritance, and a valuable Ala’imoana, ‘the way in and of the moana,’ for anyone who wants to learn Samoan theology.” Upolu Lumā Vaai, Professor of Theology and Ethics and Principal, Pacific Theological College, Suva, Fiji.