AFRICAN AMERICAN BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION AS AN EXERCISE IN HOPE
ESAU McCAULLEY
An imprint of InterVarsity Press
Downers Grove, Illinois
P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426
©2020 by Esau D. McCaulley
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press.
InterVarsity Press® is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA®, a movement of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges, and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, visit intervarsity.org.
Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Cover design and image composite: David Fassett
Images: man with folded hands: © caracterdesign / E+ / Getty Images
paper texture: © Matthieu Tuffet / iStock / Getty Images Plus
open Bible: © TokenPhoto / E+ / Getty Images
ISBN 978-0-8308-5486-8 (print)
ISBN 978-0-8308-5487-5 (digital)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
TO THE MEMORY OF
Esau McCaulley Sr.
who died before he ever got to see
a book bearing our name in print.
Whatever else I am,
I will always remain your son.
1 The South Got Somethin’ to Say
Making Space for Black Ecclesial Interpretation
The New Testament and a Theology of Policing
The New Testament and the Political Witness of the Church
The Bible and the Pursuit of Justice
6 What Shall We Do with This Rage?
Conclusion: An Exercise in Hope
Bonus Track: Further Notes on the Development of Black Ecclesial Interpretation
This book would have been impossible without the help of friends, family, and colleagues.
To my mother, Laurie, thank you for dragging us to church even when we didn’t want to go and instilling in us a God-given hope for better things. This book is as much yours as it is mine. To my siblings—Latasha, Marketha, and Brandon—thank you for loving your brother even when I didn’t make it easy.
To my wife, Mandy, thank you for everything.
To Luke, Clare, Peter, and Miriam, my desire is that when times get difficult you will remember to read the texts of the Old and New Testament and find in them a source of hope like our ancestors did. If you ever forget what that hope looks like, I pray this ...
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About Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in HopeGrowing up in the American South, Esau McCaulley knew firsthand the ongoing struggle between despair and hope that marks the lives of some in the African American context. A key element in the fight for hope, he discovered, has long been the practice of Bible reading and interpretation that comes out of traditional Black churches. This ecclesial tradition is often disregarded or viewed with suspicion by much of the wider church and academy, but it has something vital to say. Reading While Black is a personal and scholarly testament to the power and hope of Black biblical interpretation. At a time in which some within the African American community are questioning the place of the Christian faith in the struggle for justice, New Testament scholar McCaulley argues that reading Scripture from the perspective of Black church tradition is invaluable for connecting with a rich faith history and addressing the urgent issues of our times. He advocates for a model of interpretation that involves an ongoing conversation between the collective Black experience and the Bible, in which the particular questions coming out of Black communities are given pride of place and the Bible is given space to respond by affirming, challenging, and, at times, reshaping Black concerns. McCaulley demonstrates this model with studies on how Scripture speaks to topics often overlooked by white interpreters, such as ethnicity, political protest, policing, and slavery. Ultimately McCaulley calls the church to a dynamic theological engagement with Scripture, in which Christians of diverse backgrounds dialogue with their own social location as well as the cultures of others. Reading While Black moves the conversation forward. |
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