What does it mean to ‘read the Bible while Black’?
by Martyn Taylor, Psephizo:
I first came across Esau McCaulley when I discovered his New York Times article on ‘What the Bible Has to Say about Black Anger?’ I loved the way he handled scripture and moved his readers from the Psalms of rage (Ps 137) to the wider message of biblical hope where the oppressor also finds freedom and hope through the God revealed in the scriptures (Isaiah 49).
Like many people, I have tried to read more widely around the subject of racism since the death of George Floyd. Many will have read Ben Lindsay’s We Need to Talk About Race (SPCK). Lindsay has held up a mirror to help us understand the Black experience in the context of the wider UK church and the work that we need to do in order to be more inclusive of the diversity that is God given in the church.
Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope (IVP Academic) comes to the subject of Black experience from a different angle. McCaulley is now Assistant Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College in the United States. He grew up in Alabama in the Deep South in the Baptist tradition and today he is ordained in the Anglican Church in North America. He is an opinion writer in New York Times and has written numerous articles in Christianity Today and The Washington Post.
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