READING WHILE Blackness

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Growing upward in the American S, Esau McCaulley knew immediate the ongoing struggle between despair and hope that marks the lives of some in the African American context. A cardinal element in the fight for promise, he discovered, has long been the do of Bible reading and interpretation that comes out of traditional Black churches. This ecclesial tradition is oft disregarded or viewed with suspicion by much of the wider church and university, but information technology has something vital to say.

Reading While Blackness is a personal and scholarly testament to the power and hope of Black biblical interpretation. At a fourth dimension in which some within the African American community are questioning the identify of the Christian organized religion in the struggle for justice, New Attestation 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 chat between the collective Blackness feel and the Bible, in which the particular questions coming out of Black communities are given pride of identify and the Bible is given infinite to respond by affirming, challenging, and, at times, reshaping Blackness concerns. McCaulley demonstrates this model with studies on how Scripture speaks to topics often disregarded by white interpreters, such every bit 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 ain social location besides as the cultures of others. Reading While Black moves the conversation forrad.

REVIEWS FOR READING WHILE Black

"Although the African American Christian feel is not monolithic, we take generally sought to understand the Bible and live according to its teachings. Forth the way, many of us accept rejected white supremacist readings of the Bible while clinging to the God of the Bible. In Reading While Black, McCaulley does conscientious exegetical and historical analysis, explaining and illustrating how interpretations of Scripture past Black people tin can eternalize faith in a liberating God. McCaulley gives us more than a theoretical methodology; he demonstrates how we tin approach and use texts—even ones that were previously used confronting us—without jettisoning our faith or succumbing to oppressive readings. Reading While Black is a welcome addition to the study of African American hermeneutics."
Dennis R. Edwards, Acquaintance Professor of New Testament at North Park University

"Esau McCaulley's phonation is ane we urgently need to hear. This book is prophetic, biblical, measured, wise, friendly, and well-reasoned—and thus all the more hard-hitting. A powerful word for our times."
Northward. T. Wright, Professor of New Testament at the University of St Andrews, Senior Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford

"It is enlightening, moving, and galvanizing to overhear these notes of appreciation and reciprocated encouragement from a son of the Black church to the Black ecclesial interpreters who nurtured and keep to attend him. From here on out, this book will exist required reading in whatever course on biblical hermeneutics that I teach."
Wesley Hill, Associate Professor of Biblical Studies at Trinity School for Ministry

"Throughout history the church building, equally information technology strives to be faithful in particular times and places, has had to bring the core cultural concerns of their neighbors to Scripture for answers. This is the piece of work of loving our neighbors well. What does God have to say about the animating bug of our lives and communities? In Reading While Black, Rev. Dr. Esau McCaulley puts in assuming relief earlier the states the historic and present concerns of the African American community. Does God take a give-and-take for us nearly policing? Is there whatever guidance from on loftier about Black identity, justice, righteous anger, slavery, and oppression? With sound exegetical method, deep cultural insight, and skillful application he brings us into the heart of God on these issues. Know, yet, that this is not just a book for Black people. Far from it. Anyone who desires to engage these questions with gospel hope should have up and read."
Irwyn Fifty. Ince Jr., Director of GraceDC Found for Cantankerous-Cultural Mission and Author of The Beautiful Community

"In Reading While Black, Dr. Esau McCaulley combines his training in New Testament scholarship with his love for the Black church tradition. The result of his labor is a fresh and accessible contribution to African American reception history of the Bible. Even when readers disagree with his arguments and conclusions, they volition larn how some African Americans interpreted Scripture in diverse contexts. McCaulley argues in these pages that African American Christian ecclesial readings of Scripture were an do of hope."
Jarvis J. Williams, Associate Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

"This is a must-read for pastors, college students, seminarians, and anyone interested in learning about how African American Bible interpretation tin can speak a word of promise to the states in our day. Information technology addresses questions Blackness Christians have been asking about issues such as policing, Black identity, political protest, and the pursuit of justice from a perspective that takes the Bible and its critics seriously."
Lisa Fields, Founder and President of the Jude 3 Project

"I don't know if I realized how much I needed this volume until information technology landed in my hands. Reading While Blacknessis scholarly withal reads clearly, communicating what many Blackness Christians take been saying for decades. Everyone would practice well to listen up, lest they miss God in the process."
Jackie Colina-Perry, Bible teacher and Poet, Author of Gay Girl, Skillful God: The Story of Who I Was, and Who God Has Always Been

"Mark my words: Esau McCaulley is the brightest theological listen of this generation. Reading While Black is the oasis in the current Christian academic desert. Every bit a professor, I can't await to assign information technology, and as a pastor, I tin't expect to utilise it for discipleship. The Black educatee of the Bible instinctively knows the inherent risk of oversold lies and cultural mishaps at the intersection of our race and the reading of Scripture. In this work, nosotros accept a new light to walk the path straight."
Charlie Dates, Senior Pastor of Progressive Baptist Church building, Chicago

"Many have been thrown into a crisis of religion over the ways that the Scriptures have been used to oppress and denigrate others, especially Black Americans. How can this good news of Jesus really exist good news when it has been wielded equally a weapon by much of the white American church? Reading While Black makes clear how the Scriptures, rightly read, are the source of Blackness justice and liberation, and how an orthodox belief in the dominance of the Bible bolsters the dignity and flourishing of people of color in America. Theologically profound yet eminently accessible, Fr. Esau McCaulley masterfully weaves a dense and gorgeous tapestry of his personal narrative, insight into the Black church and American civilization, and careful exegesis. This phenomenal book plumbs a range of urgent bug similar merely policing, the place of protestation and anger, and slavery and white supremacy. I cannot think of a more relevant, pressing, helpful, and hopeful book for our contemporary moment."
Tish Harrison Warren, Anglican priest and Author of Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life

"I'one thousand extremely grateful to have a voice in my fourth dimension to speak with dash, grace, and cultural awareness. Esau has given usa a healthy marriage for understanding theology and blackness. This is a must-read!"
Lecrae, Hip Hop Recording Artist

"When I was a student, I was explicitly and implicitly trained to focus exclusively on the aboriginal context of Scripture and read 'considerately.' Bible study could hands become a disembodied feel. McCaulley makes a compelling case, in this engagement with African American biblical interpretation, that not only is the reader'due south culture and experience not a hindrance to interpretation per se but can enrich it greatly. Reading While Black is a unique and successful blend of biblical hermeneutics, autobiography, blackness history and spirituality, incisive cultural commentary on race matters in America, and insightful exegesis of select New Testament texts."
Nijay One thousand. Gupta, Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary

"What does the Bible have to say to Blackness Christians seeking justice? By looking at well-known, overlooked, underinterpreted, and misinterpreted texts, Esau McCaulley tells us that a faithful reading of Scripture as the Word of God summons Blackness Christians (and others) to a cluster of practices. These include naming and protesting evil, expressing anger, and pursuing liberty and justice, but also promoting reconciliation, practicing forgiveness, and living in hope—all as aspects of proclaiming the gospel of the God revealed in Jesus. An of import book."
Michael J. Gorman, Raymond E. Brown Chair in Biblical Studies and Theology at St. Mary's Seminary and Academy, Baltimore

"How tin can the church building today effectively address the racial tensions that plague our nation? Esau McCaulley has convinced me that the Black church tradition holds the primal—maintaining fidelity to the Scriptures while fully engaging in the struggle for justice. This book is an excellent starting point for those who want to mind and learn a new fashion forward. Esau's prophetic vocalism is rooted in Scripture and total of hope. Highly recommended!"
Carmen Joy Imes, Associate Professor of Old Attestation at Prairie College in Three Hills, Alberta, Canada, and Author of Bearing God's Name: Why Sinai Still Matters

"In Reading While Blackness, Esau McCaulley is unapologetically Black, Christian, and committed to reading the Bible every bit Scripture and as relevant to the experience of Blackness folks. McCaulley demonstrates how the intuition and habits of Black biblical interpretation and the Black ecclesial tradition can help all readers connect the Bible and theology with the pressing issues of the day. His volume is a must-read for whatsoever pastor, undergraduate pupil, seminarian, or pupil of the Bible who is ready to reckon with and be awakened by McCaulley'due south fresh and constructive readings of Scripture. With interpretations that are rooted in the tradition of his ancestors, McCaulley is undeterred in calling out racist assumptions, engaged in dialogue with other interpretive traditions, and guided by a hermeneutic of trust. Those who take hold of hold of this book and wrestle with information technology volition be blessed."
Janette H. Ok, Associate Professor of New Attestation at Fuller Theological Seminary

"Esau McCaulley is a tremendous New Testament scholar; he has the rare gift of taking the complex and making it accessible and practical without losing theological substance. Reading While Blackness volition provide you with insights into the gospel that will transform your life, regardless of your ethnicity. The horizons of your spiritual formation will expand equally a issue of reading this book; yous volition read and return to it over and over."
Derwin L. Grey, Lead Pastor of Transformation Church in Due south Carolina, Writer of The Good Life: What Jesus Teaches Near Finding Truthful Happiness

"Esau McCaulley is untying the Gordian knot that has kept Blackness Christians leap to theological ultimatums. This is a book for theologians who hope to play outside the trite sandboxes of their seminaries and for the practitioners who discover themselves in need of a Black dictionary. His anecdotes, definitions, and propositions are timely for a society that is desperate to repossess dignity in the 'colorless' constructs that European Christianity congenital."
Sho Baraka, Artist, Professor, and Cofounder of the AND Campaign

"In Reading While Black, Esau McCaulley has given the African American church a gift—how to read the Scriptures in a way that is faithful to those Scriptures. And the beauty of his book is that it rightfully insists that reading the Bible well does non mean abandoning one's ethnicity. Instead, ane must read precisely from one'southward location while at the same time allowing the Bible to broaden our horizons. This is a book that African American pastors and scholars need to consider carefully. In fact, it is a volume that church leaders from every race in North America demand to ponder. I recommend this volume heartily!"
Osvaldo Padilla, Professor of Divinity at Beeson Divinity School

"Esau McCaulley faces the urgent question, What does Christian hope mean when white feet seem always to exist pressed on Black throats? Rather than a nihilist rejection of promise or a watered-down hope stemming from the European Enlightenment, McCaulley points to a hope forged through generations of Black Christians searching Scripture for a expert God. As the church building owns up to our phone call to end systemic racism, McCaulley addresses questions of police violence, Black anger, colorblindness, assimilation, and more. The book equips readers in a valuable mode of Scripture reading rooted in Black tradition that simultaneously acknowledges suffering and turns to Jesus as redeemer and promise."
Christine Jeske, Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Wheaton College, Author of The Laziness Myth