Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope

Enslaved enslaver exegesis refers to the specific way that enslavers used biblical passages to justify and reinforce slavery, and it is characterized by a distortion of biblical witness that (mis)characterizes God, Jesus, and Paul as advocates of Black subjugation and opponents of Black social and political resistance. McCaulley contends that BEI and other forms of Black biblical interpretation emerge as a challenge to enslaved enslaver exegesis. The early Black churches were founded not to contest the doctrines of Christian faith but to push back against enslavers’ interpretation of the Bible and social practices that stood in opposition to sound Christian doctrine. Throughout the text, McCaulley deconstructs the same passages that form the canon of enslaved enslaver exegesis and even compares enslaved enslaver exegesis to Satan’s use of the biblical scriptures in his attempt to sway Jesus in the wilderness.

Eschatology refers to expectations about the end of the present age, human history, or the world. In Christianity, the expectation is that God will bring an end to human suffering by bringing his heavenly kingdom to Earth, thereby destroying unjust and oppressive structures and institutions, and passing final judgment on those who have sustained such structures and institutions. God’s eschatology is the underlying reason why Christians should strive to embody Jesus’s doctrines and teachings, and it is the basis of the hope for vindication that undergirds BEI. Consequently, God’s eschatological vision is integral to McCaulley’s text. Not only does God’s eschatology allow Christians entry to the kingdom with their ethnic and cultural identities intact, but it also encourages Black Christians to transform their anger into forgiveness rather than revenge and to trust that God uses human agents to bring profound societal change according to his will and not the limits of human understanding.

Evangelical refers to the branch of Protestant Christianity that emphasizes the authority of the Bible, a relationship with Jesus, and ministering to others on the messages and doctrines of Christianity to encourage conversion. Evangelicals have come under criticism because they are considered the “heirs to the [white] fundamentalists” (9), but McCaulley finds that their emphasis on the Bible’s authority provides “points of connection with the Black church” (9). McCaulley outlines historian David Bebbington’s accepted characteristics of evangelicalism—namely conversionism, activism, biblicism, and crucicentrism—but he goes on to highlight that there are two unspoken characteristics—a certain American historical narrative and silence on racism and systemic injustice—that render evangelicals incompatible with the Black ecclesial tradition that provides his own theological foundation.

Progressivism stands in contrast to evangelicalism, in that progressives shirk authoritarianism, orthodoxy, and tradition in favor of social, economic, and political reform. McCaulley takes issue with both white and Black progressives because they tend to see the scriptures as fundamentally flawed and a part of the problem in terms of societal ills. Accordingly, McCaulley’s articulation of BEI illustrates that the Bible provides theological resources for the social revolution that lies at the center of progressives’ aims. Therefore, BEI demonstrates that the Bible speaks to progressives’ concerns, but requires a willingness to accept the normative role of the Bible and have a higher confidence in God’s wisdom than in human wisdom, and subsequently allow the text to speak back to the concerns that Christians bring to the Bible.