The Englewood Review of Books
Best Books of 2020
Advent Calendar
December 5
The Englewood Review of Books
*** Best Theology Book of 2020!!!
Reading While Black:
African American Biblical Interpretation
as an Exercise in Hope
Reading While Black:Esau McCaulley
Paperback: IVP Academic, 2020
Buy Now: [ IndieBound ][ Amazon ] [ Kindle ] [ Audible ]
McCaulley reminds us that exegesis cannot be simply a matter of a-historical exploration of individual texts, or even reading of individual passages in historical social context, rather exegesis must place each Old or New Testament story in appropriate context within the entire story-arc of the Bible, and must (seek to) understand the ways Scripture was interpreted by others within Scripture.
Perhaps one of the most powerful statements in the entire book is a small sentence buried in the middle. It is common for Christians to dismiss concerns, opinions, or approaches with which they disagree as being insufficiently Biblical, or perhaps not from a “Biblical worldview.” To that argument, Dr McCaulley replies, “The question isn’t always which account of Christianity uses the Bible… The question is which does justice to as much of the Biblical witness as possible” (p91).
Reading While Black is not, in the end, just about Black Christianity, Black church history, or Black Biblical theology. Rather, it is a significant contribution to the larger Christian conversation over what it means to be the multi-ethnic body of Christ. All readers will profit from the personal stories, the history, and the Biblical insights in this book, and hopefully this book will contribute meaningfully to the larger witness of the Body of Christ:
“What I have in mind then is a unified mission in which our varied cultures turn to the text in dialogue with one another to discern the mind of Christ.” (p22)
– from a review of this book by Bill Cayley
(which appeared on the Red Letter Christians website)
[ READ the full review ]
READ a superb excerpt from this book…
LISTEN our podcast episode with Esau McCaulley and David Swanson
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