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

Content Warning: This section of the guide addresses enslavement, racism, violence, and oppression. The guide reproduces the terms “slave” and “slave master” only in quotation.

Black Ecclesial Interpretation (BEI) refers to the method of biblical interpretation rooted in enslaved Black people’s earliest encounters with the Bible. McCaulley identifies it as a habit or instinct that “has a distinctive message of hope” (165), gleaned through bringing Black people’s concerns to the Bible and waiting for an answer with patience that is “rooted in the confidence that God has willed [their] good and not [their] harm” (165). McCaulley highlights that BEI is captured in the oral tradition of Black Christianity, such as sermons, prayer meetings, confessionals, Bible studies, and gospel music. Accordingly, his presentation of BEI is not an innovation in biblical interpretation but instead, an articulation of that which already existed. McCaulley contends that BEI is theological, canonical, socially located, dialogical, and patient. These characteristics allow McCaulley to apply the method to discern how the Bible speaks to contemporary social justice issues, thus pushing back against criticisms from within and without the Black community that the Bible is not useful for today’s political resistance and social practice.