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.

Esau McCaulley, born in 1979, is a Black American biblical scholar, The Johnathan Blanchard Associate Professor of New Testament and Public Theology at Wheaton College, and the theologian-in-residence at Progressive Baptist Church. He is ordained in the Anglican Church in North America, and his writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and Christianity Today. Having earned his BA in history, an MDiv, an STM, and a PhD in the New Testament, McCaulley’s educational and religious backgrounds have culminated in his expertise in New Testament exegesis, African American biblical interpretation, and public theology. Reading While Black is an academically grounded text that reflects his background. As he highlights in Chapter 1 and illustrates throughout the text, both his identity as a Black man from the South and his Christian faith play key roles in the insight he brings to theological study and the articulation of the Black ecclesial tradition and its interpretive habits. In his writing, McCaulley positions himself as an expert by research but also by experience, and he includes personal anecdotes to prompt the reader’s identification with his theological analysis.