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.

One of McCaulley’s key claims about BEI is that it is socially located, and the idea has foundations in Black liberation theology. McCaulley follows the example set by James Cone, who highlights the social locations of biblical characters to find points of connection with the Black experience. For example, the Exodus narrative is a throughline of BEI because the enslaved status of early Black Christians prompted their identification with Israel and trust in God’s character as a liberator. In Chapter 4, McCaulley emphasizes that Luke was the only New Testament writer who was a Gentile, making his place in the canon “a testimony to God’s value of all ethnic groups” (75), which provides hope for Black Christians who face racism.

A critical component of distinguishing BEI is demonstrating the ways that white Christians have interpreted the Bible from their social locations. In Chapter 1, McCaulley writes of evangelical circles that focused on the “golden age of theology […] [that] coincided with nadirs of Black freedom” and the biblical commentaries that only provided practical applications designed for white middle-class Christians (11).