Overall this book deepened by gratitude for the miracle of the black church, forged and sustained in the fires of suffering. (And just patronized by white progressives.) He is a remarkable writer who defies easy categorization-a conservative Anglican who, self-admittedly, can often feel like a cultural outsider among white evangelicals and a theological outsider among black progressives.
McCaulley showed me things in the text that, frankly, I’ve never had reason to notice. Social location is not everything in reading our Bibles, of course, but it’s not nothing either. With biblical-theological skill he brings textual insights to bear that are often illuminating and moving. One need not agree with McCaulley’s every statement (I didn’t) to acknowledge and appreciate what he’s accomplished in this work. Was I part of the intended audience? Would it be more about political ideology than biblical reflection? Well, as evidenced by my five stars, I was thoroughly impressed. I didn't know what to expect going into this book. Reading While Black moves the conversation forward. Ultimately McCaulley calls the church to a dynamic theological engagement with Scripture, in which Christians of diverse backgrounds dialogue with their own social location as well as the cultures of others. McCaulley demonstrates this model with studies on how Scripture speaks to topics often overlooked by white interpreters, such as ethnicity, political protest, policing, and slavery. He advocates for a model of interpretation that involves an ongoing conversation between the collective Black experience and the Bible, in which the particular questions coming out of Black communities are given pride of place and the Bible is given space to respond by affirming, challenging, and, at times, reshaping Black concerns. At a time in which some within the African American community are questioning the place of the Christian faith in the struggle for justice, New Testament scholar McCaulley argues that reading Scripture from the perspective of Black church tradition is invaluable for connecting with a rich faith history and addressing the urgent issues of our times. Reading While Black is a personal and scholarly testament to the power and hope of Black biblical interpretation. This ecclesial tradition is often disregarded or viewed with suspicion by much of the wider church and academy, but it has something vital to say. A key element in the fight for hope, he discovered, has long been the practice of Bible reading and interpretation that comes out of traditional Black churches. Growing up in the American South, Esau McCaulley knew firsthand the ongoing struggle between despair and hope that marks the lives of some in the African American context.
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