"Reading While Black" by Esau McCaulley. A Review
Reading While
Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope
Esau McCaulley
IVP Academic
ISBN: 978-0-8308-5486-8; September 2020; $20.00
On occasion I have had the pleasure
of overhearing my adult children talking to others without their knowing I was
around. It’s quite a humbling experience, and many times, encouraging to hear
them owning the faith for themselves. Their interactions with the other person
were not meant for my ears necessarily, which is what makes it even more
meaningful. That’s very much the case with a new 208-page softback, “Reading
While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope”. Esau
McCaulley, assistant professor of New Testament at Wheaton College, priest in
the Anglican Church in North America, contributing opinion writer for The
New York Times, and host of The Disrupters podcast, is
writing for a black audience that may be skeptical of Christianity and doubtful
of the Bible: “This book then is not an apologetic attempting to explain away
all the problematic parts of church history nor is it a defense of the entire
Black Christian tradition. Instead it is an attempt to show that the instincts
and habits of Black biblical interpretation can help us use the Bible to
address the issues of the day” (23). To say that I was blessed to be allowed to
overhear this conversation would be an understatement.
McCaulley gives readers seven
thoughtful chapters that address his own personal struggles and that of many
black Christians. The struggle “between Black nihilism and Black hope. I am
speaking of the ways in which the Christian tradition fights for and makes room
for hope in a world that tempts us toward despair. I contend that a key element
in the fight for hope in our community has been the practice of Bible reading
and interpretation coming out of the Black church, what I am calling Black
ecclesial interpretation” (3). Therefore, the author is not floating some new
idea, but simply articulating a practice that already exists (5). An approach
that can be a remedy to the cynicism of those who doubt that the Bible has
anything to say, and an approach that contends for hope (6). And hope is
the melody playing through the entire volume.
To move readers along his stream of
thought, McCaulley addresses several subjects that may resonate with African
Americans, and especially black Christians. He launches out tackling the tricky
subject of policing. The author draws from Scripture, challenges a few
preconceptions, and builds a beautiful case for a healthy perspective for
policing that creates “an atmosphere in which people are able to live without
fear” (45). With all of the calls and demands for defunding or disbanding the
police in the present, I found this chapter well thought out and helpful.
Then the topics of the political
witness of the church and our pursuit of justice are brought forth. McCaulley
is clear about the limits of political witness, and gives a solid caution
several times: “This does not mean that a Christian cannot protest injustice,
it means that we cannot claim God’s justification for violent revolution” (51).
He also sees clearly how our politicians often play on our desires for God’s
justice to prevail in the here-and-now “by convincing us that utopia is
possible here and they alone can provide it” (65). He further reminds readers
that though we hunger and thirst for righteousness, we cannot be deluded into
thinking that we can establish God’s kingdom on earth. Instead “we see society
for what it is: less than the kingdom.” Therefore, our public witness lets the
world know “that we see the cracks in the façade” (68).
And yet, we do hunger and thirst for
righteousness, recognizing that God values the undervalued. We hear Jesus
reading Isaiah 61:1 in the synagogue (Luke 4) and come to affirm that Jesus
tells “Black Christians that neither slavery nor Jim Crow nor housing
discrimination, nor loan discrimination nor any other weapon influences God’s
love for them. In fact, it is just the opposite. God displays his glory
precisely in rejecting the value systems posed by the world.” This means that
the impoverished are still given the value of being moral agents by Jesus whom
he calls to repent since the poor are capable of sin and repentance, and poverty
doesn’t remove their agency (93).
Next, McCaulley attractively displays
the presence of Africans in the New Testament, and earlier Christianity, showing
how it is not a White Man’s religion, but Africans were in on the ground floor.
More, he addresses Black Rage from the Scriptures pointing out the value of the
Psalms in giving voice and wording for the prayers of the oppressed, but also
how the resurrection gives us hope because it “requires us to believe that
nothing is impossible” (134). And finally, he lands on that “peculiar
institution” – slavery. Without giving away this all-important chapter, I will
say the author handles Scripture well, makes vital observations, and ends in a
place that led me to say “Amen!”
There were numerous themes running
through the book that I found corrective and beneficial. Hope, of course, is
the number one tune. But another that was richly encouraged, was how ethnicity
is not a hinderance to God’s world rescue operation, but an integral part of
it. Therefore, one “might be tempted to say that the place of all ethnicities
in the kingdom of God is a bright red line running right down the middle of the
New Testament” (77). The truth of this assertion displays the magnitude of the
book, and why it matters, and why it should matter to us.
“Reading While Black” is a
conversation between the author and African American readers, but is open for
others to listen in. I was apprehensive when I picked up the book, unsure of
what was coming and where he would go, but I’m glad I got to eavesdrop because
it was a wholesome presentation. I applaud the author and his work and
encourage anyone serious about justice, race, and our Christian faith to snag a
copy and snoop around the corner to overhear what he is saying. I highly
recommend the book.
I’m pleased that IVP Academic
responded to my request for a copy to review and sent it. They made no demands
or dictates other than that I be honest in my assessment. And so, honestly,
this is all my analysis freely made and freely given.
Comments