Reading While Black

Reading While Black is a personal and scholarly testament to the power and hope of Black biblical interpretation.

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.

In Reading While Black, Esau McCaulley:

• Advocates for a model of interpretation that involves an ongoing conversation between the collective Black experience and the Bible,
• Gives pride of place to the particular questions coming out of Black communities,
• Gives the Bible space to respond by affirming, challenging, and at times, reshaping Black concerns, and
• Demonstrates this model with studies on how Scripture speaks to topics often overlooked by white interpreters, such as ethnicity, political protest, policing, and slavery.

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. Reading While Black moves the conversation forward.