We all read the Bible from our own viewpoint, from within our own culture and background. Our circumstances make us ask certain questions we would not ask otherwise. We could consider this a disadvantage. Maybe we cannot know what the Bible really said when we are inevitably limited. But perhaps this is a blessing. Maybe it is not a drawback but can allow God to speak with truth and power to our particular situations.

Consider Martin Luther. His context of an often legalistic and corrupt church made him ask certain questions of the Bible about salvation. Or Dietrich Bonhoeffer. His experiences with the black church in Harlem and Hitler in Germany drove him to ask certain questions about how Christians and the church should relate to the government. Their answers did not encompass all the Bible said, but they were true.

This is what Esau McCaulley offers in Reading While Black. He found himself both feeling at home and not feeling at home with black and white progressives as well as with black and white evangelicals. His aim, then, was to forge a new path that was unapologetically black and unapologetically orthodox. With pain and hope he points the way to true answers.

Several years ago, when I heard Esau McCaulley offer initial thoughts on a theology of policing, I thought, What an amazing, creative question to ask, and what an intriguing, substantive proposal he makes! In this book McCaulley also points the way toward how the church should offer a political witness. what a fullorbed view of justice is, how Blacks can gain identity from Scripture, what Blacks should do with the rage they feel from the injustices they have experienced, and whether the Bible justifies slavery as some contended for centuries.

The insights he offers to these are many and stirring. For example, he reminds us that Romans 13 is not the only passage about attitudes toward government in the Bible. In Luke 13:32 & 33 Jesus shows no deference toward a particular ruler. In Luke 1:51-53 Mary looks forward to governments which are not run by prideful men but which help the poor (echoing Isaiah).

He also highlights the beginning of the fulfillment of the promise of God that all nations would be blessed through Abraham when Jacob adopts the two sons of Joseph (his two biracial, half African sons!) as his own in Genesis 48:3-5. Those of African descent can indeed find their special place in the promises of God.

Then there is the question of black rage. I found his thoughts on the psalms of lament and imprecatory psalms to be some of the most powerful reflections he has to offer in the book.

The answers that Luther and Bonhoeffer found in the Bible are true--but they are not exactly the same. McCaulley simply asks for the same privilege that was accorded these gentlemen to struggle with difficult texts and difficult contexts.

Yet if everyone comes to the Bible from a different place, we have a challenge knowing what it really says. Rather than not asking what the central message of the Bible is, McCaulley says we should instead ask (as he does) which understanding *does justice to as much of the biblical witness as possible. There are uses of Scripture that utter a false testimony about God.* (p. 91).

Esau McCaulley wrote this important book for himself. As a result he has also written a necessary book for all of us.

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I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. My opinions are my own.

I learned of this book when I heard the author speak on a couple of podcasts so when I saw it at my library, I checked it out. And I was not disappointed. I discovered a lot of wisdom and thoughtful content in this book and highly recommend it. We need more voices like this in our polarized world. Below, I will summarize each chapter and/or include quotes that reflect the chapter's heart.

Chapter 1: The South Got Somethin' to Say: Making Space for Black Ecclesial Interpretation

This chapter introduces the need for the insight of Black Americans in theology and churches. ""Euro-American scholars, ministers, and lay folk ... have, over the centuries, used their economic, academic, religious, and political dominance to create the illusion that the Bible, read through their experience, is the Bible read correctly." What makes Black interpretation Black, then, are the collective experiences, customs, and habits of Black people in this country." p20. I also think it would be valuable to see the perspectives from other people groups that aren't the white male dominant voices in conservative (or liberal) Christianity. For example, I believe there is a need for women's experiences as well as scientists' voices in the church and Christian community.

Chapter 2: Freedom is No Fear: The New Testament and a Theology of Policing

The author looks at the culture in the New Testament and the situation in the first century to compare and contrast policing then and now. "As Christians, it is part of our calling to remind those charged with governing of their need to create an atmosphere in which people are able to live without fear. This has been the Black person's repeated lament. We should not live in fear. Good should be rewarded and evil punished." p. 45

Chapter 3: Tired Feet, Rested Souls: The New Testament and the Political Witness of the Church

"The Black Christian, then, who hopes and works for a better world finds an ally in the God of Israel. He or she finds someone who does more than sympathize with our wants and needs. This God steps into history and reorders the universe in favor of those who trust in him. He calls us to enter into this work of actualizing the transformation he has already begun by the death and resurrection of his son. ... He also includes bearing witness to a different and better way of ordering our societies in a world whose default instinct is oppression." p 70.

Chapter 4: Reading While Black: The Bible and the Pursuit of Justice

"When Malcolm X came out when it did, it struck a chord with many Black boys and girls. Many in the Nation of Islam or other Black consciousness groups criticize Black Christians for following a religion that does so little for us." p 72. "Black Christians who came to Christ surrounded by the false Gospel given to them by their slave masters were right to see in the exodus narrative a God worthy of their trust." p 82. "There are uses of Scripture that utter a false testimony about God. This is what we see in Satan's use of Scripture in the wilderness. The problem isn't that the Scriptures that Satan quoted were untrue, but when made to do the work that he wanted them to do, they distorted biblical witness." p 91.

Chapter 5: Black and Proud: The Bible and Black Identity

This chapter looks at Black Christianity through the earliest history of the church and in the Bible. "His plan was to bless the world through Abraham's descendants. Therefore, from the beginning God's vision included Black and Brown people." p 100. People of all colors and ethnicities are included in the new heavens and earth. "At the end, we do not find the elimination of differences. Instead the very diversity of cultures is a manifestation of God's glory." p 106.

Chapter 6: What Shall We Do with this Rage? The Bible and Black Anger

"I want to present four Christian reflections on the issues of Black anger and suffering. First, I argue that Israel's pain and anger as recorded in the prophets and the psalter provide a means of processing Black grief. Secondly, I contend that the prophets warn that the ever-spiraling cycle of violence is a dead end. Turning to the New Testament, I maintain that the cross functions as the end of the cycle of vengeance and death and that the cross is a place where God enters into our pain. Finally, I suggest that the central biblical themes of the resurrection, ascension, and the final judgment are necessary in any account of Black anger and pain." p 122.

Chapter 7: The Freedom of the Slaves: Pennington's Triumph

"The early Black exegetical tradition was correct. God's character speaks against slavery." p 144. This chapter looks at the discussions of slavery and liberation in both the Old and New Testaments. The author shows that "together these doctrines make the institution unacceptable in the long term." p 163.

Conclusion: An Exercise in Hope

"The point [of writing this book] is that the very process of engaging these Scriptures and expecting an answer is an exercise in hope. It is an act of faith that carried Black people through unimaginable despair toward a brighter future. The Bible has been a source of conflict, but it has also been more. It has liberated Black bodies and souls." p 166.

Bonus Track: Further Notes on the Development of Black Ecclesial Interpretation

"Despite the formation of Black Churches in the eighteenth century, Black academic study of the Bible did not begin in earnest until the middle of the twentieth century when Leon White became the first African American to receive a PhD in New Testament. This lack of Biblical scholars was not due to a lack of interest, but rather the long history of institutional racism that limited Black access to higher education." p 175.

Discussion Guide

There are nine sets of questions that would be a helpful starting point for a book club, group discussion, or personal reflection.

Bibliography, Author Index, and Scripture Index

I like that the book has footnotes as I prefer them to end notes in this type of book and the indexes at the end are helpful references.

In summary, this is an essential book on a vital subject that I think many people, black or not, should read. We need to engage in the discussions started herein and mature our theology to incorporate this biblical wisdom and insight.

In Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope, the Rev. Dr. Esau McCaulley, assistant professor of New Testament at Wheaton College and an ordained clergyperson in the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), examines black (primarily, if not totally, African-American) ecclesial interpretation and how it can provide hope to African-Americans and, by extension, Christians as a whole. McCaulley contends that such interpretation is theologically orthodox but mostly misunderstood and/or disparaged by both other orthodox Christians (particularly white evangelicals) and progressive ones (of both white and black ethnicities, for different reasons). The author writes for a variety of readers -- fellow academics, interested Christians of all backgrounds, and perhaps most of all a general African-American audience -- to discuss how the black understanding of biblical texts applies to major issues of concern impacting African-Americans today.

The book's primary strengths lie in three areas: as a detailed, although not all-encompassing, look at black ecclesial interpretation; as a commentary on what it means to appropriate the Christian faith as an African-American; and as a challenge to readers. McCaulley sees black biblical interpretation essentially as a dialogue between the African-American community and the biblical text that draws upon their experiences. The author addresses common African-American concerns about scriptural texts and shows how a variety of New Testament figures, particularly Jesus and Paul, can provide blacks -- and all Christians -- with hope and how they in turn fulfill the concerns of Old Testament writers (particularly the prophets). In part, then, Reading While Black serves as a convincing apologetic work for the trustworthiness of the Scriptures given the realities of African-American suffering over the centuries. But MacCaulley does not stop there. He interweaves personal stories and frank discussions of difficulties in their dialogues with the Scriptures, and he challenges readers on issues related to racial reconciliation and other issues on which he sees Scripture calling its readers to take action.

The book's weaknesses are relatively few and perhaps can be improved in a second edition. The structure of the book seems a little off, with one early chapter on a contemporary concern (i.e., policing) inexplicably coming before a succession of chapters more central to the book's theme, and an overview of the history of African-American biblical interpretation unhelpfully moved to the end as a "bonus track" (i.e., appendix). Some of McCaulley's arguments also aren't always as clear as they could be and could have used more detail.

Overall, Reading While Black is a challenging, convicting work that Christians of a variety of backgrounds and ethnicities should read. Its ideas and importance in today's American scene make it a read that is more than worthy of a person's time. It is ultimately, in the end, a testimony to the hope offered by God through Jesus Christ -- a hope that impacts the whole world not only in the importance it places upon individuals, but upon communities and their structures. Four-and-a-quarter stars.

I decided to purchase this book for several reasons, the chief one being the racial (or, as I prefer to call them, ethnic) tensions in the US. Others included that both the Rev Dr McCaulley and I are presbyters in the Anglican Church in North America, a newly-organized (2008) Anglican body in the US and Canada, and that I wanted to understand something of how the experience of being Black affects how one reads the Bible.

It is a good book, written by a scholar using scholarly methods of research, but written for a much larger audience than other biblical scholars. Dr McCaulley is professor of NT at Wheaton College. There are real footnotes (not endnotes) with references or helpful explanations. He weaves his experiences and those of many Black people into the interpretation in a way that is helpful, and demonstrates that while these insights are a product of experiences, they are not reading something into the text (eisegesis rather than exegesis). However, I did have to question his conclusion that Simon of Cyrene was a Black man because he had come from Cyrene, a city in what is now Libya on the north coast of Africa. There had long been a large Jewish colony in that city, which is separated from sub-Saharan Africa by close to a thousand miles.

The most helpful chapter to me was Chapter 6, "What Shall We Do With This Rage?" I have known several Black people with a moderate degree of closeness over the course of my life, but this chapter gave me insights into the Black experience I had not seem before. This chapter alone was worth the price of the book.

His final chapter was the best one, on the hopes of racial reconciliation. It shows a reason to be optimistic, without being a Pollyanna about the future. There is no doubt that racial/ethnic tensions in our culture will not easily be overcome.

Some of my colleagues have said that Dr McCaulley promotes Critical Race Theory in this book. I did not see that, and the book that I read just before this was "Cynical Theories" by James Lindsay and Helen Pluckrose. "Cynical Theories" explores Critical Theory in its various forms, including CRT. It is my conviction (and that of Lindsay and Pluckrose) that Critical Theory is a deadly poison to intellectual and societal life. Therefore, I was looking for CRT in this book, but did not see it. I did note, however, that several of the scholarly works he consulted were, at least by the titles of the writings cited, based on CRT.

Overall, I would recommend "Reading While Black" to anyone who would like to understand something of the Black experience and who would like to see how the Christian faith offers hope racial/ethnic harmony among all Christians, at least, and hopefully for the rest of society as well.