Category Archives: Family & Society

Reading While Black – 7

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What does the Bible have to say about freedom from slavery?  Do we have to privilege the story of the Exodus over the teachings of Paul in order to arrive at an acceptable answer?  Or do we have to ditch the Bible as our holy book, because we believe that it fails to condemn slavery in its various forms?

In chapter 7, Esau MacCaulley tackles the most important biblical texts on this question.

Reading the Bible like Jesus did

When Jesus was asked about divorce, he pointed his questions back beyond the Mosaic law (Deut 24:1-4), which permitted it under some circumstances, to God’s creational intention:

Mt 19:3 Then some Pharisees came to him in order to test him.

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Reading While Black – 6

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In chapter 6, Esau McCaulley discusses the anger that African Americans feel about their historic and ongoing mistreatment at the hands of others.

McCaulley writes movingly of his own and others’ experiences.  However, I shall focus on his biblical and theological reflections, for it is these which give the book its unique character and value.

In the chapter, the author presents four reflections on the issue of ‘Black rage’.

1. Israel’s anger as a means of processing Black grief

We turn especially to the psalms of imprecation, and especially Psa 137. …

Reading While Black – 5

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In chapter 5, Esau McCaulley discusses the issue of black identity.

For some people, he says, Black Christianity is a false notion, foisted upon black people by their oppressors.

History says otherwise.  In the days of the early church, there were three centres of Christianity – Rome, Antioch and Alexandria.  It cannot be true, then, that Christianity first came to Africans via slavery.  Christianity belongs to Africans as much as it belongs to Europeans.  Ethiopia was evangelised in the 4th century, and Nubia (in what we now call the Sudan) by the 6th century.…

Reading While Black – 4

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Chapter four is subtitled: ‘The Bible and the Pursuit of Justice.’

The burden of this chapter

‘is to outline the ways in which the Gospel of Luke contains a vision for the just society transformed by the advent of God that speaks to the hearts of Black Christians.’

Luke was a Gentile Christian.  As such, his very place in the Christian community would have been a matter of some controversy at first.

Luke’s Gospel reflects the resolution of this early controversy by heralding the fulfilment of God’s age-old plan to create an international, multi-ethnic people for his own glory.…

Reading While Black – 3

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In chapter three, Esau McCaulley discusses ‘the New Testament and the Political Witness of the Church’.

The white Christian consensus in America, writes McCaulley, has reduced its political theology to two things: prayer (as per 1 Timothy 2:1-4) and law and order (as per Romans 13:1-7).  Not, of course, that that there is anything wrong with these two things!  But to limit political theology in this was is to misread those very texts, and also to ignore the wider witness of the New Testament.…

Reading While Black – 2

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Chapter 2 of Esau McCaulley’s book Reading While Black discusses ‘The New Testament and a Theology of Policing.’

McCauley selects two texts for consideration.  The first has implications for the state, and the second for the individual law enforcer.

Romans 13:1-7

13:1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except by God’s appointment, and the authorities that exist have been instituted by God. 13:2 So the person who resists such authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will incur judgment 13:3 (for rulers cause no fear for good conduct but for bad).…

Reading While Black – 1

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Having read Ben Lindsay’s book We Need to Talk About Race, I have now turned to Esau D. McCaulley’s Reading While Black (IVP, 2020).

I am finding it a more satisfying read.

McCaulley is an American biblical scholar and Assistant Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College, Illinois.

Subtitled, ‘African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope’, this book advocates an approach to biblical interpretation that is faithful to the inspired Scripture but that also reflects the experiences, needs and perspective of black readers.…

Slavery and the early church

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Mark Brumley, a Roman Catholic author, asks: Did the early Church endorse slavery?

He answers:

Certainly, the early Christians more or less tolerated the slavery of their day, as seen from the New Testament itself and the fact that after Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire, slavery was not immediately outlawed. Even so, this doesn’t mean Christianity was compatible with Roman slavery or that the early Church did not contribute to its demise.

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George Whitefield: slaveholder and evangelist

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George Whitefield (1714 – 1700) was an outstanding evangelist.  When, in 1740, he first traveled to North America he was appalled by the way slaves were treated:

‘Your dogs are caressed and fondled at your tables; but your slaves who are frequently styled dogs or beasts, have not an equal privilege. They are scarce permitted to pick up the crumbs which fall from their masters’ tables.… Although I pray God the slaves may never be permitted to get the upper hand, yet should such a thing be permitted by Providence, all good men must acknowledge the judgment would be just.’

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Why did so many Christians in the South support slavery?

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It seems incredible to most of us today that mature and thoughtful Christians leaders in the American South (including J.H. Thornwell and R.L Dabney)  persisted in defending the institution of slavery.

It should not be supposed, however, that they did so from simple-minded malice. Anyone who thinks about the matter would do well to reflect on the ways in which they attempted to justify the practice.

An article in Christianity Today summarises the key reasons given by church leaders in the South:

Biblical Reasons

• Abraham, the “father of faith,” and all the patriarchs held slaves without God’s disapproval (Gen.…