Book Review - Reading While Black by Esau McCaulley

Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope by Esau McCaulley
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐(4 of 5 stars)

Why you should read this book: You'll understand and be challenged by Scripture from an important but oft-suppressed voice.

Why you should not read this book: The arguments presented are intentionally not novel or mindblowingly innovative.

Reading While Black surveys a few topics of black contexualization of Scripture, briefly reviewing some history of the black church and ecclesial, interpretative disputes within the black church. After an insightful first chapter on his motivation for writing the book, McCaulley dives into a series of topics (police, political witness, pursuit of justice, etc), specifically exegeting one or two passages of Scripture to support his broader point. I found this brief, simple and introductory presentation compelling and approachable - instead of attempting to provide exhaustive and comprehensive evidence (better for an academic setting), he offers the reader enough convincing evidence in a specific passage and links the argument back to the larger Biblical narrative.

My favorite part of the book was actually learning the internal conversations within the black church and the brief history of tensions between those who hold on to orthodoxy and those who have become significantly more progressive. The relation between theologically conservative and progressive Christianity is personally interesting to me, and the window McCaulley shares for viewing the black church is fascinating and helpful. Reading While Black handles adeptly the balance between being written for both black and non-black Christians.

"This book is not successful if it has been innovative; I have succeeded if it has reminded others of home." I'm grateful that McCaulley has shared his home, his his spiritual heritage with me, and I can confirm that this book is successfully not innovative or novel. Many who have experienced diverse, multi-ethnic fellowship will be familiar with frameworks presented but will still be challenged towards a deeper, fuller understanding of Scripture. Some portions of the book don't resonate deeply with me (such the reality of Africans in the Bible) and bordered on being tedious, but it's clear that McCaulley is responding to specific arguments that need to be refuted. It's dismaying and telling that McCaulley needs to defend some of these basic truths, and in a sense, I wish portions of the book did not need to be written. But they do, and so I'm grateful for his responses. For example, the premises of his book - the reality that everyone reads Scripture from a specific context and lens, is intuitive, unsurprising, and unfortunately controversial.

While much of Reading While Black responds to typical white American evangelical interpretation and assumptions, McCaulley focuses more on expounding his Biblical interpretation rather than deconstructing white evangelical interpretation (for this, I highly recommend Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes). This scope is appropriate for this book, but a more complete understanding of Scripture (and subsequently any contextual reading of Scripture, such as Reading While Black) can only be understood by the reader after understanding how their own background and experiences shapes their reading of Scripture. Reading While Black is an important work for anyone looking to more fully understand Scripture, a hopeful, encouraging work that challenges the reader not only with the contributions and insights of the black church, but also to consider your specific role and participation in God's revelation. I eagerly await someone to write "Reading While Asian-American" 😀

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