Black Christianity in a Divided America: a Primer

Esau McCaulley, Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise In Hope

During the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, people of faith landed on both sides of the controversy. Some people believed Christianity requires the faithful to uphold the law and resist uprisings and anarchy; others believed Christianity requires us to challenge powerful people in high places for their injustice. But what does the Black Christian tradition, a distinct texture of American Christianity, say on the issue?

Reverend Dr. Esau McCaulley, an Episcopal priest and educator born in Mississippi, grew up on the mixed influences of hip-hop and gospel music. He knows what it means to serve others with a heart for Christ, and also what it means to get stopped by police for being “suspicious” for his skin color. As a professor of New Testament theology at Wheaton College, he has made a life of answering questions. Now he turns that background to contemporary issues.

From the beginning, Rev. McCaulley anticipates the most common mainstream (that is, White) objections to antiestablishment Christianity. Doesn’t the Apostle Paul call on Christians to pray for leaders? Of course, but praying for leaders doesn’t mean we can’t also hold them accountable for their injustices. Doesn’t Paul say God put all governments in place? Yes, but Paul also says God raised Pharaoh up specifically to knock him down, for God’s glory.

McCaulley admits coming into formal theology during a time when Christian leadership had split along an all-or-nothing axis. His professors, mostly White, thought either that the entire Bible must be read literally and applied verbatim, or amended or discarded according to their majoritarian ethical whims. McCaulley contrasts this with his mother, whose Bible reading gave her great comfort. How, he wondered, to contrast these two seemingly contradictory impulses?

The answer, he believes, comes from reading the Bible from the position of the underclass for whom it was originally written. What solace did Jews, occupied by Roman military who served as both police force and foreign conquerors, take from Christ’s and Paul’s message? To them, Rev. McCaulley believes, the whole Bible, including the parts which make White people cringe, gave a sense of purpose that human power structures couldn’t undermine.

Throughout, Rev. McCaulley’s theological interest is in Christians’ relationship with power, not their relationship with narrowly defined morality. How do we relate to earthly powers which would arrogate to themselves the authority which belongs exclusively to God? How do we responsibly apply the power which God has entrusted to us? Sexual purity, the favored moral concern of noisy media-friendly Evangelicals, doesn’t concern McCaulley.

Rev. Dr. Esau McCaulley

As a professor at Wheaton College, McCaulley’s explanations sometimes tend toward both technical precision and intellectual conservatism. Wheaton, a Calvinist institution, leans toward the conventional in its theology, and though founded by Abolitionists, has avoided taking political positions in living memory. McCaulley studiously avoids endorsing parties or protests, at least explicitly. Biblical accuracy matters more to him here than political activism.

This concise, plain-English book aims for an audience that is Biblically literate, but perhaps not versed in the cultural implications of Black experience. Rev. McCaulley uses Biblical citations generously, walking readers through his reasoning step-by-step. He assumes readers are familiar with Biblical themes and language, but not necessarily familiar with Black Christian culture and Black theology. He explains everything painstakingly.

In this quality, Rev. McCaulley choses a particular audience. Because he assumes his audience reads their Bible, but has no prior familiarity with Black Christianity, his content operates at a fairly intermediate level. I’ve been attending an AME church (when I can) since 2017, and have already read Howard Thurman and James H. Cone. Therefore, though I find nothing wrong with McCaulley’s exegesis, I feel I’m not part of his intended audience.

Don’t mistake me, this isn’t a condemnation. Remember what Dr. King said about “the most segregated hour in America.” The lack of communication between Black and White Christians, or anyway White Chrstians’ unwillingness to listen, remains a major impediment to Christian witness on American racial issues. It’s only accidentally that I discovered Black theology. Sadly, that same accident drove me to this book; I might not have read it five years ago.

I recommend this book primarily for adult Bible study in mainline American churches. Because many White Christians have limited opportunities to discuss faith and Scripture with Black Christians, this book may provide the guidance for more open-minded Bible reading that many churches have sought recently. Many well-meaning Christians need an opportunity to see faith through others’ eyes. This may provide the chance their churches have been looking for.