Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope

McCaulley demonstrates that the Bible speaks to Black anger and suffering through Israel’s pain and anger, Old Testament prophesy, the cross, and God’s final judgment. He contextualizes his biblical exegesis within his and other Black people’s lived experience of internalized rage by opening with a reflection on his first time being called the n-word and noting that “Black children are taught strategies of survival that often come at the cost of their childhood or basic humanity” (120). Moreover, the suffering continues throughout life, as exemplified by legal proscriptions on Black life, such as slavery and Jim Crow, and the violence perpetuated against Black people in the form of murdering ordinary Black folks, including children, as well as influential Black leaders. Consequently, Black people’s rage and nihilism are not unfounded, but the Bible provides resources to address it.

McCaulley locates Israel’s pain and anger in their psalms of lament, highlighting Psalm 137 and the desire for vengeance. Psalm 137 illustrates a suffering people’s permission to remember and feel the pain they have endured as well as bring the depth of their experience to God in prayer. Even in the face of such pain and suffering, Israel’s prophets imagined a future beyond blood vengeance.