If God Still Breathes, Why Can't I?: Black Lives Matter and Biblical Authority

by Angela N. Parker, Lisa Sharon Harper (Foreword)

A challenge to the doctrine of biblical inerrancy that calls into question how Christians are taught more about the way of Whiteness than the way of Jesus Angela Parker wasn’t just trained to be a biblical scholar; she was trained to be a White male biblical scholar. 

She is neither White nor male. 

Dr. Parker’s experience of being taught to forsake her embodied identity in order to contort herself into the stifling construct of Whiteness is common among American Christians, regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation. This book calls the power structure behind this experience what it White supremacist authoritarianism. 

Drawing from her perspective as a Womanist New Testament scholar, Dr. Parker describes how she learned to deconstruct one of White Christianity’s most pernicious the conflation of biblical authority with the doctrines of inerrancy and infallibility. As Dr. Parker shows, these doctrines are less about the text of the Bible itself and more about the arbiters of its interpretation—historically, White males in positions of power who have used Scripture to justify control over marginalized groups. 

This oppressive use of the Bible has been suffocating. To learn to breathe again, Dr. Parker says, we must “let God breathe in us.” We must read the Bible as authoritative, but not authoritarian. We must become conscious of the particularity of our identities, as we also become conscious of the particular identities of the biblical authors from whom we draw inspiration. And we must trust and remember that as long as God still breathes, we can too.

Genres: Theology, Nonfiction, Religion, Faith, Biblical Studies, Race, Justice

128 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 14, 2021

Reviews

[F.E. Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Upon the horror of witnessing the death of George Floyd, I, like so many people around the globe, sat in appalled shock at what I observed.
"I can't breathe," is what we all heard him cry out.
When Covid-19 hit with urgency, I couldn't erase from my mind the death of Floyd as the symptomatology echoed his last words.
"I can't breathe."
The fundamentalist in me, that little troll that hangs out in the back of my head and jumps up and down accusatorily, was suddenly silenced as I mentally (poetically) drew a parallel there between what we heard George say and what the words of Covid victims echoed.
I can't also erase from my mind that the most resistant to the practical help available to us all by use of mask and medicine (vaccine) are all echoing the same words before a kind-hearted nurse intubates them in an effort to save (sometimes futilely) their lives.
How can I sum up the last two years? A waste. Just a waste.
Dr. Parker in her work, in her Womanist view of the Scripture, helps pull apart Biblical Innarency and slapped a much-needed label of 'White Supremacists authoritarian' upon it. A word that as a cis-gendered white male, I could not see and yet, when pointed out to me via this important work - becomes altogether glaringly obvious.
I have spent the past six months (year or two honestly) or so combing through spiritual literature and books written by women concerning the Bible from Nadia Bolz Weber to Rachel Held Evans, Phyliss Tickle, and recently Kristen Kobes Du Mez's work "Jesus and John Wayne" as well as Sarah Ruden's work, "Paul Among the People."
And one theme keeps coming back. - Power. Authority. Who has it and, more importantly, who doesn't in my effort to deconstruct the fundamentalist evangelical world that I grew up in (without my permission thank you very much) as well as the Biblical Inerrancy of Scripture which made The Holy Bible into a golden idol for the use of men to dominate and subjugate.
The color of the skin of people in Biblical times cannot be overlooked. Jesus was a brown-skinned, woolen-haired, sandal-wearing, Palestinian Jew. And people know this, as they joke, "What would happen if Jesus came back today?" They joke, ..."He'd get deported." Or worse.
Dr. Parker walks us all home in this book that I think should be a part of any thoughtful dialogue concerning where we are as not only Christians but as human beings regarding the lives of others and how we see each other and how we interact and establish communities where everyone walks together.

[Corey Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Angela Parker managed to create an academic/theological work for the Black church, for such a time as this. Her womanist viewpoint is not something that should be considered ancillary to the faith, but should be used to reframe the Black church's modus operandi. The Black church has operated in a state of assimilation into the white Eurocentric evangelical religion called Western Christianity. Her parsing of Biblical Greek throughout demonstrates the potential for non-white, non-male scholars to see themselves as a part of the Imago Dei. Dr. Parker exposes the human-inspired canonizations within the canon of sacred scripture.

The introduction lays the basic foundation for her arguments in the remaining chapters. Parker highlights how centering biblical understanding on Black and Brown bodies is a contentious point in white spaces (3). Her points on the issues with inerrancy and infallibility of biblical scripture are thorough and thought-provoking.

Chapter 1 (Stifled Breathing: Trained to Be A White Male Biblical Scholar) cuts to the heart of the matter about how theological training focuses on creating white male Bible scholars (13), even if they are neither white nor male. Throughout the chapter, Dr. Parker explains how the tension between her humanity as a Womanist scholar and white male biblical scholarship creates the inability to breathe.

Chapter 2 (White Supremacist Authoritarianism is Not God's Breath) is where she takes the concepts of inerrancy and infallibility and builds on them to show how they are necessary to create and maintain the doctrine of protective strategy. In her conclusion, Parker proposes that protective strategy is about maintaining control of one group over another (43). In other words, it is all about who controls the narrative, in this case, the understanding of the Bible and the resulting orthopraxy.

Chapter 3 (Stop Gaslighting Me) explains how the acts of micro-aggression and gaslighting coupled with the White supremacist authoritarian views of inerrancy and infallibility are a dangerous combination. The danger lies in not just the historical gaslighting of the women by the men in the text but by the contemporary male scholars who interpret the text.

Chapter 4 (Moving from Stifled Breath to Full-Throated Faith) goes into detail about the importance of translating from Biblical Greek is to Dr. Parker. She goes on further to talk about how her Womanist sensibilities will always lead beyond the academy's training and scholarship to "center the experiences of embodied Black folk" (70). The remainder of the chapter dissects the implications of conventional Eurocentric framing of the Galatian context.

Conclusion (Breathing Womanist Air) is about telling us what she has told us. Parker does not simply leave us there; she reiterates how "White supremacist authoritarianism is often embedded in Christian notion of biblical authority, stifling God's breath" (92).

Overall, If God Still Breathes, Why Can't I: Black Lives Matter & Biblical Authority, is an excellent addition to any library, whether or not you have a seminary degree or are a new Christian or a "seasoned saint." I highly recommend this as mandatory reading for any Black pastor/minister to help see themselves and their congregants and know when dogma, doctrine, and scholarship can be suffocating. Angela Parker challenges us to not just settle for the status quo but to allow our very being play a role in how we see things and not discount our intersectionality, especially as a Womanist scholar and theologian.

[James Wheeler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Black womanist biblical interpreters are a gift to the church. This is a short but excellent book on the problem of the disembodied, doctrinaire, white, male scholarship and the way it marginalizes and ignores other non-white, female voices and interpretive approaches. Parker exposes how this system works and then encourages a new model which honors the body and experience of black women. She backs this with some tremendous scholarship combining her womanist approach with the work of Richard Hays on the book of Galatians.

[Stephanie Ridiculous · Rating 5 out of 5]

Goodness I wish this was significantly longer! This is something I intend to come back to several times, rereading as I learn more and am at different points of life.

I found Dr. Parker's translation examples fascinating and moving, took a lot of notes on sources sited and additional resources listed, and greatly appreciated this introduction into moving away from White authoritarianism within our understanding of faith. Highly recommend.

[D.J. Lang · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recommend this book, and I will be buying it for my own library. It is scholarly (anything less and I know Parker would be dealing with criticism of her lack of biblical support, exegesis, hermeneutics, etc.) which means some people won't read it. This is unfortunate because what she has to say is important. If a reader is accustomed to following established powers that be, then said reader is going to be challenged.

Parker also includes real life (think quantitative and qualitative), and one reviewer did have issues with that. As for me and my house, I want to see how knowledge works out in real life. I look forward to learning much more from Parker. I was hoping to see reviews from readers who argued against Parker so that I could address those issues, but so far, it looks like all of us have rated her book 3 stars and above. It's a short read (only 133 pages), but each chapter is meaningful, and I was reading other books at the same time. It wouldn't normally take me 8 days to read this short of a book.

[Robert D. Cornwall · Rating 4 out of 5]

As Eric Garner was dying while in a chokehold put on him by NYC police (over selling cigarettes), he cried out "I Can't Breathe." That phrase became the mantra of the Black Lives Matter movement, especially after the death of George Floyd who also died at the hands of police in Minneapolis. Angela Parker uses that phrase in the title of her book on the relationship of Black Lives Matter and Biblical Authority. The title asks a question: "If God Still Breathes, Why Can't I?" This question relates to the way the Bible has been interpreted and used in ways that have negatively impacted people of color like her. Her premise is that the doctrines of inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible serve as tools of white supremacy.

Parker is an assistant professor of New Testament and Greek at Mercer University's McAfee School of Theology. She writes about biblical authority from the perspective of being an ordained Baptist minister who writes from a Womanist perspective. In other words, she writes as someone who understands the contextual nature of theology. To do otherwise is to presume there is a normative way of doing theology that usually is defined by white males. In this book, she notes that in her training in mainstream seminaries like Duke, she discovered that whether consciously or not they were forming her to be a white male scholar. Thus, the focus of the book. It is a call to recognize that the insistence on inerrancy and infallibility is suffocating to persons of color, especially women of color.

Even as the book is written contextually, so is the review. I am a white male who likely has been trained to be a white male scholar. As I look back over my own theological education that includes my bachelor's, M.Div., and Ph.D., I really only took classes from one person of color and that was my undergraduate Old Testament professor who is Korean. Everyone else was white. It's not that I had that many other options, even at the largest evangelical seminary in the world. Things have changed on campus, but my sense is that for the most part white males still predominate in faculty positions. I value highly my education and my teachers, who for the most part were intent on giving me the tools I needed to read Scripture and theology with a critical and open mind, but I'm sure I missed out on important perspectives. What that means here is that at points Parker's message proved uncomfortable. That is true even though I do not embrace either inerrancy or infallibility. However, I do affirm the premise that Scripture remains normative for the Christian faith, even if it must be read critically.

That's where Parker begins the book. She asks the question about our relationship with the biblical text. There are those, she reports, in her classes, where she asks the question, who are hostile to the Bible because of the way it has been used. There are also those who embrace the Bible as inerrant and infallible and unquestioned truth. To ask questions of Scripture is abhorrent. They are often unaccustomed to wrestling with the way the Bible has been used against people like Parker. With these two poles in mind, she raises the question of the relationship of white supremacist authoritarianism to biblical authority. Because of this many find it difficult to "experience God's breath in the biblical text." She writes in the hope that the reader can experience that breath as they read Scripture outside the confines of white supremacist authoritarianism. To do so, however, requires deconstructing the way in which scripture is often read and understood. She, like me, wishes to embrace the authority of Scripture without the shackles of white supremacy. The journey to get there can be bracing for some.

Thus, begins the journey with Professor Parker. She begins with a chapter on being trained to be a white male biblical scholar, a chapter titled "Stifled Breathing." She tells her own experience, including time at Duke. She respects those who taught her but challenges the way they approached the text without acknowledging context. In the course of her studies to be a biblical scholar, she found her voice as a Womanist scholar of the Bible. That realization raised questions about the Bible, its interpretation, and its use.

Having told her own story of finding the freedom to read scripture anew as a Womanist scholar, she moves on to interrogating the doctrines of inerrancy and infallibility, so as to discern and describe how this is used in support of white supremacy. She notes that in her reading of Scripture, she regards "authority as a 'living' and 'breathing' conversation." (p. 27). This is then a call to move away from bibliolatry to a form of biblical authority that allows room to breathe. The concern here is the use of the Bible to control others, including peoples' bodies. It's used to set boundaries as to who is in and who is out, often as a way of protecting one's position. We're seeing this played out in the political realm with religious support.

This chapter is followed by one that speaks of gaslighting and microaggression. That is, she speaks to the way in which due to inerrancy and infallibility women and minoritized persons are forced to wear masks of white supremacy. That is, the way Scripture is used forces nonwhites to try to fit within traditional readings of Scripture, but unsuccessfully. Thus, she writes so as to help black and minoritized persons to reclaim biblical interpretation. This involves pushing back against attempts to make persons of color, especially women, to doubt their interpretations of scripture.

Having addressed these challenges to her own engagement with the text as a Womanist scholar, Parker speaks of the move from stifled breath to full-throated faith. Here she speaks of faith formation, in conversation with Paul's Galatian letter. She speaks here of walking in the faith of Jesus as opposed to simply have faith in Jesus. The goal here is to make it home. This chapter speaks to the way in which Paul is traditionally interpreted and offers an alternative reading that is liberating. In doing so she addresses the way in which Paul defines himself as a slave and how that language is interpreted. This is important as Paul has been used to reinforce slavery. The same is true for the way Paul uses feminine imagery to describe himself. Again, that needs to be reinterpreted in light of contemporary concerns. The goal here is experiencing a mature faith that is freed from white supremacy.

Parker concludes with a conversation about "breathing Womanist air." In essence this is an invitation not simply to women or people of color but white males as well to hear anew scripture in a way that is not defined by white supremacy or white privilege. She offers a path way with the acronym AIR: Accept. Interrogate. Read Womanists! That last piece is important as Parker wants us to read Womanist interpretations of Scripture. The first letter, acceptance, is a call to remember that we as the reader do not know everything about the text. So accept the fact that inerrancy and infallibility have been used as tools of complementarianism and slavery. I is for interrogation, that is interrogate your identities. Finally, again, please read Womanists.

This is a brief book designed to begin a difficult conversation. it is a challenge to forms of biblical authority that resist questions of the text. It is a reminder that our own contexts matter. While brief and accessible, it's not an easy read. It may make you uncomfortable. It did me!

[Daniel Klawitter · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, look: This is an important book. I just wish the author had gone a bit deeper in drawing out her arguments linking the evangelical doctrines of biblical inerrancy and infallibility to white supremacist authoritarianism. It is written as a part-memoir and part-biblical interpretation text and it succeeds in a short amount of pages to be both. I just wish it was at least twice as long and less "introductory" in its presentation. But then it would be a different book I suppose. Since there are reflection questions at the end of the chapters, it appears this is a book designed to be amenable to church Sunday school classes and reading groups.

[David S Harvey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Open your mind on biblical inspiration and how our biases shape our doctrines.

“This book examines inerrancy and infallibility as tools of White supremacist authoritarianism that limit humanity’s capacity to fully experience God’s breath in the biblical text.” - Angela Parker

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and deeply appreciate the message it engages with. Readers from evangelical backgrounds will likely find it uncomfortable, but I’d encourage them to listen carefully to what Parker teaches as that discomfort may be in need of analysis.

IGSBWCI challenges Bible scholars and readers to be aware of how white supremacy has shaped not just biblical interpretation but the very doctrines that are used to defend scripture. However, these approaches limit the text and can only legitimately be held as a protective strategy for holding power. Parker shows, quite excellently, how resisting certain traditional standards actually opens up the world of the text and, subsequently, our view of God. This is a good thing. Ignoring the cultural issues of a text like the Bible will harm us all in the end.

The book offers four chapters each with specific and well delivered aims:
1- How white readings of scripture enhance views of supremacy. This is a constructed lens, however, and subsequent doctrines defend this lens and not scripture.
2- A fascinating discussion of authority is offered here and a chance for the reader to reflect on the language and meaning of doctrines of inner act and infallibility. Hint: both shrink the Bible and defend power not truth.
3- Parker offers insight into gaslighting and biblical interpretation. I’ve seen this done so often that this chapter is painful reading, but worth doing. Her understanding of shame is accurate and helpful as a cultural insight.
4- An interpretation of Galatians and faith is offered here. This is an interesting and creative approach to Galatians That I appreciate. However some big textual and interpretative issues are skipped. For a popular level book this is understandable, but I wasn’t convinced by some of the assumptions being made. This is very nuanced but slightly limits the impact of the book on me.

I would recommend this book to many people. She offers reflections on biblical doctrinal positions that make it worth reading alone. But it’s also a well written and engaging intro to much bigger issues that most white people, especially but not exclusively, easily miss for the reasons listed here.

[Jessica Carpenter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hear me out — as someone who fully believes in the inerrancy of Scripture, I deeply resonate with Dr. Parker’s words. She recalls her experience of being a Black woman in a room of white male evangelicals. I have been in spaces where white evangelicals use scripture as a means of condoning racism and oppression because “well the Bible says”. This is an example of what Dr. Parker would call “using the Bible as a tool to oppress rather than liberate”.

I mentioned inerrancy of scripture because Dr. Parker says while the Bible is “AN authority in her life, but it is not THE authority for her life”. While I believe in seeing my life through the lens of scripture, Dr. Parker views scripture through a womanist approach. She does end by saying inerrancy and infallibility can become tools of white supremacy authoritarianism which is be the opposite of liberating. This book was a reminder that it is okay to read things that challenge me and make me uncomfortable. I wish the book was a bit longer so that she could expand on a few things.

[JC · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great resource for pastors and Christians. If you have ever doubted biblical inerrancy and/or biblical infallibility, this is a good book for you. Even if you have never doubted either, pick it up and let it challenge you

[Jon Coutts · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book works well as the exhortative memoir of a Womanist biblical scholar to 2020s America. It helpfully highlights contemporary forms of cultural racism and offers a reading of Galatians that has an eye for such dynamics in the early church and draws out how solidarity in Christ is a core aspect of the gospel presented there. Where I found the book disappointing was in its treatments of biblical authority, inerrancy, and inspiration, which were just not very precisely defined and thus seemed to fall short of their potency. I wonder if the publisher scaled that back for a general audience, because Dr. Parker had some rightly pointed things to say here.

[Adam Shields · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: An introduction to hermeneutics through the lens of Womanist Biblical methods.

Generally, when I read a book, I try to write about it within a few days. This has become a spiritual practice of mine, not just because I like to encourage reading but also because I want to incorporate what I am learning. Part of that incorporation is writing about the book so that I can put on paper what was important to me. But sometimes, I get busy with my paying work or other aspects of life, and at some point, I am just too far away from a book to do it justice. In the case of If God Still Breathes, Why Can’t I? I read it in February 2022 and then again in December 2022. It was certainly one of my favorite books of 2022, but because I hadn’t written about it, it was hard to talk about why succinctly.

I have had a running book club since 2020 or 2021, depending on whether you count the Be the Bridge groups that it grew out of or the later discussion of Color of Compromise that started an actual book club. Since then, I am told we have discussed 12 books. I have wanted to get a group to talk about If God Still Breathes for a while, and this spring seemed like a good time.

If God Still Breathes, Why Can’t I? is a fairly short book, only 128 pages and about 3 hours. But there is some weight to it. It was the most challenging book we have tackled so far. Most of the group was new to Womanist thought, so there was that aspect of difficulty. Only a couple of other group members had taken formal college-level Bible classes either. Mixing womanist thinking and biblical hermeneutics introduced many in the group to a lot of new vocabulary. One of the members expressed how happy he was to be reading on Kindle because there is a built-in dictionary.

As someone with a seminary degree who has read Womanist theology as part of my seminary education, I did not think this was a hard book to understand. Still, the group's reaction did help me understand where there were ideas I had come to think of as ordinary but not common. I knew that the discussion of her being trained as a “White Male Scholar” and the discussion of Hagel and other German scholars would be a bit challenging. Still, the fourth chapter, where she talked about translation theory and the Greek language, was more difficult than I remembered. There are a lot of subtle nods to other things that, if you have some background, show the brilliance of the writing. If you don’t have the background, you don’t need to know it to understand the main point, but I did find myself wanting everyone else to understand what was under the surface.

There are a lot of things going on in a very short book. She introduces a lot of biography in part because she is introducing the concepts of Womanist biblical interpretation, and those biographical elements are a really good way of showing why Womanist is not just appropriate but is an essential corrective to what some would consider more traditional biblical interpretation.

Chapter Four is the longest and most constructive of the chapters because, after having laid out her background, she shows how the womanist biblical interpretation works through the discussion of Galatians. I wanted the book to be longer because I wanted to see other examples of Womanist biblical interpretation. But I also read Wil Gafney and other womanist theologians, so I was not completely new. And I think writing a short introduction was the right choice because it does something different from a long biblical interpretation. If God Still Breathes is about introducing the method, not a longer commentary on scripture.

Because I have read it so many times and because I was leading a group through it, I have entirely too many notes and highlights. However, if you are interested in nearly 70 notes and highlights from a 128-page book, you can see them here.

This was originally posted to my blog at https://bookwi.se/if-god-still-breathes/

[Josh Olds · Rating 3 out of 5]

More so than any book in history, the Bible and its authority has been misused and weaponized to oppress and demean. From that foundation, Black womanist theologian Angela Parker embarks on an exploration of what biblical authority should actually mean and challenges the inherent biases often found within the doctrine of inerrancy.

I came to If God Still Breathes, Why Can’t I? with some amount of skepticism. Growing up as a conservative evangelical, inerrancy and biblical authority were at the core of my theological education. I’ve shed much of that upbringing for a more liberal, yet-still-theologically-evangelical view, but inerrancy has been a tough one for me. I’ve come to understand how Scripture is often misused and misinterpreted—how people are errant—but I wasn’t sure about the step to questioning the actual inspiration of the Bible.

And while Parker doesn’t convince me entirely, what she does convince me of is how the doctrines of inerrancy and infallibility have been used to oppress and kill. Parker believes in biblical authority, but believes we need to question our relationship to Scripture and the way it has been used to promote White supremacy. She writes: “The underlying theme of this book is that our faith communities cannot fully breathe because White supremacist authoritarianism in the doctrines of inerrancy and infallibility have stifled God’s breath in us.”

The early chapters of the book detail Parker’s academic upbringing in White evangelical male culture—the default seminary culture for so many. Crucially, she shows how we can retain Biblical authority even while questioning interpretations and allowing for debate and discussion. The middle chapters give a few different example of the way in which traditional readings of Scripture have either devalued women or been used to center White authority and culture.

In the end, If God Still Breathes, Why Can’t I? expertly shows how a White evangelical reading of Scripture can contribute to the harmful systems of White and male supremacy. However, I’m not at all convinced that we have to do away with the idea of inerrancy in order to correct this. Parker never, to my satisfaction, brings the two issues together. Whiteness-centered biblical scholarship is suffocating to people of color, and the doctrines of inerrancy and infallibility have been used as garrotes, but it’s not at all clear to me that the solution is to jettison inerrancy.

Rather, the solution might be that White supremacy has corrupted all doctrine and the solution is not to throw it away but redeem it. However, I can also acknowledge that somebody being strangled isn’t going to be to keen on being told “Well, you know, that’s really a useful tool you’re being strangled with when it’s used correctly.” Of course they’re going to want to get rid of it! Parker’s words are incisive, clear, and a bold word for (white, male) scholars like me who desperately need to glimpse a different perspective. That’s why I read this book, and I’m grateful for it.

[Jennifer Spiegel]

Hey, I'm not afraid to read stuff with which I don't agree. And, um, I don't agree with some of the big stuff here. I think, truthfully, she's waaaayyyy smarter than I, and I would need to keep reading to talk about this effectively. Nonetheless, it was a good mental stretch--though I wanted to finish it up. I really am weary of only reading stuff that allows me to say, "Yeah. Right. Amen." So this was different.

For the big Bible Belters out there, I DID make the switch to "soft" egalitarianism over complementarianism iin the last year--but that'll have to be enough for now.😘🙃🧐😎

I'm not going to get into all of the details. Basically, she challenges the doctrines of biblical inerrancy and infallibility, suggesting that we read the Bible from a White Supremacist Authoritarian POV, and she, herself, was trained to be a White male biblical scholar. However, she calls herself instead a Womanist. She rejects the POV that is prevalent.

I did jot down some passages.

Like I learned what this actually means: "Gaslighting occurs when folks around a microagressed person doubt or question the reality of the microagressed person or even the microagressive incident. A specifically Christian example would be when a woman experiences an unfulfilled call to ministry, the men exercising authority around her may state that because the inerrant and infallible biblical text says women must experience fulfillment in childbearing or in being obedient to a husband, her real lived sense of unfulfillment is not valid. She must pray her way out of such thoughts and feelings."

And: When I was in my first marriage, I often read books on purity by Elisabeth Elliot or books about the "proper way" to be a Christian wife . . . One of the ways I was told to save money was to let my hair air-dry instead of 'wasting' . . . money on electricity. This advice works well for a White woman . . . " Not so great for a Black woman in an era in which Black women should straighten their hair.
While some of you might think this sounds absurd, I can assure you that even I know that proper Christian wife stuff, the gaslighting, et al. Though I know it, I do NOT embrace her ideas. I do, though, get the lousy things she says.

Another passage: "As students begin to understand that language learning yields interpretive options, they have to make a decision a decision on how to adjudicate those options. Again, the multitude of decisions forces students to slow down and, dare I say it, become less hermeneutically arrogant."
Um, yeah, hermeneutical arrogance is misery.

So, yeah, intriguing book Glad I read it. Need a break.

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I’m thankful for Dr. Parker’s work and for her desire to understand the Bible, I find that this book is ultimately unconvincing of it’s premise and is undergirded by principles that make it really hard for me to recommend.

Dr. Parker has written a work meant to engage against the concepts of infallibility and inerrancy as tools of white supremacy and oppression. While I can understand the helpful nuance of wanting to clarify that our particular interpretations of the Bible shouldn’t be absolutized, her efforts to fight against infallibility and inerrancy are ultimately unhelpful. I think one of my chief concerns is that, historically speaking, these are not white concepts or inventions. Orthodox Christianity as we largely know it— the divinity of Jesus, the trinity, inerrancy and infallibility— are African contributions to the faith. Christianity didn’t become what we know it today in Europe during the reformation (despite what many would have us believe), but instead was largely defined and given to us by African church fathers. White supremacy itself gives many the idea that Christianity and sound/orthodox theology is exclusively and primarily European.

Additionally, Dr. Parker is very clear about reading her views into Biblical texts, and this is not a problem for her hermeneutic. I don’t think this sort of critical thought is going to convince her intended audience. This tone is clear when Dr. Parker says things such as: “I also love the Biblical text, and it is an authority in my life but not the authority in my life.” (46) and “Objective reality as a stance for biblical interpretation is, I argue, one of the systemic evils of academic biblical studies.” (35)

I am thankful for Dr. Parker’s scholarship and for offering her work for us to learn, she leaves plenty of food for thought. I have learned from her experience, but I do not think this book is convincing of it’s premise. This is possibly due to it’s brevity, but there are some problems that make it hard to recommend. Additionally, Dr. Parker reads with a different hermeneutic than her intended audience, and I’m not sure she spends enough time explaining why her hermeneutic is worth considering.

[Karna Bosman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Angela N. Parker's book, "If God Still Breathes, Why Can't I? Black Lives Matter and Biblical Authority," examines how biblical authority has been misused to support systemic racism and oppress women. Through personal narrative and theological reflection, Parker argues for reinterpreting the Bible to empower and bring justice to marginalized communities. The book's length and format make it suitable for Sunday school classes or other reading groups.

Parker's purpose in writing this book is to root out white supremacist authoritarianism from biblical interpretation. She challenges us to move beyond the doctrines of inerrancy and infallibility, which have been co-opted by white supremacist ideology, to envision a form of liberation in today’s world. She reveals how certain groups, mainly white male interpreters of Scripture and political policies, go to great lengths to maintain their power.

As a professor teaching Greek to seminary students, Parker helps them understand that the nuances of the biblical text make direct translation into English impossible. She emphasizes that it is impossible for biblical translations to be entirely objective because every theology carries its own perspective. Traditionally, Bible translators have been predominantly white.

Parker, an ordained Baptist minister with a womanist perspective, blends personal narrative with theological reflection to advocate for reinterpreting the Bible to empower marginalized communities and promote justice. The book combines memoir and biblical interpretation, offering a concise yet impactful read. While it may leave readers wanting more depth, its brevity inspires further exploration of Parker's work.

Angela N. Parker, a theologian and New Testament biblical scholar, holds a Master of Theological Studies from Duke University Divinity School and a Ph.D. from Chicago Theological Seminary. She is an Associate Professor of New Testament and Greek at Mercer University's McAfee School of Theology and contributes to "The Bible for Normal People," a podcast that makes scholarly biblical insights accessible to the public. Her work focuses on race, gender, and justice within biblical interpretation.

[Matthew · Rating 2 out of 5]

The basic premise of the book is that Parker works out is that "the doctrines of inerrancy and infallibility serve as tools of White supremacy." That claim may reflect her view as to its utility in the present (a not objectionable claim in a more limited context), but she also seems inerrancy and infallibility to consider it to be a rather recent and culturally based views rooted in the sixteenth century, rather than what was the rather consistent view of the church prior to the Enlightenment.

I find reading things of this nature helpful for seeing where people come from, but as a program it seems doomed to failure. This seems to be a revisionist program that seems to apparently relegate much of orthodoxy to "white authoritarianism" while positing a more relativized reading of Scripture that may or may not have any correlation to the original author's meaning. I wish she was more specific as to what she had in mind, but for the most part I was left to make inferences as to what kind of doctrines she was actually thinking of. Overall, it seems like seeking to replace one set of cultural blinders with another.

Further, some of her criticisms seem to highlight significant weaknesses in the scholarly world if they are as prevalent as she claims. For example:

"In the ways it shapes and trains scholars, the academy differentiates translation from interpretation, thereby implying that translation is a neutral practice. Gafney argues that the Western scholarly academy has thought of translation as a word-for-word process comparable to a mathematical equation."

I have worked in translation, and I have never known anybody that does not recognize that significant interpretation is needed in the translation of texts. Sure, monolingual people may not recognize this, but anybody who has any knowledge of another language should know this.

[Kristin T. · Rating 5 out of 5]

IF GOD CAN BREATHE, WHY CAN'T I?: BLACK LIVES MATTER AND BIBLICAL AUTHORITY by Angela N. Parker is a scathing treatise that exposes the fact that the supposedly neutral language used to codify church doctrine effectively silences some voices and privileges others. This book, including the introduction by Lisa Sharon Harper, is absolutely on fire, and I can't recommend it enough.

First, Parker shows how traditional seminary education and church teaching trains people to read the Bible "objectively," but what that really means is "as a white male scholar." She then contends that the doctrines of biblical inerrancy and infallibility serve as tools exercised by those with power (white male scholars) to control the "proper" reading of the Bible: their own. People who question that one "correct" interpretation are excluded from the halls of power.

Parker then applies these ideas to a reading of Galatians, in which she highlights the Galatians' status as a subservient to the Romans as important for understanding how they might hear Paul's letter. She also posits that the original Greek could be read as both "faith in Christ" or "faith of Christ", and asks: Why not sit in the mystery of uncertainty? Either reading could work, and either reading could add to our understanding of faith and justification.

Anyone who has had their questions meet resistance in evangelical spaces, who hungers for a more nuanced reading of Scripture, and who no longer has patience for the cultural hegemony that has held vast swaths of Christians captive will find life and breath and bread in this book.

[Jordan Myers · Rating 2 out of 5]

I appreciate what this book set out to do. As a white Bible College student I appreciated the accountability that Dr. Parker holds people such as myself to.

I agree with her Observation of how concepts such as biblical
Inerrancy can be/ have been used to further White authoritarianism. Additionally, her claim that “objective” readings of scripture can silence the voices and experiences of those whose voices are often silenced by white evangelicalism.

However She makes a lot of claims that contradict what she had previously stated. Most notably was when she said that she will never not interpret scripture outside of the lens of a womanist scholar. When maybe 20 pages earlier she clarifies the importance or reading scripture in the context it was originally written in.

I think there is an important nuance between recognizing white supremacy utilizing biblical scholarship to further its own ideas (even inadvertently) while still properly reading the text with one’s own experiences in addition to the originally intended audience.

I liked this book, and some of her points will never leave my own theology now. However I really wanted to love it.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

Angela Parker combines personal, social, and biblical scholarship into this short book that looks at biblical interpretation and translation. Her convincing argument is that the doctrine of biblical inerrancy is linked with white supremacy authoritarianism. This teaching has meant that white male biblical scholars have determined the questions relevant for biblical interpretation, how the bible can be interpreted in an "objective" manner, and the theory of correct biblical translation.

Parker, also, provides interpretations of pasages from Mark and Galatians.

While the book is not a casual read, it is also not overly technical. Someone with an active interest in biblical interpretation and/or theology should have no problem reading and understanding. Parker writes well.

[Jeff Eddings · Rating 5 out of 5]

I deeply appreciate Dr. Parkers womanist reflections on the Bible and inerrancy. Those of us that have come through western theological institutions must face the truth that we have received an education that is formed out of a European/white context. That context is impoverished when not considered along side the experiences and reflections of indigenous, immigrant, and Black folk. I especially appreciated the reflections on Galatians in Chapter 4 and the small yet vital difference that happens when you translate 'Faith in Christ' as 'the Faith of Christ'. An important distinction that has significant theological impact on how we wrestle with the rest of the Galatians text. You can read the chapter for more insight!

[Gabe · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a quick and interesting read! I appreciated the sections on racialized and genderized gaslighting within normative interpretations of scripture that have been shaped in large part by white male theologians. I liked the exegetical work done on Mark 15 and Galatians. I did have some issues with the fact that there were spelling errors in both the text and the index, which is really surprising to me given that this was published by Eerdmans Publishing, who I really respect!

A decent book - I definitely want to read more Womanist theology, and I liked reading from a Lutheran rather than my typical Catholic fare.

[Drick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Parker challenges the evangelical insistence on Biblical inerrancy and infallibility as an expression of white supremacy in Christian circles. Writing from the position as a Womanist biblical scholar, she demonstrates how those doctrines prohibit any reading and interpretation that is not from a white male social position. Her chapter on micro aggressions and gaslighting in Biblical interpretation was particularly insightful.

[Parker Friesen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A raw piece of writing which deeply engaged my thoughts on Scripture, culture and white supremacy while lighting a fire in me to change myself. This is a worthwhile read, and while many evangelicals will have a hard time reading it (as it is in itself prophetic), it's needed in a time where Biblical inerrancy, infallibility and authority are topics of conversation.

[Fred Kohn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really good book but I wish Dr. Parker had fleshed out her main thesis a bit more. As a white man I realize I swim in the waters of white supremacy, usually without recognizing it. So I understand that white supremacy has become the norm for the white evangelical church, but I have trouble recognizing instances of where this occurs.

[Connie Jellison · Rating 4 out of 5]

An eye opening and God breathed study of the Bible and white supremacy. This validates many thoughts I've had dismissed by Bible scholars and / or pastors over the years as I've struggled to understand the word of God.

It can get a little dense and difficult to follow is the only reason I gave it 4 stars. I'd love to learn Greek and read the new testament myself in its original language.

[Carie · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fantastic life giving book. It is so beautiful, rich and well written. It challenges us to see better, to do better, to re-examine the text and confront our own flaws. A must read for anyone dedicated to anti racist deconstruction.

[Tonya Beeler · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good, scholarly read. She spends most of the time convincing you she is a worth expert in the topic. The last chapter she dives into her interpretation of some verses in Galatians and I couldn’t help but wish that I had a whole bible study from her.

[Aj Jansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent read. If reading from an evangelical perspective it will challenge one’s belief in the inerrancy and inspiration of scripture which should rightly be challenged. Much of our biblical readings, the authors shows, are steeped in White supremacist authoritarianism.

[Abby Schwartz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciate theology that takes lived experience into account in its interpretation of the Biblical texts. It makes much more sense than to accept cognitive dissonance in order to have the "correct" faith.