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September 29 - October 7, 2024
Black ecclesial interpretation.
They emphasized God as the liberator and humankind as one family united under the rule of Christ whose death for sins reconciles us to God. To put it more pointedly, I contend that the enslaved reading of the exodus as paradigmatic for understanding God’s character was more faithful
For example, the theme of forgiveness and the universal kinship of humanity is both a boon and a trial for Black Christians because of the historic and ongoing oppression of Black people in this country. Although I believe we must engage in a dialogue with the text, I acknowledge that ultimately the Word of God speaks the final word.
I propose instead that we adopt the posture of Jacob and refuse to let go of the text until it blesses us. Stated differently, we adopt a hermeneutic of trust in which we are patient with the text in the belief that when interpreted properly it will bring a blessing and not a curse.
This means that we do the hard work of reading the text closely, attending to historical context, grammar, and structure.
unapologetically canonical and theological. ■ socially located, in that it clearly arises out of the particular context of Black Americans. ■ willing to listen to the ways in which the Scriptures
themselves respond to and redirect Black issues and concerns. ■ willing to exercise patience with the text trusting that a careful and sympathetic reading of the text brings a blessing. ■ willing to listen to and enter into dialogue with Black and white critiques of the Bible in the hopes of achieving a better reading of the text.
This dialogical method opens up Black biblical interpretation to other interpretive traditions.
Therefore, those who rule countries are responsible for the culture of policing that they encourage. As Christians, it is part of our calling to remind those charged with governing of their need to create an atmosphere in which people are able to live without fear. This has been the Black person’s repeated lament. We should not live in fear. Good should be rewarded and evil punished.
Christian theology of policing, then, is a theology of freedom.
We do not believe that these days of new hope are days when extreme measures are justified in Birmingham.”
If Jesus could tell the Jews of his day that the leader of their country was corrupt, then why can’t we? Paul’s statement about the present evil age in Galatians also contains a rather unsubtle condemnation of the current political order. In much the same vein, John had strong words to say about Rome.
in a world whose default instinct is oppression.
Not only must we push back on the European deconstruction of the Christian faith, we must also take seriously the claims coming from the Black critics.
order. The fundamental question was whether or not the Christian story was true.
The problem with this approach is that it assumes the inspiration and in effect infallibility of our current sociopolitical consensus and the inability of the biblical text to correct us.
But I do not believe that the triune God revealed in the Old and New Testaments shows a lack of concern for Black lives or justice.
Bible’s vision for a just society,
Black cynicism
unique points of contact with the Black experience.
Luke’s Gospel argues that God always intended to create an international, multiethnic community for his own glory.
similar to the early generation of abolitionists and evangelists in the Black church.
The United States (or any other country) has no say in determining our value.
Who gave you a master and a mistress? God gave them to me. Who says that you must obey them? God says that I must. What book tells you these things? The Bible.
But Luke does mention the fact that other accounts of Jesus were floating around that may not have been helpful.
Luke’s Gospel meets the early experience of Black Christians whose Bible reading awakened them to the truth about God.
Where is God? Why hasn’t he saved us? Does he care about our suffering?
In a society where Black lives have historically been undervalued, we can know that we have an advocate in the person of Christ.
It is the rejection of the world’s evaluation that lifts the soul of the Black Christian because this country has repeatedly claimed that Blacks are ontologically inferior.
Republic. I am saying that it outlines the basic principles and critiques of power that equip Black Christians for their life and work in these United States.
We are latecomers to a drama written by others.
as Augustine and Tertullian.
This means that the leading lights of early Christianity were Black and Brown folks or Egypt isn’t as African as we say it is.
The speed at which Christianity became the official religion has led some to suggest that the Christian mission precedes the activities of Julian.5 In any case, Nubia is an example of Christianity coming into Africa without any colonization.
Ethiopia
Athanasius of Alexandria
It is false to claim that modern Black Christians are in revolt against their heritage.
This chapter reflects on the significance of a select number of African figures in the Scriptures and their implications for Black faith today.
This discussion of the Abrahamic blessing is relevant to Black identity because it shows that God’s vision for his people was never limited to one ethnic group, culture, or nation.
God promised to make Abraham the father of many “nations,” which includes the varied ethnic groups of the world.
Meeting these two half-Egyptian, half-Jewish boys causes Jacob to recall the promise that God made him many years prior:
Jacob sees the Brown flesh and African origin of these boys as the beginning of God’s fulfillment of his promise to make Jacob a community of different nations and ethnicities, and for that reason he claims these two boys as his own.
As it relates to the twelve tribes, then, there was never a biologically “pure” Israel. Israel was always multiethnic and multinational.
We are the first of those joined to Abraham’s family in anticipation of the rest of the nations of the earth.
Instead God sees the creation of a community of different cultures united by faith in his Son as a manifestation of the expansive nature of his grace. This expansiveness is unfulfilled unless the differences are seen and celebrated, not as ends unto themselves, but as particular manifestations of the power of the Spirit to bring forth the same holiness among different peoples and cultures for the glory of God.
In the strange economy of the kingdom, the cross is glory.
Simon of Cyrene
Simon’s cross carrying is a physical manifestation of the spiritual reality that Christian discipleship involves the embrace of suffering.
The family of Simon the Cyrene are not the only African believers in the early church.
The Ethiopian could only be familiar with Isaiah if he already knew something of the God of Israel. This shows a deep African connection to the God of the Bible.
