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

McCaulley argues that God has always intended for the freedom of Black people because the Old Testament and the New Testament provide the theological resources to dismantle slavery. McCaulley frames his argument with references to Black pastor and abolitionist James W. C. Pennington. Pennington’s concern is not about specific verses, nor the historical record, but rather about the overall character of God. McCaulley agrees with Pennington’s conclusion “that slavery is condemned by the general tenor and scope of the New Testament” (163), and McCaulley applies BEI to discern that the core theological principles of Christianity render slavery untenable in the long term and provide theological resources for abolition.

Matthew 16:21 contains Jesus’s method for interpreting the Torah; the method distinguishes between God’s creational intent, or the ideal, and what is allowed by manmade laws that are designed to limit the damages of an imperfect society. McCaulley applies Jesus’s interpretive method to Old Testament and New Testament passages. Furthermore, in Matthew 19:3-8, when Jesus is asked to interpret Old Testament passages on the matter of divorce, Jesus responds by turning to Genesis to posit that God did not condone divorce, but Moses instituted the laws in question “because of [humans’] hardness of heart” (140-41).