However, where white evangelicals emphasize personal salvation, the Black church places an equal emphasis on social justice. Theologically, it has much in common with white evangelicals. In McCaulley’s telling the Black church is mostly conservative. The larger project McCaulley undertakes is to put into writing the Black theological tradition that is mostly oral, transmitted in the sermons, songs, and prayers of the Black church. These two chapters fit into a larger context. The cross, he asserts, breaks the cycle of vengeance and death.

He writes that the United States, both historically and in the present, “has used the sword to instill a fear passed on from generation to generation in Black homes and churches.”įour chapters later McCaulley poses the question “What shall we do with this rage?” He quotes James Baldwin, “To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.” McCaulley narrates a litany of Black suffering stoking rage he then turns to the imprecatory psalms to give it voice. Huntsville was the scene of one of McCaulley’s own frightening encounters with law enforcement. He attended the University of the South for his undergraduate degree. Wright, an STM from Nashonah House Seminary, and an MDiv from Gordon Conwell. Yet, he foresaw his death, because deaths like his are nothing new.Įsau McCaulley is assistant professor of New Testament at Wheaton College, a priest in the Anglican Church of North America, and a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times.

McCaulley may not have known Floyd’s name when he sat down to write.

That last sentence could only have been written by a white person who is only distantly aware of the violence perpetrated against black bodies. It is as if, when he sat down to write, he foresaw the death of George Floyd, and the eruption of rage following his death and the deaths of so many others. “The New Testament and a Theology of Policing,” and “What Shall We Do with This Rage?” are chapters in Esau McCaulley’s book. For the Zoom link, drop a note to Cathy Lessmann.Ī Review: R eading While Black Esau McCaulley’s Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope (InterVarsity Press: Downers Grove, IL, 2020) Are you hungry for a chance to talk Law/Gospel shop with sympathetic others? If so, you’ll enjoy this series.

Steve Albertin will lead a discussion of Robert Bertram’s “The Lively Use of the Risen Lord,” a chapel sermon that he and Ed Schroeder included in The Promising Tradition, their essential textbook for introductory classes in systematic theology at the brief but great Christ Seminary-Seminex. We’re delighted to do so.Ī reminder that our new offering, Crossings Table Talk, launches next Tuesday at 1 p.m. Bruce Modahl, editor of our quarterly newsletter, sent us a book review to share with you this week.

Reading while black esau