| Title | : | African American Readings of Paul: Reception, Resistance, and Transformation |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0802876765 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780802876768 |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 384 |
| Publication | : | Published October 13, 2020 |
In the first book of its kind, Lisa Bowens takes a historical, theological, and biblical approach to explore interpretations of Paul within African American communities over the past few centuries. She surveys a wealth of primary sources from the early 1700s to the mid-twentieth century, including sermons, conversion stories, slave petitions, and autobiographies of ex-slaves, many of which introduce readers to previously unknown names in the history of New Testament interpretation. Along with their hermeneutical value, these texts also provide fresh documentation of Black religious life through wide swaths of American history. African American Readings of Paul promises to change the landscape of Pauline studies and fill an important gap in the rising field of reception history.
African American Readings of Paul: Reception, Resistance, and Transformation Reviews
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This is a helpful look at the history of biblical interpretation from a African American perspective. Contextual readings—reading the Bible from the margins—gives us a window into how oppressed communities hear the text. The interpreters whom Lisa Bowens profiles (over 3 centuries) were speaking contrary to a white supremacist reading of scripture which stated that African Americans were ordained as slaves, and they should not seek their freedom. The subversive readings which Bowens highlights shows how African Americans saw in Paul reason to believe in their dignity, in the cause of justice, in their identity as Christ (as opposed to to prejudice regarding their skin color), and an affirmation of their activist and ministerial callings (especially among African American female interpreters). This is an important book, and uncovers a history that I didn't learn in my pasty white seminary.
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This is exactly how I like my theology books - focused on the counter cultural voices, incredibly niche, and thoroughly footnoted.
On the surface this a great review of the historical context for the Black church in America & how they grappled with theological issues. On a deeper level, this is a master class in deconstruction & making sure you are turning to God and scripture instead of trusting culture and the status quo. When what preachers are preaching stirs pain and strife, it should not be trusted & the Church at large has so much to learn from how enslaved people rejected the white supremacists of the antebellum south and refused to see Paul, and by extension their relationship to God, as anything less than what God intended for them.
This is a beefy book, but well worth it. -
Even though Paul was the apostle who told slaves to obey their masters, African Americans have traditionally interpreted Paul as undermining slavers in the past and racists in the present.
The book is full of moving primary source material that wrestles with the complexities of culture and the Bible. -
A relentless tour-de-force through 300 years of African American hermeneutics and reclamation of the Pauline letters from the mouths and minds of white supremacists and slave-owners hell-bent on justifying their sin and maintaining their power. The black voices chronicled within will not tolerate the sanitising of the horrors of slavery, nor do they abandon the Pauline epistles. Instead, they wrestle with the apostle’s canon, allowing it to speak truth to the injustices and oppression they experience, charting a course towards black dignity and equality, and envisioning reconciliation made possible by the cross of Christ and its gift of repentance for white oppressors. Their voices speak powerfully to many issues that remain today. Of particular note for charismatics is the section on Seymour’s insistence on the experience of spiritual gifts as vindication of the equality of black people in God’s eyes, and of the Holy Spirit as the unifying force within a multi-racial church. The notion of the US as a historically Christian nation is also undercut by the toleration and justification of the evils of slavery, and the attempt to persecute African Americans even after abolition. Absolute fire, and well worth your time.
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I’m so thankful for this book! Bowen’s does an excellent service to the church in highlighting the rich tradition of African American Pauline interpreters. She shows how these interpreters who were so often preached to from Pauline passages to reinforce sweat Frederick Douglass called “slaveholding religion” used the same passages to re-interpret Paul in liberating ways. A must read.
Disclaimer: Lisa Bowens is a professor of mine and we read this for her class on this topic. -
This is not an earth-shattering read, there is no great theological revelation or argument happening in this book. However, what this book does is nonetheless as critical as any new or fresh perspective might be. The book collects the voices of African-American Christians and leaders and showcases how they use the scripture in the face of those who would misuse it and abuse the African-Americans they own or oppress. Thus this is an indispensable witness to voices not often heard.
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Fascinating.
