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

Read Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” What literary techniques do McCaulley and King share? How does their writing style diverge?

What is the significance of calling the final section the “Bonus Track”?

How does McCaulley use the cross as a symbol in the text?

To what effect does McCaulley use imagery?

McCaulley locates criticism of the Bible within multiple Black communities, namely Black progressives, Black people of other faiths, and Black secularists. Given that Black progressives are already of the same faith as McCaulley but reject the authority and utility of the Bible in addressing Black concerns, do you think that McCaulley’s argument speaks to Black people of other faiths and Black secularists as well as it speaks to Black progressives? Why or why not?

It is not merely Black identity that informs McCaulley’s understanding of Christian doctrine, but also the specificity of being Black and Southern. What role does this regional specificity play in Reading While Black?

In the Bonus Track, McCaulley notes that womanist biblical interpretation and a focus on agency are important recent trends. How is McCaulley in conversation with these emerging trends?

McCaulley acknowledges that his proposals are in part drawn from Black liberation theology. What are McCaulley’s points of agreement and disagreement with Black liberation theology, and how do these inform his articulation of BEI?