Blackening of the Bible: The Aims of African American Biblical Scholarship (African American Religious Thought & Life)
"Michael J. Brown's Blackening of the Bible has the privilege of being thefirst text to critically assess and evaluate some of the leading voices anddiffering perspectives within the emerging field of black biblicalhermeneutics. While this text is not intended to be exhaustive, it doespresent to the reader a lucid and engaging introduction to the primaryaims of the young discipline. This book could easily serve as a maintextbook or as a supplementary text for the increasing number of coursesbeing offered in colleges and seminaries that seek to address and includemarginalized voices and perspectives within biblical studies. I highlyrecommend it." —Demetrius Williams, Director, Religious Studies Program, Tulane University (Demetrius Williams)"This book ably fulfills its mission of providing an introduction to African American biblical interpretation. Dr. Brown presents a useful digest of African American scholarly engagements with Scripture. The assemblage of diverse perspectives in one volume invites persons from many cultural backgrounds to investigate the expanding discipline of African American biblical hermeneutics." -Brad R. Braxton, Associate Professor of Homiletics and New Testament, Vanderbilt University. (Brad R. Braxton)“Blackening of the Bible gives readers an overview of the various modes of engagement used by African American biblical scholars. Brown establishes the groundwork for this important and unique area of biblical criticism and presents questions and challenges for biblical scholars, classicists, historians, and theologians. He also brings a fresh perspective to the task that allows readers unacquainted with African America readings of the Bible to see it in a nonpartisan light.” –Sirreadalot.org, 1/15/05"Each of Brown's chapter's is well organized, offeringreaders an introduction to various modes of thought, as well as an effectivecritique of and commentary on each approach. Furthermore, in outlining thesevaried and sometimes conflicting approaches, he proved a helpful corrective tothese who would assume there is a single 'African American' approach to thebiblical text. In this was, in spite of the exclusion of ' ordinary' voices,Brown is successful in demonstrating the diversity of possible readings towhich the theorists in his introduction allude."- Danielle Brune Sigler,Journal of Biblical Literature(Review of Biblical Literature)"This book is the first of its kind in that it outlinesthe evolution of African American biblical hermeneutics, an academic enterprisethat has its roots in the black theology movement of the 1960s...this book isconsequential because it compiles [African American scholars'] work into asingle volume. Brown is to be commended for his careful summation and critiqueof their contributions. Given its emphasis on interpretation theory, this workcan be of use in seminary classrooms and congregational settings. Its detailedanalysis of various interpretive strategies welcomes even the non-specialist toglean from the methodologically diverse procedures outlined therein." —Interpretation, January 2006(Interpretation)"Michael J. Brown's Blackening of the Bible has the privilege of being thefirst text to critically assess and evaluate some of the leading voices anddiffering perspectives within the emerging field of black biblicalhermeneutics. While this text is not intended to be exhaustive, it doespresent to the reader a lucid and engaging introduction to the primaryaims of the young discipline. This book could easily serve as a maintextbook or as a supplementary text for the increasing number of coursesbeing offered in colleges and seminaries that seek to address and includemarginalized voices and perspectives within biblical studies. I highlyrecommend it." —Demetrius Williams, Director, Religious Studies Program, Tulane University (Sanford Lakoff)"This book ably fulfills its mission of providing an introduction to African American biblical interpretation. Dr. Brown presents a useful digest of African American scholarly engagements with Scripture. The assemblage of diverse perspectives in one volume invites persons from many cultural backgrounds to investigate the expanding discipline of African American biblical hermeneutics." -Brad R. Braxton, Associate Professor of Homiletics and New Testament, Vanderbilt University. (Sanford Lakoff)“Each of Brown’s chapter’s is well organized, offeringreaders an introduction to various modes of thought, as well as an effectivecritique of and commentary on each approach. Furthermore, in outlining thesevaried and sometimes conflicting approaches, he proved a helpful corrective tothese who would assume there is a single 'African American’ approach to thebiblical text. In this was, in spite of the exclusion of ' ordinary’ voices,Brown is successful in demonstrating the diversity of possible readings towhich the theorists in his introduction allude.”- Danielle Brune Sigler,Journal of Biblical Literature(Review of Biblical Literature)“This book is the first of its kind in that it outlinesthe evolution of African American biblical hermeneutics, an academic enterprisethat has its roots in the black theology movement of the 1960s…this book isconsequential because it compiles [African American scholars’] work into asingle volume. Brown is to be commended for his careful summation and critiqueof their contributions. Given its emphasis on interpretation theory, this workcan be of use in seminary classrooms and congregational settings. Its detailedanalysis of various interpretive strategies welcomes even the non-specialist toglean from the methodologically diverse procedures outlined therein.” –Interpretation, January 2006(Interpretation)