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African American Readings of Paul: Reception, Resistance, and Transformation
The letters of Paul—especially the verse in Ephesians directing slaves to obey their masters—played an enormous role in promoting slavery and justifying it as a Christian practice. Yet despite this reality African Americans throughout history still utilized Paul extensively in their own work to protest and resist oppression, responding to his theology and teachings in numerous—often starkly divergent and liberative—ways. 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.
384 pages, Hardcover
Published October 13, 2020
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375 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
January 7, 2021
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.
March 2, 2023
I struggle to read Paul sometimes, for many reasons. I struggle partly because of the way my mind works, partly because of the way Paul is used by Christians, and partly because of the frustrating and convoluted discipline of Pauline studies. If these interpreters could find something to love about Paul, then I should also be able to with my privileged self. This book helped a little with that.
This book is a welcome contribution to its field and is worth reading for its gathering of voices that aren’t mentioned or remembered much today. The book could have been even better with more input and analysis from Bowens, as well as more engagement with how these trajectories of interpretation have moved into today’s discourse. Even still, it is a much needed and welcome source that brings light to heroes of the faith who have not been seen as such.
This book is a welcome contribution to its field and is worth reading for its gathering of voices that aren’t mentioned or remembered much today. The book could have been even better with more input and analysis from Bowens, as well as more engagement with how these trajectories of interpretation have moved into today’s discourse. Even still, it is a much needed and welcome source that brings light to heroes of the faith who have not been seen as such.
March 1, 2023
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.
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.
March 1, 2023
I found myself slightly disappointed by the direction of the book. I felt that Bowens did a good job of detailing the historical importance of Paul within African American movements, but I was left desiring more of a focused conclusion. I wish she had offered more insight into how the historic importance of Paul's themes on freedom impacted the church today and how we can think pastorally about such topics.
February 9, 2022
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.
The book is full of moving primary source material that wrestles with the complexities of culture and the Bible.
July 15, 2022
The primary sources reveal a deeper scholarship and understanding of Scripture and its authors by African Americans than the superficial proof texts used by whites to justify ownership and othering of fellow humans. This is a life-affirming and life-giving book.
October 23, 2021
Bowens strives to paint a picture of how many in the African-American Church understood Paul and even considered him an ally in their fight for freedom.
She begins by pointing out that many African slaves were skeptical of the Christianity perpetuated by their white owners. Since their masters tended to use Paul’s letters against them (telling them to joyfully submit), many developed a low view of Paul’s letters. That said, that was not always the case as Bowens’ impressive work itself attests to.
Many Christian slaves saw in their slave masters a serious hypocrisy and neglect of the heart of Paul’s letters. Bowens documents many of these American slaves and their prophetic role in calling the white American Church to repentance. Using logic and exegesis, these black theologians and deep thinkers (some of them were freed while some remained slaves) boldly challenged the status quo and the injustice that white Christians perpetuated. In response, white owners continued to use the Bible to tell their slaves that their plight (=slavery and domination by the white other) was in fact God’s will.
Bowens documents that initially, many white slave owners were hesitant of their slaves embracing Christianity since the Christian faith affirmed the humanity and dignity of all. Thus they selectively searched their Bibles for proof-texts and would use Paul’s letters (or rather snippets of his letters) in an attempt to shut their Christian slaves up. As a result, many slaves either rejected Christianity, or accepted Jesus but rejected Paul. And yet a great number of slaves began to see for themselves that it was not Paul’s letters that were corrupted but the strange Christianity that whites had developed that ignored not only the Exodus but the heart of Paul’s letters.
Slave owners wanted to be viewed as the ultimate authority of slaves, another reason why they discouraged slaves from converting to Christianity. Bowens points out that slave masters wanted “enslaved Africans [to] believe in their owners’ total claim to their bodies, minds, and souls believe that their existence rested upon the slaveholders alone” (p. 64). In response to this, many slaves insisted that they belonged to God, not man (white or otherwise).
When they could not prevent the slaves from converting, white slave masters sought to control the Christianity of the slaves by closely monitoring them and what was said from the pulpit. Many masters wanted specific vetted preachers to teach and only on specific subjects. Even white guest ministers/speakers had to be very careful with what they preached to slaves, or else pay the price.
While slave masters sought to control the narrative by insisting that slavery was God’s will, many slaves and freed slaves fought against this misunderstanding of Scripture. They instead insisted that slavery reflected the nature of Satan rather than the will (and character) of God. The God of the Bible was the God of the Exodus, the God who opposed (rather than approved of) Pharaoh and his oppressive tendencies. Some argued that the slavery that Hebrews experienced in the Bible (in Egypt) was lighter than the slavery of Africans in America. And yet many black Christians felt hope in the fact that their oppressive masters (who used Scripture to justify sadistic tendencies) would face their Creator one day and need to give an account for their cruelty. As Bowens documents, there were times when the slave masters realized this and feared this reality, though at times their “repentance” was short-lived.
For anyone interested in Pauline interpretation or African-American Christianity, this is a splendid resource and very well-documented. I benefited greatly by being introduced to many voices of the black American Church that I was unaware of.
[Full review at OverthinkingChristian.com]
She begins by pointing out that many African slaves were skeptical of the Christianity perpetuated by their white owners. Since their masters tended to use Paul’s letters against them (telling them to joyfully submit), many developed a low view of Paul’s letters. That said, that was not always the case as Bowens’ impressive work itself attests to.
Many Christian slaves saw in their slave masters a serious hypocrisy and neglect of the heart of Paul’s letters. Bowens documents many of these American slaves and their prophetic role in calling the white American Church to repentance. Using logic and exegesis, these black theologians and deep thinkers (some of them were freed while some remained slaves) boldly challenged the status quo and the injustice that white Christians perpetuated. In response, white owners continued to use the Bible to tell their slaves that their plight (=slavery and domination by the white other) was in fact God’s will.
Bowens documents that initially, many white slave owners were hesitant of their slaves embracing Christianity since the Christian faith affirmed the humanity and dignity of all. Thus they selectively searched their Bibles for proof-texts and would use Paul’s letters (or rather snippets of his letters) in an attempt to shut their Christian slaves up. As a result, many slaves either rejected Christianity, or accepted Jesus but rejected Paul. And yet a great number of slaves began to see for themselves that it was not Paul’s letters that were corrupted but the strange Christianity that whites had developed that ignored not only the Exodus but the heart of Paul’s letters.
Slave owners wanted to be viewed as the ultimate authority of slaves, another reason why they discouraged slaves from converting to Christianity. Bowens points out that slave masters wanted “enslaved Africans [to] believe in their owners’ total claim to their bodies, minds, and souls believe that their existence rested upon the slaveholders alone” (p. 64). In response to this, many slaves insisted that they belonged to God, not man (white or otherwise).
When they could not prevent the slaves from converting, white slave masters sought to control the Christianity of the slaves by closely monitoring them and what was said from the pulpit. Many masters wanted specific vetted preachers to teach and only on specific subjects. Even white guest ministers/speakers had to be very careful with what they preached to slaves, or else pay the price.
While slave masters sought to control the narrative by insisting that slavery was God’s will, many slaves and freed slaves fought against this misunderstanding of Scripture. They instead insisted that slavery reflected the nature of Satan rather than the will (and character) of God. The God of the Bible was the God of the Exodus, the God who opposed (rather than approved of) Pharaoh and his oppressive tendencies. Some argued that the slavery that Hebrews experienced in the Bible (in Egypt) was lighter than the slavery of Africans in America. And yet many black Christians felt hope in the fact that their oppressive masters (who used Scripture to justify sadistic tendencies) would face their Creator one day and need to give an account for their cruelty. As Bowens documents, there were times when the slave masters realized this and feared this reality, though at times their “repentance” was short-lived.
For anyone interested in Pauline interpretation or African-American Christianity, this is a splendid resource and very well-documented. I benefited greatly by being introduced to many voices of the black American Church that I was unaware of.
[Full review at OverthinkingChristian.com]
June 1, 2023
I was slightly disappointed in this work, especially considering the high praise it’s received. It’s a good landscape of texts from the black tradition regarding various passages in Paul, especially ones concerning slavery and various social ills. I have to complain though, even while laying out variety of texts and giving commentary on them, I feel like it stopped short of actually constructing a vision of a black hermeneutic of Paul. The commentary wasn’t especially enlightening if you have already spent some time reading voices from black Christians throughout American history. It kinda just painted black Christians through US history in a generically progressive light, even arguing for a strong presence of egalitarianism from various groups. It felt somewhat like the goal was to show THAT black Christians held various positions and not how they reached them or what constitutes a “black reading of Paul.”
I feel like Esau McCaulley’s Reading While Black set a pretty high bar for explaining what it means to have a black hermeneutic, and I expected this book to go further in that because it’s academic and makes claims that it will do so! It shows the need more than anything for more and not less publishing on the subject!! That being said, Reading While Black is a far more accessible and better executed book on the question of a black hermeneutic!
I feel like Esau McCaulley’s Reading While Black set a pretty high bar for explaining what it means to have a black hermeneutic, and I expected this book to go further in that because it’s academic and makes claims that it will do so! It shows the need more than anything for more and not less publishing on the subject!! That being said, Reading While Black is a far more accessible and better executed book on the question of a black hermeneutic!
January 1, 2021
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.
May 5, 2021
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.
Disclaimer: Lisa Bowens is a professor of mine and we read this for her class on this topic.
August 26, 2022
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.
April 6, 2021
Great bible study, nice conversation with the author as well. Some stories were difficult, others moving. Many brought me to tears. I learned alot about these individuals as well as about myself.
Thank you Sister Bowens.
Thank you Sister Bowens.
December 24, 2023
This book was readable and very encouraging
November 2, 2021
Fascinating.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews