CRITICAL REFLECTION PAPERS

Critical Reflection Papers

Critical Reflection Papers

Stony The Road We Trod - Cain Hope Felder

Stony the Road: African American Biblical Interpretation is a collection of eleven seminal essays penned by African American Biblical Scholars edited by Cain Hope Felder. The essays consider biblical authority, African American experience, the issue of race in the Bible, and biblical hermeneutics.

The book opens with introductory comments by Cain Hope Felder and is divided in four equal parts. Each part seeks to substantiate collaboratively the overall thesis of the book and addresses pertinent issues advancing the shared authorial consensus. Part I: The Relevance of Biblical Scholarship and the authority identifies issues in African American Biblical scholarship and raises relevant questions of the significance of African American Hermeneutics, considering the subjects of biblical authority and scholarship appropriately “contextualized” to the African American reader.

Three essays: Interpreting Biblical Scholarship for the Black Church Tradition written by Thomas Hoyt, Jr., The Hermeneutical Dilemma of the African American Student by William H. Myers, and Reading Her way through Struggle: African American Women and the Bible by Renita J. Weems belong to the first division of the book. Part II: African American Sources for enhancing Biblical Interpretation, comprises two essays: The Bible and African Americans: An Outline of an Interpretative History by Vincent L. Wimbush and “An Ante-bellum Sermon”: A Resource for an African American Hermeneutic by David T. Shannon. This particular section outlines available tools and resources: biblical and extra -biblical, that African American Biblical scholars have used in their biblical interpretive journey.

The Bible and African Americans has enabled us to consider African American readings of the Bible and allowed us to reflect upon various conditions that gave rise to such approaches. Wimbush has given us a window to look at the Bible through the lens of African American experience, ...