Yet With a Steady Beat: Contemporary U.S. Afrocentric Biblical Interpretation (SBL Semeia Studies 42) PDF
Preview Yet With a Steady Beat: Contemporary U.S. Afrocentric Biblical Interpretation (SBL Semeia Studies 42)
YET WITH A STEADY BEAT Semeia Studies Editorial Board: Roland Boer Elizabeth A. Castelli Musa Dube David M. Gunn Richard A. Horsley David Jobling Cheryl Kirk-Duggan Stephen D. Moore Tina Pippin Ilona N. Rashkow Fernando Segovia Yvonne M. Sherwood Abraham Smith Gerald O. West Gale A. Yee Number 42 YETWITHASTEADYBEAT Contemporary U.S. Afrocentric Biblical Interpretation YET WITH A STEADY BEAT Contemporary U.S. Afrocentric Biblical Interpretation Edited by Randall C. Bailey Society of Biblical Literature Atlanta YET WITH A STEADY BEAT Contemporary U.S. Afrocentric Biblical Interpretation Copyright © 2003 by the Society of Biblical Literature All rights reserved.No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by means of any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed in writing to the Rights and Permissions Office, Society of Biblical Literature, 825 Houston Mill Road, Atlanta, GA 30329 USA. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Yet with a steady beat : contemporary U.S. Afrocentric biblical interpretation / edited by Randall C. Bailey. p. cm. — (Society of Biblical Literature Semeia studies ; no. 42) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 1-58983-072-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Bible—Black interpretations. 2. Afrocentrism—Religious aspects—Christianity. I. Bailey, Randall C., 1947– II. Series: Semeia studies. BS521.2.Y48 2003b 220.6'089'96073—dc21 2003001672 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper CONTENTS Abbreviations..................................................................................................vii Introduction Randall C. Bailey ..............................................................................1 ESSAYS 1. Triennial Tithes and the Underdog: A Revisionist Reading of Deuteronomy 14:22–29 and 26:12–15 Harold V. Bennett ............................................................................7 2. The Role of Ethnicity in the Social Location of 1 Corinthians 7:17–24 Brad Ronnell Braxton ....................................................................19 3. The Bible and Models of Liberation in the African American Experience Demetrius K. Williams ..................................................................33 4. The Sorrow Songs: Laments From Ancient Israel and the African American Diaspora Wilma Ann Bailey ..........................................................................61 5. Textual Harassment? A Hermeneutical Perspective on African American Preaching Ronald N. Liburd............................................................................85 6. A Case Study in Eighteenth-Century Afrodiasporan Biblical Hermeneutics and Historiography: The Masonic Charges of Prince Hall Hugh Rowland Page....................................................................103 7. Let My People Go! Threads of Exodus in African American Narratives Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan................................................................123 8. A Prodigal Sings the Blues: The Characterization of Harriett Williams in Langston Hughes’s Not without Laughter Abraham Smith ............................................................................145 RESPONSES 9. Yet with A Steady Beat: The Task of African American Biblical Hermeneutics Carolyn M. Jones ..........................................................................161 10. On the Blurring of Boundaries Tina Pippin....................................................................................169 11. African American Biblical Hermeneutics: Major Themes and Wider Implications Norman K. Gottwald....................................................................177 Bibliography ..................................................................................................183 Contributors....................................................................................................199 ABBREVIATIONS ABD Anchor Bible Dictionary. Edited by David Noel Freedman. 6 vols. New York:Doubleday, 1992. ANET Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament. Edited by James B. Pritchard. 3d ed. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1969. BJS Brown Judaic Studies DC The Deuteronomic Code ER Encyclopedia of Religion. Edited by M. Eliade. 16 vols. New York:Macmillan, 1987. ET English translation FCB Feminist Companion to the Bible HR History of Religions HTR Harvard Theological Review JAAR Journal of the American Acacemy of Religion JRT Journal of Religious Thought JSJ Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman Periods LEC Library of Early Christianity NCB New Century Bible NIB The New Interpreter’s Bible NICOT New International Commentary on the Old Testament NTS New Testament Studies SBL Society of Biblical Literature SBLDS Society of Biblical Literature Dissertation Series -vii- INTRODUCTION Randall C. Bailey Interdenominational Theological Center In 1989 Semeia47, “Interpretation for Liberation,” co-edited by Katie Cannon and Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, appeared. This collection of essays written, all but one, by Black scholars, many of whom were in bib- lical studies and all but one of whom were women, opened the door for examination of new questions growing out of the African American com- munity. This volume also laid a foundation for soon to follow new works that bespoke some challenges to the discipline and some new insights into the budding field of cultural criticism. In 1991 the volume Stony the Road We Trod: African American Biblical Interpretation(Fortress), edited by Cain Hope Felder, appeared. It opened the door to examination of this form of cultural exegesis and interpreta- tion of the text. The volume, which has become a classic, represented the beginning stages of work by Black biblical scholars, many of whose voices had not previously been heard. At the time of publication there were only nine African Americans who held the terminal degree in Hebrew Bible and only eleven who held it in New Testament. This volume concentrated on issues of hermeneutics, the role of ancient Africa in the life of ancient Israel, and identification of biblical passages that had special relevance to this community. As noted in many reviews of this work, two additional areas that needed to be addressed were the adher- ence to historical-critical methods within this volume and further attention to the history of interpretation within Black religious and cul- tural traditions. In 1994 the Journal of the Interdenominational Theological Center pub- lished a collection of essays by Black biblical scholars that had been produced in the early years of the African American Theology and Biblical Hermeneutics Group of the SBL. Those essays were primarily exegetical in method and related to passages in which Africans appeared in the text, although there were some beginning works relating to cultural criticism. Since the release of these important works a new generation of Black biblical scholars has arisen, which brings to the fore new questions, appli- cation of new methods of interpretation, and new directions for contouring -1-
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