Table of Contents

Introduction - Cain Hope Felder

New Introduction - Brian K. Blount

PART I: THE RELEVANCE OF BIBLICAL SCHOLARSHIP AND THE AUTHORITY OF THE BIBLE

1. Interpreting Biblical Scholarship for the Black Church Tradition

Thomas Hoyt, Jr.

2. The Hermeneutical Dilemma of the African American Biblical Student

Renita J. Weems

3. Reading Her Way through the Struggle: African American Women and the Bible

Renita J. Weems

PART II: AFRICAN AMERICAN SOURCES FOR ENHANCING BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION

4. The Bible and African Americans: An Outline of an Interpretative History

Vincent L. Wimbush

5. "An Ante-bellum Sermon": A Resource for an African American Hermeneutic

David T. Shannon

PART III: RACE AND ANCIENT BLACK AFRICA IN THE BIBLE

6. Race, Racism, and the Biblical Narratives

Cain Hope Felder

7. The Black Presence in the Old Testament

Charles B. Copher

8. Beyond Identification: The Use of Africans in Old Testament Poetry and Narratives

Randall C. Bailey

PART IV: REINTERPRETING BIBLICAL TEXTS

9. Who Was Hagar?

John W. Waters

10. The Haustafeln (Household Codes) in African American Biblical Interpretation: "Free Slaves" and " Subordinate Women"

Clarice J. Martin

11. An African American Appraisal of the Philemon-Paul-Onesimus Triangle

Lloyd A. Lewis

PART V: NEW Directions

12. "Undaunted: Reading Miriam for the Sisters They Tried to Erase"

Kimberly Russaw

13. "Witnessing Jesus hang: Reading Mary Magdalene's View of Crucifixion through Ida B. Wells' Chronicles of Lynching"

Shively T.J. Smith

14. "You Can't See What I Can See: Reading Black Bodies in Galatians"

Jennifer Kaalund

About the Author

Cain Hope Felder (1943-2019) served as professor of New Testament language and literature at Howard University's School of Divinity from 1981 until his retirement in 2016. He was the author or editor of several books, including two other Fortress titles: True to Our Native Land: An African American New Testament Commentary (2007) and Race, Racism, and the Biblical Narratives (2002).

Reviews

"The book represents a major shift--a paradigm shift--wherein the eurocentrism of the scholarship in the dominant culture has been taken off its scholastic pedestal. This has been replaced by an Afrocentrism which accents the experiences of African Americans and relocates the context in which biblical interpretations are done." --Jacquelyn Grant, Interdenominational Theological Center "A landmark volume . . . of rigorous scholarship, laying out the issues in African American biblical hermeneutics clearly, cogently, and prophetically." --Gale A. Yee, Episcopal Divinity School "Stony the Road We Trod works out of the powerful interfacing of the heritage of African American Christianity and the presence of African American scholars in theological academies of the US. I want to read it as both challenge to and expression of theologies of prophetic pragmatism." --Rebecca S. Chopp, Emory University