Bitter the Chastening Rod: Africana Biblical Interpretation after Stony the Road We Trod in the Age of BLM, SayHerName, and MeToo [Paperback]

Bitter the Chastening Rodfollows in the footsteps of the first collection of African American biblical interpretation,Stony the Road We Trod(1991). Nineteen Africana biblical scholars contribute cutting-edge essays reading Jesus, criminalization, the enslaved, and whitened interpretations of the enslaved. They present pedagogical strategies for teaching, hermeneutics, and bible translation that center Black Lives Matter and black culture. Biblical narratives, news media, and personal stories intertwine in critical discussions of black rage, protest, anti-blackness, and mothering in the context of black precarity.

Mitzi J. Smithis the J. Davison Philips Professor of New Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, GA.
Angela N. Parkeris assistant professor of New Testament and Greek at Mercer Universitys McAfee School of Theology in Atlanta, GA.
Ericka S. Dunbar Hillis visiting professor of Hebrew Bible at Payne Theological Seminary in Wilberforce, OH.

This complex volume will have the reader pondering Jesus' own status as slave, wondering about daily life for those who are nameless and marginalized in the church, questioning received hermeneutical traditions, and reflecting on the legacies of Africana biblical interpreters. The Christian Century

Since African American biblical interpretation is unapologetically contextual, the contributors of Bitter the Chastening Rod engage the cultural history of Black peoples in the U.S. and diaspora, raising new questions about humanity, discipline, and culture amidst social movements such as #BLM, #SayHerName, and #MeToo. Consequently, this collective work of Africana biblical critics emerges as an assemblage of culturally informed knowledge of the text and history, innovative deployments of theories and hermeneutics, and emancipatory pedagogy grounded in praxis. It demonstrates the perseverance, resilience, and brilliance of generations of Black bibllƒ9