Yale University Library Research Guides: African American Religious History: Introduction

Biblical Interpretation

Insights from African American Interpretation (Online) by Mitzi J. Smith Describes the distinctive African American experience of Scripture, from slavery to Black Liberation Theology and beyond, and the unique angles of perception that an intentional African American interpretation brings to the text for a contemporary generation of scholars.
Bitter the Chastening Rod: Africana Biblical Interpretation After Stony the Road We Trod in the Age of BLM, SayHerName, and MeToo (Online) by Mitzi J. Smith; Angela N. Parker; Ericka S. Dunbar Hill (Editors) In this book, Africana biblical scholars argue that race, class, gender, and sexuality still matter for doing biblical interpretation/translation, centering the socio-political and cultural contexts of Africana peoples negotiating life, death, and hope in the age of #BLM, #SayHerName, #MeToo, and a global pandemic.
Blackening of the Bible: The Aims of African American Biblical Scholarship by Michael Joseph Brown Introduces the topic of African American biblical hermeneutics and explores the arc of scholarship to include the ways African Americans have engaged biblical text historically. Focuses on African American biblical scholars to include African American womanist scholars. Offers four critiques of academic African American biblical interpretation and four proposals for future interpreters.

Resources for Africana Scholarship, Anti-Racism, and Minoritized Biblical Interpretation (SBL Online) This page of bibliographic resources was developed for the 2020 Black Scholars Matter Symposia of the Society of Biblical Studies.
Works Written by Black Old Testament Scholars (Online Bibliography) A bibliography of biblical studies works by black scholars in Africa, Europe, and North America.