“Yet with a Steady Beat”: U. S. Afrocentric Biblical Interpretation (Semeia Studies)

This collection of essays exemplifies new directions being taken by biblical scholars using new literary, historical, and sociological critical tools to explore issues of concern to their communities and thus poses a challenge to others in the discipline to broaden the canons of interpretation and sources. The essays, from the generation of scholars following the writers of the historic Stony the Road We Trod: African American Biblical Interpretation (1991), address issues of cultural criticism, utilization of Black religious sources such as the Negro spirituals and sermons, histories of struggles of Afro-diasporan peoples, and ideological criticism in interpreting the biblical text. Randall C. Bailey is Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Hebrew Bible at Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Read more