Readings Within Readings

In Vincent L. Wimbush’s splendid little book, The Bible and African Americans: A History of Six Readings, we learn about six African American readings of the Bible.

First, African sensibilities as the center of the circle;

second, creating the new world circle in folk culture;

third, establishing the circle with nationalist identities and formations;

fourth, reshaping the circle in remixing and re-forming;

fifth, stepping outside the circle in African American fundamentalism;

and, sixth, making the circle true with women's experiences.

I was disappointed that this last chapter, on African American women’s Bible reading practices, was so short. It was about half the length of the other chapters. Still, he gets to some salient observations. One can learn more from the major study of Lisa Bowens about women interpreters in the African American tradition.

Here's Wimbush’s major point about African American women’s reading the Bible: “poignantly and ironically, the most acute challenge associated with women's readings has to do with raised consciousness about the efforts to work toward realizing the ideal of inclusion of all – with special emphasis on females – in positions of authority, leadership, and responsibility within African American society and culture, including religious communities. The ever-elusive historical realization of this ideal among African American women … has inspired African American women's voices in notes and refrains different from their male counterparts.” Because in the African American tradition, like the dominant society in the United States of America that ran parallel, the majoritarian voice was male.

African American women have had less platform than men, and this has led these women to use “different genres and media, such as journals and diaries; some in artistic works, such as poetry, fiction and music; others in public speeches, including sermons; still others in scholarly works.”

As was clear in Bowens’ work in abundance, “African American women have generally assumed that [the Bible] privileges women's interests insofar as women's presence and participation in different social and cultural settings, including religious settings, are seen as the dramatic index of the inclusion, acceptance, and dignity of all.” And this radical openness and inclusion of women “are seen as having been ordained by God and modeled in biblical stories.”

Wimbush turns to Jarena Lee:

“Did not Mary [Magdalene] first preached the risen Savior, and is not the doctrine of the resurrection the very climax of Christianity – hangs not all our hope on this, as argued by Saint Paul? Then did not Mary, a woman, preached the gospel?” Which leads to the invitation to change one’s mind by way of questions:

May he not, did he not, and can he not inspire a female to preach the simple story of the birth, life, death, and resurrection of our Lord, and accompany it too with power to the sinner's heart? As for me, I am fully persuaded that the Lord called me to labor according to what I have received in his vineyard. If he has not, how could he consistently bear testimony in favor of my poor laborers, in awakening and converting centers?

Again, six readings, readings within readings, like Ezekiel’s wheel.

The whirring of women’s gifts and voices have made the church what it is today. Just don’t expect their gifts and voices to be white.