Mission
The African American Biblical Hermeneutics Section (AABHS) is dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of both the strategies employed by African Americans in their complex encounter with the Bible and the many ways it has been used in the creation of a distinctive African American worldview. The section is a congenial locus within the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) for those with an interest in examining how scholars, teachers, poets, novelists, sculptors, musicians, and others within the African American community have interpreted and appropriated the Bible for purposes of identity construction and as a resource for addressing life's perennial mysteries and challenges.
Ongoing Projects
In addition to its series of ongoing sessions at the annual meetings of the SBL and the American Academy of Religion (AAR), the AABHS has also made the following projects part of its agenda:
• Participation in the Biblia Africana Commentary Project
• Assistance of the SBL and AAR in recruiting underrepresented minorities into Biblical Studies
• Facilitating ongoing dialogue between biblical scholars and others in the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Theological disciplines about the role of the Bible in Black Diasporan life
• Highlighting resources for the study of African-American biblical interpretation
Annual Meeting Sessions—Philadelphia, PA, November 2005
S20-52
20
November 2005
1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Room: Salon J (Level Five) - Marriott
Theme: Empire, Texts, and Social Ethics/Justice
Theodore Burgh, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Presiding
Steed V. Davidson, Union Theological Seminary
Leave Babylon: The Trope of Babylon in Rastafarian Discourse (30 min)
Leslie R. James, DePauw University
Can (n) ons of Empire: Revelation and the (Re) Writing of Empire in the African-American
Experience (30 min)
Rodney S. Sadler, Jr., Union-PSCE at Charlotte
“These Will Be the Ways of the King Who Will Reign over You.” The
Prophetic Rebuttal in 1 Samuel 8:1-22 as a Context for Addressing Social Injustice
(30 min)
Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan, Shaw University Divinity School
One Nation. . . Indivisible, With Justice: Empire, Sex, and Power (30 min)
Hugh Page, Jr., University of Notre Dame
Post-imperial Appropriation of Text, Tradition, and Ritual in the Writings of
Henri Gamache (30 min)
S21-52
21 November 2005
1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Room: Congress A - Loews Hotel
Theme: Open Session
Mignon Jacobs, Fuller Theological Seminary, Presiding
James P. Ashmore, Shaw University
God is With Us: A Biblical Theme, Its Contemporary Use, and a Hermeneutical
Challenge (30 min)
Lynnette J. Mullings, University of Birmingham
"You Will Do Even Greater Things than These." So What's Holding Us
Back?! Transformative Leadership in a Black British Church Context. (30 min)
Stacy Davis, Saint Mary's College
Are U.S. Politicians God's Servants?: Romans 13:1-7 and Political Rhetoric (30
min)
Wil Gafney, Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia
Hearing the Word - Translation Matters: A Fem/Womanist Exploration of Translation
Theory and Practice for Proclamation in Worship (30 min)
Peter Nash, Wartburg College
Warning Labels for Young Biblical Scholars: BRIEF Notes on a Cushite in Joab’s
Army – 100 Years of Research on 2nd Samuel 18 from the Imperium (30 min)
Contact Information
For more information on the activitiess of the Section, please contact the co-chairs - Dr. Valerie Bridgeman Davis or Dr. Thomas B. Slater.