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Books by Love L Sechrest

A leading womanist biblical scholar reads passages from the New Testament in dialogue with modern... more A leading womanist biblical scholar reads passages from the New Testament in dialogue with modern-day issues of racial justice.

The narratives and letters of the New Testament emerged from a particular set of historical contexts that differ from today’s, but they resonate with us because of how the issues they raise “rhyme” with subjects of contemporary relevance. Listening for these echoes of the present in the past, Love Sechrest utilizes her cultural experience and her perspective as a Black woman scholar to reassess passages in the New Testament that deal with intergroup conflict, ethnoracial tension, and power dynamics between dominant and minoritized groups.

After providing an overview of womanist biblical interpretation and related terminology, Sechrest utilizes an approach she calls “associative hermeneutics” to place select New Testament texts in dialogue with modern-day issues of racial justice. Topics include:

-antiracist allyship and Jesus’s interaction with marginalized individuals in
the Gospel of Matthew
-cultural assimilation and Jesus’s teachings about family and acceptance
in the Gospel of Luke
-gendered stereotypes and the story of the Samaritan woman in the
Gospel of John
-the experience of Black women and girls in the American criminal justice
system and the woman accused of adultery in the Gospel of John
-group identity and the incorporation of Gentiles into the early Jesus
movement in Acts
-privilege and Paul’s claims to apostolic authority in 2 Corinthians
-coalition-building between diverse groups and the discussion of unity in
Ephesians
-government’s role in providing social welfare and early Christians’
relationship to the Roman Empire in Romans and Revelation

Through these creative and illuminating connections, Sechrest offers a rich bounty of new insights from Scripture—drawing out matters of justice and human dignity that spoke to early Christians and can speak still to Christians willing to listen today.

Can "White" People be Saved? Triangulating Race, Theology and Mission

Papers by Love L Sechrest

Confronting Racial Injustice: : Theory and Praxis for the Church (The Center for Pastor Theologians Series), Gerald Hiestand and Joel Lawrence, eds., 2022

Native Americans, etc., but contested when capitalizing White, when referring to that group of Am... more Native Americans, etc., but contested when capitalizing White, when referring to that group of Americans. For more on this topic, see Nguyễn and Pendleton, "Recognizing Race in Language. " 2. For more on civil rights, the politics of African American hair, and the case of Chastity Jones, see Griffin, "How Natural Black Hair"; A. Campbell, "Black Woman Lost. "

There is a tension concerning a love of enemies that represents the apex of Christian ethics in M... more There is a tension concerning a love of enemies that represents the apex of Christian ethics in Matt 5:43–48, and the cries of the suffering who find succor in the Gospel for a persecuted and trampled imago Dei. How should the downtrodden give love to enemies and how should the dominant show love as enemies in times of ever-increasing racial tension? In this paper, I share a framework from the Gospel of Matthew that can be useful in navigating the borderlands of conflict and love. It turns out that it will be helpful to look at how Jesus’ enemies are depicted in the Gospel, and to observe how these interactions demonstrate enemy-love. Here we will focus not so much on Jesus’ own actions but more on the character of the enemies’ interactions with him. We will examine Matthew’s depictions of enemies to help imagine how we ourselves might be transformed from enemies to friends. In other words, we will try to construct a Christian ethic of allyship. I begin with a survey of scholarship about being allies before looking at Gentiles as enemies in the Gospel of Matthew. We conclude by developing a gospel-centric synthesis on the nature of allyship.

The essay explores the way that stereotypes, ancient and modern, intersect with interpretations o... more The essay explores the way that stereotypes, ancient and modern, intersect with interpretations of feminine agency in the book of Revelation. It is likely that John used ancient stereotypes about “good” and “bad” women in describing two female characters, Jezebel in Rev 2:20-23 and the Sun Woman in Rev 12:1-2. I contend that John plays on tropes about proper and improper feminine behavior in the public sphere in a way that obstructs our vision about feminine agency in Revelation. Today, Jezebel imagery like the one used in Rev 2 lies behind a common stereotype of the hyper-sexed uncontrollable foreign woman that disparages black, Latina, and Asian Pacific women. Similarly maternal stereotypes of black women, Latinas, and Asian Pacific women -- mammies, maids, and dragon moms -- also intersect with readings of the Sun Woman in Rev 12, and both of these characters’ portraits have the power to shape and constrain ideas about agency for contemporary female readers. My purpose is to discuss images of feminine efficacy in contemporary black life and how the two female characters in John’s apocalyptic vision can serve as ante-types for black female activists. In particular, I put these two images of feminine agency in Revelation in conversation with each other and with a contemporary intergenerational conversation among black female activists.

Can “White” People be Saved? Triangulating Race, Theology, and Mission, 2018

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Biblical Interpretation, 2013

Ethnicity, Race, Religion, 2018

Today, the dominant mode in African-American biblical interpretation considers the ways that Blac... more Today, the dominant mode in African-American biblical interpretation considers the ways that Black people actually read the Bible and comments on how the Bible can function as an instrument of oppression or opportunity. 1 In this essay, I place Martin Luther King Jr's reading of the Gospel of Luke in his February 1968 speech entitled 'To Minister in the Valley' alongside my own interpretation of one of the passages he engages in that speech: Lk. 10.25-31. 2 Through analysis of the 'Valley' speech and juxtaposition with my own exegesis of Lk. 10.25-31, this essay examines the ways that these interpretations exhibit a dual concern for intra-racial and interracial relations via construction of metaphorical analogues between contemporary social dynamics and the discourse in the Gospel of Luke. I contend that this simultaneous focus on internal and external issues arises out of what W. E. B. DuBois dubbed the doubleconsciousness of African-American life by which Blacks are always engaged in seeing themselves through both their own eyes and through the eyes of the other. 3 African-American interpreters in the Kingian tradition 4 deploy a dualistic hermeneutic that

Black Women helped elect a Democrat to the US Senate in AL [Alabama] for the first time in more t... more Black Women helped elect a Democrat to the US Senate in AL [Alabama] for the first time in more than 20 years. But we need to do more than congratulate them. Let's address issues that disproportionately affect Black women-like pay disparity, housing & under-representation in elected office. 1

Ethnicity, Race, and Religion: Identities and Ideologies in early Jewish and Christian Texts, and in the Traditions of Biblical Interpretation, 2018

Womanist Interpretations of the Bible

Book Reviews by Love L Sechrest

Review of Biblical Literature, 2017