Advancing Biblical Studies: I. Decentring Whiteness

The singular aim of this two-volume series is to advance biblical studies. Both volumes arise from a project initiated by the editor, Wongi Park, who asked invited contributors how to cultivate and sustain mutual dialogue, collaboration, and engagement across racial/ethnic, generational, and geographical boundaries? 

The virtual convenings, held during the pandemic emergencies of 2020, led to a public-facing virtual symposium in 2022 where three critical tasks were undertaken:  

– Decentre the monoracial history and methods of the field;
– Model a less traditional and hierarchical approach to biblical studies through dialogue and collaboration;
– Foreground a multiplicity of voices, perspectives, and starting points to diversify biblical studies.

Volume 1 pursues these aims of diagnosing the monoracial Eurocentrism of biblical studies by:
– Examining the problem of whiteness in the Eurocentric origins of the field;

– Reframing traditional methods, tools, and institutions of biblical studies;
– Tracing how whiteness is reproduced in texts, representations, and colonial legacies in biblical reception history. 

A distinctive feature of this project is the radical act of gathering a multiracial coalition of Africana, Asian, Euro American, European, Indigenous, Islander, and Latinx scholars that models an alternative approach to biblical studies.

Volume 1 includes contributions in the following order: Wongi Park; Shawn Kelley; Susannah Heschel; M. Adrayael Tong; Luis Menéndez-Antuña; Hulisani Ramantswana; Joel Baden; Lisa J. Cleath; Halvor Moxnes; Ekaputra Tupamahu; Gerrie F. Snyman; Ludwig Beethoven J. Noya; Justin Michael Reed; Kenneth Ngwa; Greg Carey; Stephen D. Moore; Amy Lindeman Allen; Hannah M. Strømmen; Francisco Lozada Jr.