And I discovered facts that challenged my simplistic understanding of their theologies. I started reading history that centered Black women’s lived experiences. I started paying attention to the stories of the women raising me at home and in the church. “I started paying attention to that source material. How they understand God and holiness and modesty is rooted both in the Word and in the world. But reading Delores Williams helped me to understand that Black women are also pulling theological source material from their own lives and not just from the Christian scripture. We were drilled in scriptures about the wages of sin, lest we stumble and backslide. Mother Johnson would quote 1 Corinthians 11:5, reminding me that “every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head.” There were countless Bible study lessons about the Proverbs 31 woman: her modesty, her usefulness, her prioritizing of care for the family. “I had spent most of my life under the assumption that these Black church women were engaged in simple hermeneutics- specifically, a literalist reading of the biblical text. This CJ blog series “Rooted: Elders, Ancestors, and Collective Memory” continues with an entry from our Masterclass faculty Dr.
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