How Does “Getting in Front of the Text” Speak to Issues of Black Liberation and Social Transformation?

[Courtesy of FreeBibleImages.org]

“Getting in Front of the Text” for Liberation and Social Transformation

Ellison-Jones Convocation Faculty & Alumni Panel (2023)

Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology

Virginia Union University

Yung Suk Kim

Professor of New Testament & Early Christianity

Biblical texts do not mean, but we mean with the texts. No interpretation is neutral. All readings are contextual to a different degree. Our task is not to make a perfect or complete meaning but to engage with them critically. No meaning is everlasting or fixed forever. 

Given this nature of contextual interpretation, we need to know who we are as readers, what we read in the text, and how we read it. So when we talk about meaning in front of the text, we must recognize all these three elements—reader, reading lens, and text. I wrote this view of interpretation in my book, Biblical Interpretation: Theory, Process, and Criteria (Pickwick, 2013).  

With these in mind, we can engage with biblical texts and focus on liberation or social transformation. For example, we can read the Exodus story as a model of liberation for the oppressed. So much of this reading goes well with Jesus’s teaching and ministry for the marginalized and oppressed. Black theology, or liberation theology in general, goes on in this direction. But there is another story we must read alongside it: How can we read Joshua’s conquest narrative of Canaanites? How come Israelites who once were oppressed could become oppressors? Do all Canaanites and animals deserve death? There were some innocent people, children, and babies. Is the God of liberation merely a tribal God for Jews? 

Compare this view of God with Paul’s understanding that God is the God of Jews and the God of Gentiles also (Rom 3:29). Ultimately, the question is: How do we understand God in the Bible? Whose God or what kind of God do we read? Essentially, the reader must decide. The bottom line is that the true God is more than what the Bible says or goes beyond it. We, the readers, must engage with various texts responsibly and take a stand. 

Think about Matthew 15:21-28. Jesus forcefully denies the Canaanite woman’s request for her daughter’s healing. Not one time but three times with a Jew-first mission or Jewish exclusivism. He said: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” and “It is not fair to throw the children’s food to the dogs.” His saying is wrong or ethically problematic even though he finally allows for her request because of her faith. He represents a perspective of imperialism or triumphalism. At the end of the story, he reverses his view and praises her faith. This story is not merely about the woman’s great faith, which needs explaining, but about the narrow vision of the mission of Jesus and his disciples. The readers must investigate the historical context of Matthew’s Gospel and the historical Jesus’s time and his ministry. They must see the power dynamics in the story, conflicting ideology, and matters of race, gender, class, economics, religion, and culture. By the way, all people in this story need transformation, including Jesus.

The typical reading of this story emphasizes the woman’s faith, especially “submissive, docile faith.” But this kind of obedient, tractable faith condones injustices and evil acts. What bothers me most is not so much the lack of faith as the lack of justice. The woman needs justice! Justice for healing. Justice for family and community. She asked for it through her faith in God. She believed Jesus, the Son of God, was supposed to advocate for the marginalized (italics for emphasis).  

The lesson is how we stand on God’s side, not merely having God by our side. Apostle Paul is helpful here, as he presents his radical view of God and politics in 1 Cor 1:27-29: “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to abolish things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God” (1 Cor 1:27-29).

Liberation movement or social transformation must address all kinds of marginalization, locally and globally, economically and socially, religiously and politically, personally and communally, psychologically and spiritually. Readers of texts must recognize multilayered, intersectionality-woven marginality, stand in front of the text, and witness the power of the gospel in our world today. 

Daily spiritual practice

Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853 - 1890) Irises, 1889 

Oil on canvas Unframed: 74.3 × 94.3 cm (29 1/4 × 37 1/8 in.), 

 The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 90.PA.20

(Courtesy of Getty Museum Collection)

Every day is a new day, which needs to start fresh. Since anything may happen unexpectedly—sometimes in messy ways—personal readiness is always a key to any situation. I suggest three kinds of attitudes that might be helpful every day. One can practice these three adjective attitudes in diverse ways according to one's choice. 

CAPACIOUS (self-expanding): roomy mind, spacious, broad, capable of accepting many things, going slow, and not impatient. Like the sky or the earth. Anything is allowed in the sky. Anything is accepted by the earth. (여유있게)

CALM (self-control): quiet, still, placid, unruffled, tranquil, serene, self-possessed. Like a pond or a lake, my mind needs to stay the same or relaxed. See waving trees or flowers. They are still there to take their place. (담담하게)

CONFIDENT (self-determination): sure of oneself, bold, positive, intrepid, self-confident, trusting God and self, and loving others. All things in the world have their place and they must believe in themselves. I am a gift of God. (덤덤하게)

Remembering my promotion to full professor

Two years have passed since my promotion to full professor. I don't set ambitious goals for myself anymore. I ask, "Why do I teach? For whom do I write? Can my teaching affect real people?"

I cherish the promotion letter I received on June 15, 2021.

[PDF Promotion letter]

June 15, 2021

Dear Dr. Yung Suk Kim:

Congratulations! As Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs at Virginia Union University (VUU), it is my great honor to provide official notice that you have been promoted to the rank of Full Professor (hereafter, "Professor"), effective July 1, 2021.

In keeping with the University's policies through the Division of Academic Affairs, outlined in the Faculty Handbook, initial recommendations were made by the Faculty Advancement (i.e., "Tenure & Promotion") Committee after its Fall 2020 meeting to the Provost, who then conducted a thorough review and evaluation of all cases and recommendations. The Provost's recommendations were presented to the President in Spring 2021 and were subsequently approved by the Academic Affairs Committee of the VUU Board of Trustees at the May 2021 meeting.

Promotion reflects the strength of your accomplishments in teaching, research/scholarship, professional engagement, and service to VUU. As your Provost, I want to acknowledge the significance of your achievement and thank you for your dedicated commitment to academic excellence, student success, and our quest to become "Best in Class." 

Tenure and/or promotion are time-honored rewards in the academy that affirm the valuable contributions of individual faculty members to achieving VUU's vision, advancing its mission, and ensuring its graduates receive "the promise of a limitless future." I know you will continue to contribute to the University in years to come and I look forward to celebrating this achievement at our Fall Faculty/Staff Awards reception. More information about that special event is forthcoming.

Again, congratulations.

Dominus Providebit,

Terrell L. Strayhorn, PhD
Provost & Senior Vice President, Academic Affairs
Professor of Urban Education
Director, Center for the Study of HBCUs

Hard work

My hard work paid off when I received this email from my editor:

I’ve finally finished reading your manuscript. I love it! It’s well-written, engaging, inspiring, comprehensive, entertaining—and offers readers/students so many new ways to think about each Gospel, and the Gospels as a whole. I couldn’t be more pleased. And there’s nothing like it, that I know of.

Typically at this stage I ask authors if they’d like for me to facilitate another round of peer review. Of course I’m happy to do that. But given the fact that you’ve had lots of input from your peers, and that the manuscript hangs together, I honestly don’t think another round is necessary. But please let me know if you feel otherwise.

Ask questions of why or why not

Asking questions is all about interpretation. 

Human lives and realities in the world are so complex that we need to address an all-entangled web of life intersecting with personal identity, family, health, social life, economics, politics, and religion, to name a few.

Likewise, we can reread Matthew 15:21-28 ("A Canaanite woman's encounter with Jesus") and ask many varied, intersectional questions. We can explore the Canaanite woman's situation imaginatively and critically, considering her gender, ethnicity, occupation, marital status, social standing, other families, daughter's situation involving simple illness, mental illness, or any other sickness), religion, and community.

We also need to see Jesus's and the disciples' attitude toward a gentile woman either in the historical context of Jesus or in Matthean situations. What kind of ideology do they have? Why are they mean to her? Why does Matthew portray Jesus and the disciples in this way that excludes Gentiles from salvation? Why does Jesus later allow for the healing of her daughter? Did the woman impress him with her submissive faith or challenge him to extend his narrow faith?

Questions continue: Have we asked about the possible cause and situation of the woman's daughter tormented by a demon? What kind of a demon is this? Does it have to do with mental illness? What is the possible cause of it---trauma, malnutrition, or anxiety? How did the woman know about Jesus? What is her faith like? Did she give up on her Canaanite identity by meeting Jesus? Why did she seek only her daughter's healing even though she was supposed to be in ill health or extreme poverty? Her loyalty to the daughter?