Stony the Road We Trod: African American Biblical Interpretation, Thirtieth Anniversary Expanded Edition

by Cain Hope Felder

Publisher:

Fortress Press

, 2021

Overview

The publication of Stony the Road We Trod thirty years ago marked the emergence of a critical mass of Black biblical scholars—as well as a distinct set of hermeneutical concerns. Combining sophisticated exegesis with special sensitivity to issues of race, class, and gender, the authors of this scholarly collection examine the nettling questions of biblical authority, Black and African people in biblical narratives, and the liberating aspects of Scripture. The original volume reshaped and redefined the questions, concerns, and scholarship that determine how the Bible is appropriated by the church, the academy, and the larger society today.

To the original eleven essays this expanded edition adds a new introduction by Brian K. Blount and three new chapters by Kimberly D. Russaw, Shively T. J. Smith, and Jennifer T. Kaalund. Not only does Blount's new introduction access the impact of the first edition, but the new contributions extend the implications of Cain Hope Felder's vision for the book.

Key Features

• Adds a new introduction by Brian K. Blount and three new chapters
• Extends the implications of Cain Hope Felder's vision for the book
• Examines the nettling questions of biblical authority, Black and African people in biblical narratives, and the liberating aspects of Scripture

Contents

New Introduction - Brian K. Blount

Part I: The Relevance of Biblical Scholarship and The Authority of The Bible

• Interpreting Biblical Scholarship for the Black Church Tradition - Thomas Hoyt, Jr.
• The Hermeneutical Dilemma of the African American Biblical Student - Renita J. Weems
• Reading Her Way through the Struggle: African American Women and the Bible - Renita J. Weems

Part II: African American Sources for Enhacing Biblical Interpretation

• The Bible and African Americans: An Outline of an Interpretative History - Vincent L. Wimbush
• "An Ante-bellum Sermon": A Resource for an African American Hermeneutic - David T. Shannon

Part III: Race and Ancient Black Africa in The Bible

• Race, Racism, and the Biblical Narratives - Cain Hope Felder
• The Black Presence in the Old Testament - Charles B. Copher
• Beyond Identification: The Use of Africans in Old Testament Poetry and Narratives - Randall C. Bailey

Part IV: Reinterpreting Biblical Texts

• Who Was Hagar? - John W. Waters
• The Haustafeln (Household Codes) in African American Biblical Interpretation: "Free Slaves" and " Subordinate Women" - Clarice J. Martin
• An African American Appraisal of the Philemon-Paul-Onesimus Triangle - Lloyd A. Lewis

Part V: New Directions

• "Undaunted: Reading Miriam for the Sisters They Tried to Erase" - Kimberly Russaw
• "Witnessing Jesus hang: Reading Mary Magdalene's View of Crucifixion through Ida B. Wells' Chronicles of Lynching" - Shively T.J. Smith
• "You Can't See What I Can See: Reading Black Bodies in Galatians" - Jennifer Kaalund

Praise for Stony the Road We Trod

"The book represents a major shift—a paradigm shift—wherein the eurocentrism of the scholarship in the dominant culture has been taken off its scholastic pedestal. This has been replaced by an Afrocentrism which accents the experiences of African Americans and relocates the context in which biblical interpretations are done."

Jacquelyn Grant, Interdenominational Theological Center

"A landmark volume . . . of rigorous scholarship, laying out the issues in African American biblical hermeneutics clearly, cogently, and prophetically."

Gale A. Yee, Episcopal Divinity School

"Stony the Road We Trod works out of the powerful interfacing of the heritage of African American Christianity and the presence of African American scholars in theological academies of the US. I want to read it as both challenge to and expression of theologies of prophetic pragmatism."

Rebecca S. Chopp, Emory University

Product Details

• Title: Stony the Road We Trod: African American Biblical Interpretation, Thirtieth Anniversary Expanded Edition
• Author: Cain Hope Felder
• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Print Publication Date: 2021
• Logos Release Date: 2025
• Pages: 352
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• Subjects: Bible › Black interpretations; Bible › Criticism, interpretation, etc; Black people in the Bible
• ISBNs: 9781506472041, 9781506472058, 1506472044, 1506472052
• Resource ID: LLS:STNYRDWXPNDDDTN
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2025-06-17T16:04:08Z

About Cain Hope Felder

Dr. Cain Hope Felder (1943-2019) was a world-renowned scholar, professor, lecturer, consultant and media interviewee. He taught New Testament Language and Literature and editor of The Journal of Religious Thought at the Howard University School of Divinity. He also served as chair of the Ph.D. program and immediate past chair of the Doctor of Ministry program. Dr. Felder held a Ph.D. and a Master of Philosophy degree in biblical languages and literature from Columbia University in New York; a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in New York; a Diploma of Theology from Oxford University, Mansfield College in England; a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy, Greek & Latin from Howard University in Washington, DC; and a diploma from the Boston Latin School.

Felder was born in Aiken, South Carolina, in 1943 and grew up in segregated neighborhoods in Boston. He earned his undergraduate degree from Howard, where Felder said he first learned that an African American could be a scholar. Felder was ordained in the United Methodist Church and worked as the first national director Black Methodists for Church Renewal from 1969 to 1972. He took a position as an adjunct professor at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1978. At the time, Felder was one of only about 30 African Americans with doctorates in biblical studies. He left Princeton and returned to Howard in 1981, taking a position as professor of New Testament language and literature. In the late 1980s, Felder helped start a reading series for African American Bible scholars, to help advance black Bible scholarship. In 1990, he founded the Biblical Institute of Social Change (BISC), headquartered in Washington, DC. Felder retired from Howard in 2016. 

In 1991, he edited and published a landmark collection of academic essays, Stony the Road We Trod, showing the important differences in African American interpretations of the Bible. A few years later, Felder published the Original African Heritage Study Bible. A prolific writer, his publications include True to Our Native Land (Augsburg Fortress, May, 2007), the first African American commentary on the New Testament; Troubling Biblical Waters: Race, Class, and Family (Orbis Books, 1989) – 16th printing; and The Original African Heritage Study Bible (Winston Publishing Company, 1993).

He maintained dual residences in Washington, DC, and his home haven in Mobile, Alabama, that he shared with his bride, Dr. Jewell. He was the proud father of one daughter, Miss Akidah Felds.