Then the Whisper Put on Flesh by Brian K. Blount

Books by Brian K. Blount

Cultural Interpretations / Then The Whisper Put On Flesh / Go Preach! Mark’s Kingdom Message

Can I Get A Witness / True to Our Native Land

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New Testament Ethics an African American Context

By Brian K. Blount

Reviews

In this illuminating study, Brian Blount helps readers--especially those who have not lived in oppressed circumstances--to understand the new testament from the perspective of an oppressed people. Through careful analysis he demonstrates how interpreting New Testament writings from the point of view of African American slaves reveals the underlying message of liberation in the biblical texts. Then the Then the Whisper Put on Fleshinvigorates the study of New Testament ethics and initiates new openings for conversation across cultural lines

--Abingdon Press, Publisher

Brian Blount approaches the New Testament from the perspective of enslaved African peoples in America. He argues that these African slaves imported no new information to the biblical text but discovered within it answers to their most pressing questions concerning the nature of evil and their quest for freedom. With a broad brush that surveys the whole of the New Testament, Blount contends that liberation themes are the central concerns of each New Testament writer. Then the Whisper Put on Flesh is a basic primer in New Testament ethics that will have enduring power.

--Peter J. Paris, Elmer G. Homrighausen Professor of Christian Social Ethics, Princeton Theological Seminary

Imagine an American slave reading the New Testament in collaboration with a respected member of the guild of New Testament scholarship. This book gives voice both to the hermeneutics of the slave and to the exegetical skills of the guild. The result of the conversation is an intriguing and challenging retrieval of new testament ethics. Euro-Americans could learn much, both about the African American heritage and about scripture, by attending to this conversation. Brian Blount should be thanked, and his book should be widely read.

--Allen D. Verhey, Professor of Religion, Hope College

Contents

Preface	9
1. Liberation as Lens	13
2. Reconfigured Ethics	23
3. The Synoptic Gospels: Kingdom Ethics	45
4. John: The Christology of Active Resistance	93
5. Paul: Theology Enabling Liberating Ethics--Sometimes	119
6. Revelation: The Witness of Active Resistance	158
7. New Testament Ethics Through an African American Lens; Some Concluding Thoughts	185
Notes	192
Bibliography	213
Index	223

Source: Then the Whisper Put on Flesh

Professor Blount's most recent publications include a volume edited along with Leonora Tubbs Tisdale, Making Room At The Table: An Invitation To Multicultural Worship (WJK, 2000), Then The Whisper Put On Flesh: New Testament Ethics In An African American Context (Abingdon, 2001) and Struggling With Scripture, with Walter Brueggemann and William Placher (WJK, 2002). He has also completed an article entitled, "Teaching Across Borders: Experimental Biblical Pedagogy." It is awaiting publication in the journal SEMEIA. He has been working jointly with Dr. Gary W. Charles, pastor of the Old Presbyterian Meeting House in Alexandria, VA, on Preaching Mark In Two Voices (Westminster John Knox, 2003).

Professor Blount will do the John Albert Hall Lectures for the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society at the University of Victoria in Vancouver, Canada in the Fall of 2003. Sometime during this period he anticipates the publication of the Discipleship Study Bible by Westminister John Knox Press. He is an editor along with Professors W. Sibley Towner, Bruce Birch, and Gail R. O'Day. He has also written the introduction and notes for Mark and Matthew. Currently, he is preparing a commentary on the Book of Revelation (WJK).

Brian K. Blount, associate professor of New Testament, earned his M.Div. from Princeton in 1981, when he received the Edler Garnet Hawkins Award for Scholastic Excellence. An ordained Presbyterian minister, Dr. Blount served for six years as pastor of Carver Presbyterian Church in Newport News, Virginia, before returning to academia in 1988 as a Woodruff Fellow at Emory University. Within the field of New Testament studies, he specializes in the Kingdom of God language in the Gospel of Mark, New Testament ethics, the relationship of the New Testament to the Black church, and Revelation.

His recent publications include Cultural Interpretations: Reorienting New Testament Criticism and Go Preach! Mark’s Kingdom Message and the Black Church Today. Forthcoming are a book on New Testament ethics for Abingdon Press and a commentary on Revelation for Westminster John Knox Press

Brian K. Blount 110 Stockton Street 497-7836 brian.blount@ptsem.edu