Reading Esther for race relations in a multi-ethnic faith community in the American South

Abstract

Racism and racial terrorism are still prevalent in the United States (US). This article relates the experience of a multi-ethnic faith community in the American South that read together the Book of Esther to improve race relations. Based on a contextual Bible study (CBS) methodology, the Scripture was read with cultural and contextual sensitivity and hermeneutical creativity for racial justice, racial reconciliation, and racial unity. By reading Scripture with a diversity of people, individual biases and presuppositions were exposed and challenged, and new, rich insights were revealed and ascertained. Racial justice, reconciliation, and unity take a commitment to the regular study of Scripture and society, engagement in the public domain, and the church.
Contribution: The article intersects the biblical scholarship of Esther with the CBS of the scriptural novella in the American South, and with intercultural hermeneutics, vis-à-vis historically fraught race-relations – the fusion and dynamism of which bolster the local multi-ethnic faith community toward reconciliation and unity.