How the Marginalized Church Reads the Bible, Part 1: Vince Bantu

Dr. Dru Johnson

Episode Summary

New CHT fellow Dr. Vince Bantu of Fuller Theological Seminary is back on the podcast, this time to discuss the how historically marginalized and oppressed parts of the church understand Scripture better than the dominant church does—from the early church to the African church to the Black church in the U.S. today. Dr. Bantu and Dru explore the interpretive advantages that the lack of political and social power can confer on readers of the Bible—a book written largely by people who suffered oppression and exile.

Chapters

    • 0:00 The dominant church vs. the marginalized church

    • 6:10 Imperial Christendom and the temptation of political power

    • 13:08 Dualisms of the white church that the Black church doesn’t have

    • 20:03 The Black church’s grasp on biblical righteousness and justice

    • 29:27 God’s providence and the West African slave trade

    • 36:35 The white church’s incomplete gospel

Transcripts are AI generated and are not guaranteed to correctly reflect the content of the podcast.
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  • Dr. Dru Johnson

    Founder and Director of the Center for Hebraic Thought

    Dru Johnson (PhD, University of St. Andrews) is Templeton Senior Research Fellow and director of the Abrahamic Theistic Origins Project at Wycliffe Hall, University of Oxford. He is also a visiting professor at Hope College, director of the Center for Hebraic Thought, editor of the Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Biblical Criticism series, host of The Biblical Mind podcast, and cohost of the OnScript podcast. His recent books include Biblical Philosophy, What Hath Darwin to Do with Scripture, and Human Rites: The Power of Rituals, Habits, and Sacraments. Johnson spends his time between Holland, Michigan, and Oxford, England.

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