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

Bibliographic Data

ID21609607
AuthorsJoshua Joel Spoelstra (0000-0001-5702-1046, Stellenbosch University, corresponding author)
Year2025
Publication date2025-12-11
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueIn die Skriflig/In Luce Verbi (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1018-6441 • E-ISSN: 2305-0853
PublisherAOSIS (PUBLISHER • ZA)
DOI10.4102/ids.v59i1.3226
OpenAlexW4416990758
LanguageEN
References cited14

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

Dynamism · Faith · Novella · Public discourse · Scholarship · Christian Theology and Mission · Pentecostalism and Christianity Studies · Theological Perspectives and Practices

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Open DOIOpen Access