You want me to talk to whom? Explorations in fear and faith from the underside of the Bible

Abstract

This article utilizes an African American/womanist biblical hermeneutic that focuses on the intersectionality of the key players in the text to conduct an exegetical analysis of Philip’s encounter with the Ethiopian official found in Acts 8:26–40. Likening Philip’s encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch to the experience of racial ethnic scholars, this article also summarizes the process by which they “speak truth to power” in predominantly white academic institutions. Finally, this article argues that this process can serve as a model for how the theological academy might enable the Christian Church to speak to increasingly disenfranchised, but once privileged, whites in an increasingly post-Christian and more diverse North American society.