The Vortex of White Evangelicalism
Subject
Esau McCaulley; Evangelicalism; Black Church
Description
Esau McCaulley has been caught between multiple identities his whole life. Family legend has it that his grandfather couldn’t read, and when it came time to pick a baby name for McCaulley’s father, that grandfather opened the Bible and pointed to a word, not realizing it was Esau. It’s no accident that there aren’t that many baby Esaus crawling around: In the Bible, the “red” and “hairy” Esau is most notable for selling his birthright to his brother for a bowl of lentil stew. The name was passed down from father to son. To balance out this weighty association, McCaulley’s mother chose the middle name Daniel, after the biblical hero who escapes from a lion’s den. Perhaps this inheritance destined McCaulley for a career as a New Testament scholar, bound from birth to puzzle out biblical mysteries. But his name also fits the larger spiritual path he’s traveled: as a son of the Black church ordained in a predominantly white Christian tradition, and as a professor at a mostly white evangelical college who found himself searching for Black theological spaces.
Creator
By Emma Green
Source
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/07/esau-mccaulley-black-christianity/619371/
Publisher
theatlantic.com
File
You have read your 5 free records this month
Create a free account to keep reading. It takes a moment, and it helps us keep this archive growing.
- Unlimited recordsEvery story in the archive, with no monthly count.
- Your saved listKeep the records you want to return to in one place.
- The weekly digestNew stories from the United States and across the diaspora, by email if you want it.
Your free records start again on the first of the month. The Local History Index, collections, exhibits and research pages are always open.
About this record
This entry describes and links to someone else's work. Here is how it came into the archive and what we know about the original.
- How it arrived
- Entered by an editor
- Record last revised
- August 4, 2026
Know something about this record?
Corrections, names, dates, places, family and community context, or a link to another record. Everything is reviewed by an editor before it appears, and contributions stay separate from the archive's own description.
