McCaulley introduces his Southern upbringing, love of hip-hop and gospel music, and Christian faith as the foundation for his theological work.

McCaulley uses Andre 3000's 1995 Source Awards speech to argue that Black Ecclesial Interpretation deserves space to be its own distinct tradition.

McCaulley introduces Black Ecclesial Interpretation as a canonical, theological, socially located, dialogical, and patient method of biblical study.

McCaulley recounts a personal police encounter to ground his theology of policing in the lived experience of Black people.

McCaulley reinterprets Romans 13:1-7 as a statement about God's sovereignty and human limits rather than a mandate for unquestioned submission to authority.

McCaulley argues that Romans 13:3-4 holds the state — not just individual officers — accountable for directing its policing forces justly.

McCaulley invokes Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'Letter from a Birmingham Jail' to frame political witness as a Christian obligation, not mere agitation.

McCaulley argues that Jesus's dismissal of Herod's authority in Luke 13:31-32 establishes political witness as a clear New Testament practice.

McCaulley names Luke the patron saint of BEI because Luke ministers to Gentiles that they belong in God's multiethnic community.

McCaulley argues that Mary's surrender in Luke 1:46-54 reveals God's liberating character and grounds Black hope in the Exodus narrative.

McCaulley traces early Christian centers in Alexandria, Ethiopia, and Nubia to demonstrate that Christianity has always included Black people.

McCaulley opens his discussion of Black anger by reflecting on the first time he was called a racial slur.

McCaulley argues that Psalm 137 gives Black people biblical permission to bring the full depth of their pain and anger to God.

McCaulley applies Jesus's exegetical method from Matthew 19:3-8 to argue that God has never condoned slavery, based on God's creational intent.

McCaulley concludes that BEI is an exercise in hope that equips Black Christians to navigate contemporary issues and enrich broader Christian thought.

McCaulley opens by grounding his theological work in his identity as a Black Southerner shaped by both hip-hop and Christian faith, establishing that Blackness and Christianity are not in tension. He introduces Black Ecclesial Interpretation as a method capable of addressing real encounters with policing and injustice through scripture, beginning with a reinterpretation of Romans 13 that holds the state accountable rather than demanding passive submission. Through chapters on policing and political witness, he builds the case that Jesus, Paul, and Luke all support active Christian resistance to unjust power structures. He turns to Luke's gospel to locate the Exodus narrative as the heartbeat of Black Christian hope and then traces Black people's historic place in Christianity to argue that God has always included them. The book moves through Black suffering and slavery before concluding that BEI is an enduring, hope-filled tradition that enriches the entire Christian community.

The core case for Black Ecclesial Interpretation as a method of hope.

McCaulley reflects on his first college Bible class, where a progressive professor attempted to reclaim scripture from white fundamentalists.

McCaulley describes an encounter with a COGIC pastor that reveals the split between Black traditionalists and Black progressives on the Bible's usefulness.

McCaulley argues that John the Baptist's instructions in Luke 3:14 mandate that police officers uphold the dignity of the people they serve.

McCaulley connects Jesus's false accusation and mistreatment by Roman soldiers in Matthew 27:27-30 to Black people's experience of unjust policing.

McCaulley cites Frederick Douglass's 'What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?' to indict white Christians for perpetuating slavery while honoring freedom.

McCaulley argues that Paul's criticism of enslavers in 1 Timothy 1:10 shows that prayer for leaders and political resistance are not mutually exclusive.

McCaulley argues that Paul's words in Galatians 1:3-5 reject the political and social order as a spiritually corrupt 'present evil age.'

McCaulley argues that John's vision in Revelation 18 condemning Rome as Babylon mirrors Isaiah's condemnation of Babylon as a tyrant judged by God.

McCaulley demonstrates that the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:4-9 call Christians to mourn injustice, hunger for justice, and practice peacemaking through truth-telling.

McCaulley identifies Jesus's baptism at the Jordan River in Luke 3:21-22 as a deliberate reference to the Exodus narrative.

McCaulley argues that Jacob's embrace of his half-Egyptian grandsons in Genesis 48:3-5 reveals God fulfilling the Abrahamic promise of a multiethnic family.

McCaulley reads David's prayer in Psalm 72 as a vision of a just and multiethnic kingdom ultimately fulfilled through the coming of Jesus.

McCaulley compares Israel's trauma under Babylon — including destruction and forced mourning — to Black Americans' trauma and grief from the Middle Passage.

McCaulley argues that Paul's teaching on the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15:12-19 enables Black people to choose forgiveness over revenge, trusting God's final judgment.

McCaulley reviews the history of Black biblical scholarship in the Bonus Track, tracing it from early church founders through liberation theologians like James Cone.

McCaulley begins by describing the theological debates in both white and Black Christian circles — illustrated through a college classroom and a pastoral encounter — that make a new interpretive method necessary. He deepens his theology of policing through John the Baptist's specific instructions to officers in Luke and the parallel of Jesus's own unjust treatment by Roman soldiers. Moving into political witness, he draws on Frederick Douglass, Paul's letter to Timothy, Galatians, Revelation 18, and the Beatitudes to build a layered New Testament case for social resistance. He then grounds Black Christian identity in specific Old Testament texts — Genesis, Psalms, and the Exodus narrative in Luke — showing that God's multiethnic vision has deep scriptural roots stretching back to the Abrahamic promises. The book closes by connecting Black anger and forgiveness to Paul's teaching on the resurrection and placing BEI in its full scholarly context in the Bonus Track.

The secondary arguments and biblical passages that build McCaulley's case chapter by chapter.

McCaulley reveals that BEI's central task is resolving the perceived tension between Black Christian doctrine and Black social justice practice.

McCaulley reveals that Romans 9:17 — where Paul references God using Moses against the Pharaoh — shows God actively brings down unjust rulers.

McCaulley reveals that Roman Christians likely encountered the empire's standing police force in much the same way as Black Americans encounter policing today.

McCaulley reveals that 1 Timothy 2:1-4 does not suppress political witness but actually presupposes and endorses it alongside prayer for leaders.

McCaulley reveals that Isaiah's eschatological vision of a kingdom without hostility among nations grounds Jesus's call for peacemaking in Matthew 5:9.

McCaulley reveals that Jesus's use of Deuteronomy against Satan in the wilderness contrasts directly with enslavers' distortion of scripture to justify bondage.

McCaulley reveals that Zechariah and Elizabeth's faithfulness amid national and personal tragedy demonstrates that God's deferral of justice is not a denial of justice.

McCaulley reveals that Jesus's first sermon at Nazareth establishes his ministry as one that heals the marginalized spiritually, economically, and psychologically.

McCaulley reveals that Simon of Cyrene's carrying of the cross in Mark illustrates that Christian discipleship centrally involves the embrace of suffering.

McCaulley reveals that the Ethiopian eunuch reading Isaiah in Acts establishes an early African familiarity with the God of Israel before colonization.

McCaulley challenges colorblind readings of Galatians 3:28 and MLK's 'I Have a Dream' speech, arguing that ethnic differences must be seen and preserved.

McCaulley reveals that John's vision of a diverse multitude in Revelation 7:9-10 fulfills both the Abrahamic and Davidic promises with ethnic diversity fully intact.

McCaulley reveals that Paul Laurence Dunbar's poem 'We Wear the Mask' mirrors Israel's forced performance of happiness amid grief under Babylonian captivity.

McCaulley reveals that the cross — through Jesus's identification with unjust suffering — compels Black Christians to forgive rather than pursue revenge.

McCaulley reveals that Paul's letter to Philemon, requesting freedom for Onesimus, demonstrates that Paul actively worked to undermine the institution of slavery.

McCaulley begins by naming the core tension that BEI must resolve — the perceived incompatibility between Black Christian faith and Black political life — and proceeds to challenge dominant readings of scripture at every turn. He reveals that Romans 9:17, the Roman policing context, and 1 Timothy 2:1-4 all point toward a God who actively opposes unjust power rather than demanding submission to it. Turning to Luke, he shows that Jesus's temptation in the wilderness, the faithfulness of Zechariah and Elizabeth, and Jesus's first sermon at Nazareth together confirm God's priority for the marginalized and the scriptural soundness of Black hope. In Chapter 5, he uncovers African figures and promises in Mark, Acts, Galatians, and Revelation to demonstrate that Blackness is essential to God's eschatological vision — and that diversity must be preserved, not erased. The final revelations show that Black rage, forgiveness, and freedom all find their anchor in the cross, and that Paul, far from endorsing slavery, actively worked through Philemon to dismantle it.

The key revelations and turning points that reshape how scripture speaks to Black life.