African American Religious Life and the Story of Nimrod
Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood. The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras. And the sons of Gomer; Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah. And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations. And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan. And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtecha: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan. And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Genesis 10:1 10 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another s speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. Genesis 11:1 9
African American Religious Life and the Story of Nimrod Edited by Anthony B. Pinn and Allen Dwight Callahan
AFRICAN AMERICAN RELIGIOUS LIFE AND THE STORY OF NIMROD Copyright Anthony B. Pinn and Allen Dwight Callahan, 2008. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2008 978-1-4039-6827-2 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. First published in 2008 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-53050-2 ISBN 978-0-230-61050-7 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9780230610507 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: January 2008 10987654321
To the Ancestors who lived the legacy of Nimrod and to all their descendents who wrestle with the meaning of Nimrod
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Contents Acknowledgments List of Contributors ix xi Introduction: Figures of the True 1 Allen Dwight Callahan Section One: Nimrod as Hero 1. The Hunter and the Game: Reappropriating the Legend of Nimrod from an African American Theological Perspective 15 James H. Evans, Jr. 2. God of Restraint: An African American Humanist Interpretation of Nimrod and the Tower of Babel 27 Anthony B. Pinn 3. I Am Black and Beautiful, O Ye Daughters of Jerusalem... : African American Virtue Ethics and a Womanist Hermeneutics of Redemption 35 Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas 4. Lest We Be Scattered Abroad : Nimrod, Marcus Garvey, and Black Religious Humanism in Harlem 53 Juan M. Floyd-Thomas 5. More than a Mighty Hunter: George Washington Williams, Nineteenth-Century Racialized Discourse and the Reclamation of Nimrod 69 Abraham Smith 6. The Story of Nimrod: A Struggle with Otherness and the Search for Identity 85 Arthur L. Pressley 7. Nimrod: Reading the Bible with South African Eyes 97 Elelwani B. Farisani
viii CONTENTS 8. Nimrod and Dead Prez: Walking Like a Warrior 111 Ralph C. Watkins 9. Nimrod and the South African Context 121 Dorothy M. Farisani 10. Who Is the Man...?: Nimrod, Afrocentricism, and the African American Dream 133 Lee H. Butler, Jr. Section Two: Nimrod as Infamous 11. The Strength of Collective Man: Nimrod and the Tower of Babel 147 Allen Dwight Callahan 12. Nimrod: Paradigm of Future Oppressive Systems 163 Jimmy Kirby 13. Beyond the Curse of Noah: African American Pastoral Theology as Political 179 Edward P. Wimberly Section Three: A Neutral Stance 14. A Tower of Pulpits 193 Dale P. Andrews 15. Reorientation by Reference to Wrong Way Makers: Evaluating a Modern Signifying Mythicization of an Ancient Mythicization 215 Theodore Walker, Jr. Appendix 221 Stephen C. Finley Selected Bibliography 257 Stephen C. Finley Index 267
Acknowledgments The editors would like to express gratitude to Amanda Johnson Moon of Palgrave Macmillan for her support of this project. The editors would also like to thank Missy Daniel of Religion and Ethics Newsweekly for her helpful corrections and emendations of several chapters in this collection. In addition, the editors express gratitude to Stephen Finley, a PhD candidate in Religious Studies at Rice University, for preparation of the documents in the appendix, complete with the introductions for each, for compilation of the bibliography, and for preparation of the index. Both entailed a complex process to which he gave time with great cheer and enthusiasm. Stephen Finley received assistance with the former: Thank you to Dr. Rachel Vincent-Finley, A Tousha Ricks, Jacquie Staton, and Kenya Tuttle for their assistance with formatting documents and tracking down authors. Allen Callahan would like to thank Peter Machinist for his astute and judicious comments and criticisms in his review of an earlier draft of Allen Callahan s chapter on Nimrod and the Tower of Babel. Furthermore, Callahan wishes to express his appreciation to students in the Doctor of Ministry programs at United Theological Seminary and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary for their thoughtful engagement of some of the key ideas that inform his essay on Nimrod and the Tower of Babel presented in lectures he gave at both institutions earlier this year. Finally, Callahan would also like to thank Professors Vivian Johnson and Thomas Dozeman of United Theological Seminary for giving so generously of their time and expertise. Anthony Pinn would like to thank a host of friends particularly Ramón Rentas, Robbie Seals, Benjamin Valentin, and Eli Valentin for their good humor. Pinn would also like to thank Stacey and Juan Floyd- Thomas for arranging an opportunity to discuss Nimrod in general, and for the comments on an early draft of his chapter in particular. Pinn would also like to thank colleagues at Rice University Alexander Bryd, Edward Cox, and especially Caroline F. Levander for friendship and kind words. Finally, the editors express their gratitude to the contributors, whose various perspectives on Nimrod both pro and con serve as an initial effort in a hermeneutic of recovery, a process of archaeological investigation, by which renewed attention in Black Religious Studies is given to this hunter, builder, and descendent of Ham.
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List of Contributors Dale P. Andrews is Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Homiletics and Pastoral Theology at Boston University, School of Theology (Boston, MA). Lee H. Butler, Jr. is Professor of Theology at Chicago Theological Seminary (Chicago, II). Allen Dwight Callahan is a Professor of New Testament at Seminário Teológico Batista do Nordeste in Bahia (Salvador, Brasil). James H. Evans, Jr. is Robert K. Davies Professor of Systematic Theology at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School (Rochester, NY). Dorothy M. Farisani is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Kwazulu-Natal, (Pietermaritzburg, South Africa). Elelwani B. Farisani is a Senior Lecturer in Biblical Studies at the University of Kwazulu-Natal, (Pietermaritzburg, South Africa). Juan M. Floyd-Thomas is Associate Professor of History at Texas Christian University (Fort Worth, TX). Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas is Associate Professor of Ethics and Black Church Studies at Brite Divinity School (Fort Worth, TX). Stephen C. Finley is a doctoral candidate in the Religious Studies Department at Rice University (Houston, TX). Jimmy Kirby is Professor of Ethics at Lexington Theological Seminary (Lexington, KY). Anthony B. Pinn is Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities and Professor of Religious Studies at Rice University (Houston, TX). Arthur L. Pressley is Associate Professor of Psychology and Religion at Drew University Theological School (Madison, NJ). Abraham Smith is Associate Professor of New Testament at Southern Methodist University, Perkins School of Theology (Dallas, TX). Theodore Walker, Jr. is Associate Professor of Ethics and Society at Southern Methodist University, Perkins School of Theology (Dallas, TX).
xii LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS Ralph C. Watkins is Assistant Dean for African American Church Studies and Associate Professor of Society, Religion and Africana Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary (Pasadena, CA). Edward P. Wimberly is Vice President for Academic Affairs and Professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling at the Interdenominational Theological Center (Atlanta, GA).