Esau McCaulley is associate professor of New Testament at Wheaton College and contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. His research and writing focus on New Testament theology, African American Biblical interpretation, and articulating Christian public theology.
A 2024-25 ECG Faculty Fellow, McCaulley's research project “The Bible, Slavery, and Abolition: Scriptural Interpretation for Freedom and Human Flourishing” examines American slavery, the theological debate around it, and how the abolitionists came to read the Bible as a book that liberates rather than enslaves. It addresses the question: What kind of understanding of the Christian faith and Bible reading practices contribute to human life and liberty rather than taking it away? Examining the forms of Christianity that promote respect for all human beings as worthy of inherent dignity and respect is of vital importance in present movements for racial justice.
McCaulley is the author of many academic works including Sharing in the Son’s Inheritance, Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope, and The New Testament in Color: A Multiethnic Bible Commentary (general editor, forthcoming fall 2024). Alongside his academic work, he publishes more popular writings including How Far to the Promised Land: One Black Family’s Story of Hope and Survival in the American South. His writings have also appeared in The New York Times, the Atlantic, and The Washington Post.
Redeemer University named McCaulley the Emerging Public Intellectual of 2020. In 2021, the House of Representatives in his home state of Alabama issued a public commendation for “his influential work and achievements in the faith community.” In 2023, Wheaton College honored him with the Junior Faculty Achievement award “in recognition of outstanding Academic Achievement and promise.” During the Spring 2024 term McCaulley is serving as Scholar in Residence at Yarnton Manor and Academic Visiting Scholar, Wycliffe Hall, Oxford.