A review by funnellegant
Reimagining Hagar: Blackness and Bible by Nyasha Junior

5.0

Nyasha Junior created an accessible and thorough overview of the reception history of Hagar's story, especially as it relates to the Black American experience. She treats the issue with nuanced understanding, teasing out the importance of recognizing the difference between "Aunt Hagar" of Black folklore from the "Hagar" of the Bible or the Quran, and how the two became conflated over time. She respectfully approaches the importance of the symbol of Hagar in modern Black American communities, recognizing the resonant features of her story for different racial minorities, but challenges the notion of Hagar's "long-standing" history of being interpreted as a Black Woman by Black communities or Bible scholars.

As someone inexperienced in reading Afrocentric Biblical interpretive works, I found Junior's plain-language, explicit descriptions enormously helpful as an introduction to the field.