We Are All Witnesses: Toward Disruptive and Creative Biblical Interpretation

“This book integrates soul and mind. Across a range of New Testament texts, Mitzi Smith and Michael Willett Newheart testify to the integration of public biblical interpretation with personal and communal experience. This book is a gift.”

—Greg Carey, Lancaster Theological Seminary



“Witnessing and testimony are central to the project of Smith and Newheart’s We Are All Witnesses. Our varying contexts, journeys of faith, and life experiences demand that we adhere to their call for ‘hermeneutical humility.’ I highly recommend this book as a pedagogical model for doing biblical interpretation that is both creative and disruptive of injustice.”

—Angela N. Parker, Mercer University



“We Are All Witnesses’ exhilarating and engrossing collection of essays represents an epistemological earthquake for serious biblical interpreters weary of tepid, bowdlerized approaches to Christian Testament interpretation. At last, we have a sturdy, subtle, original scholarly work that explores the deep ideational, transformative, and threatening potential of viewing the Christian Testament as a ‘canonized collection of testimonies’ that are, at once, inescapably subjective, transformative, and disruptive.”

—Clarice J. Martin, Colgate University



“Smith and Newheart invite the reader into their lively and important conversations through their interdisciplinary and intersectional readings of biblical stories. They model for us how to claim our agency as readers of biblical texts through learning to question from our own social locations. They also show us a variety of ways to consider both texts and contexts, historical and contemporary, and they challenge traditional assumptions and interpretations by calling out unjust readings.”

—Tina Pippin, Agnes Scott College

“This book integrates soul and mind. Across a range of New Testament texts, Mitzi Smith and Michael Willett Newheart testify to the integration of public biblical interpretation with personal and communal experience. This book is a gift.”

—Greg Carey, Lancaster Theological Seminary



“Witnessing and testimony are central to the project of Smith and Newheart’s We Are All Witnesses. Our varying contexts, journeys of faith, and life experiences demand that we adhere to their call for ‘hermeneutical humility.’ I highly recommend this book as a pedagogical model for doing biblical interpretation that is both creative and disruptive of injustice.”

—Angela N. Parker, Mercer University



“We Are All Witnesses’ exhilarating and engrossing collection of essays represents an epistemological earthquake for serious biblical interpreters weary of tepid, bowdlerized approaches to Christian Testament interpretation. At last, we have a sturdy, subtle, original scholarly work that explores the deep ideational, transformative, and threatening potential of viewing the Christian Testament as a ‘canonized collection of testimonies’ that are, at once, inescapably subjective, transformative, and disruptive.”

—Clarice J. Martin, Colgate University



“Smith and Newheart invite the reader into their lively and important conversations through their interdisciplinary and intersectional readings of biblical stories. They model for us how to claim our agency as readers of biblical texts through learning to question from our own social locations. They also show us a variety of ways to consider both texts and contexts, historical and contemporary, and they challenge traditional assumptions and interpretations by calling out unjust readings.”

—Tina Pippin, Agnes Scott College