Some important themes in Ruth include God’s hidden providence, human initiative and action, the cycle of divine-human kindness, God’s blessing, applying the law, and Ruth’s ethnicity and Israelite identity.

The book is . . . oriented toward detailing ways of reading from different vantage points (global, ethnic, racial, sex/gender, etc.). It means to open new vistas for understanding that will draw students/readers into an awareness and, hopefully, a celebration of how the Bible is being read around the world.

The Old Testament originated in ancient West Asia, so using the interpretive lenses of modern East Asia and South Asia can aid Christians in every place to understand the OT better than if they only used the Western lenses that have typically characterized OT scholarship.

The thesis is that we need to learn to read the prophets well as literature to better understand what it means to be prophetic and speak prophetically today. — People use that jargon today, but not all actually look at the prophetic books closely and comprehensively.

I hope that readers will be inspired and encouraged by the African American interpreters in the monograph and their faith in God, a faith which often endured horrific circumstances.