Dr. Esau McCaulley, author and associate professor of New Testament at Wheaton College, will deliver the eighth annual Fred D. Gray Plenary in Human and Civil Rights. 

Dr. McCaulley’s research and writing focus on New Testament theology. He completed his doctoral studies at the University of St. Andrews where he studied under the direction of scholar N.T. Wright. His doctoral dissertation, entitled Sharing in the Son’s Inheritance, looks at the role Jewish messianism played in Paul’s argument in Galatians that Jesus has made believers heirs in the Messiah to the Abrahamic promises. 

In 2019 he published the award-winning book Reading While Black, the timing of which happened to coincide with a widespread national conversation on race. Since then, his work has continued to expand into more public theology, including a children’s book entitled Josey Johnson’s Hair and the Holy Spirit. He is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. His writings have also appeared in places such as The Atlantic, Washington Post and Christianity Today.