Noah's Curse, by Stephen R. Haynes

Few biblical tales are more confounding than the legend of Noah and his sons. As narrated in Genesis 9, the ancient patriarch drinks too much, goes to bed naked and is discovered by Ham, one of his three sons. Ham goes off to tell his brothers, Shem and Japheth, who cover their father while averting their eyes. When Noah wakes up and discovers what has occurred he curses Ham's son, Canaan. The story raises many questions: What, exactly, is Ham's crime? Why does Noah curse Canaan instead of Ham? And, perhaps most important for later generations, just how does this story relate to contemporary peoples? Is Noah's curse still in effect?

Even more intriguing than the questions are the creative answers that interpreters have offered over the centuries, elaborations that reveal much more about these interpreters than about their biblical forebears. Stephen R. Haynes, a professor of religious studies at Rhodes College and a Presbyterian minister, is fascinated by those answers. In particular, he wants to track the interpretive chain that links Ham and Canaan to American racism, and even to the "father" of his own academic institution, Benjamin M. Palmer.

Moral urgency undergirds his quest: How and why have many white American Christians justified the oppression of African-Americans by invoking Noah's curse? How can Bible believers come to terms with their own past and its contradictory messages? What does it mean for the Presbyterian Church, and for higher education, that the founder of Rhodes College, a church-affiliated institution, was an outspoken advocate of slavery and based his prejudice on his interpretation of Genesis 9?