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The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America
How is it that in America the image of Jesus Christ has been used both to justify the atrocities of white supremacy and to inspire the righteousness of civil rights crusades? In "The Color of Christ," Edward J. Blum and Paul Harvey weave a tapestry of American dreams and visions--from witch hunts to web pages, Harlem to Hollywood, slave cabins to South Park, Mormon revelations to Indian reservations--to show how Americans remade the Son of God visually time and again into a sacred symbol of their greatest aspirations, deepest terrors, and mightiest strivings for racial power and justice.
"The Color of Christ" uncovers how, in a country founded by Puritans who destroyed depictions of Jesus, Americans came to believe in the whiteness of Christ. Some envisioned a white Christ who would sanctify the exploitation of Native Americans and African Americans and bless imperial expansion. Many others gazed at a messiah, not necessarily white, who was willing and able to confront white supremacy. The color of Christ still symbolizes America's most combustible divisions, revealing the power and malleability of race and religion from colonial times to the presidency of Barack Obama.
"The Color of Christ" uncovers how, in a country founded by Puritans who destroyed depictions of Jesus, Americans came to believe in the whiteness of Christ. Some envisioned a white Christ who would sanctify the exploitation of Native Americans and African Americans and bless imperial expansion. Many others gazed at a messiah, not necessarily white, who was willing and able to confront white supremacy. The color of Christ still symbolizes America's most combustible divisions, revealing the power and malleability of race and religion from colonial times to the presidency of Barack Obama.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2012
66 people are currently reading
1415 people want to read
About the author
Paul Harvey
16 books11 followersPaul Harvey (Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, 1992) is Professor of History and Presidential Teaching Scholar at University of Colorado Colorado Springs. He researches, writes, and teaches in the field of American history from the 16th century to the present. Harvey is the creator and “blogmeister” of the nationally known professional scholarly blog Religion in American History, and is a contributor to the online journal Religion Dispatches. He is the author/editor of eleven books and numerous articles.
Honors and Awards
In 2008, Harvey was designated as the Lamar Lecturer in Southern History at Mercer University; the lectures he gave there have been published as Moses, Jesus and the Trickster in the Evangelical South (University of Georgia Press). In 2009, Harvey was named a Presidential Teaching Scholar at the University of Colorado, and from 2007-09, he served as the Senior Mentor to the Young Scholars in American Religion program at IUPUI in Indianapolis.
In 2006, Harvey received the Faculty Award for Excellence in Research from the University of Colorado. In 2008, Harvey received the Outstanding Teaching Award from UCCS. In 2009, Harvey received the designation of Presidential Teaching Scholar at the University of Colorado, a system-wide award recognizing specially designated scholar/teachers throughout the University of Colorado system. Paul has also received the UCCS Chancellor's Award, and served as a Senior Mentor to the Young Scholars in American Religion Program at IUPUI in Indianapolis.
Honors and Awards
In 2008, Harvey was designated as the Lamar Lecturer in Southern History at Mercer University; the lectures he gave there have been published as Moses, Jesus and the Trickster in the Evangelical South (University of Georgia Press). In 2009, Harvey was named a Presidential Teaching Scholar at the University of Colorado, and from 2007-09, he served as the Senior Mentor to the Young Scholars in American Religion program at IUPUI in Indianapolis.
In 2006, Harvey received the Faculty Award for Excellence in Research from the University of Colorado. In 2008, Harvey received the Outstanding Teaching Award from UCCS. In 2009, Harvey received the designation of Presidential Teaching Scholar at the University of Colorado, a system-wide award recognizing specially designated scholar/teachers throughout the University of Colorado system. Paul has also received the UCCS Chancellor's Award, and served as a Senior Mentor to the Young Scholars in American Religion Program at IUPUI in Indianapolis.
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March 10, 2023
Judea, circa 6 BCE
Let’s get out in front of this potential quagmire from the get-go: There is no reliable way of knowing what Jesus actually looked like. The gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John never reference his skin color. However, given what we know about first century populations of Galilee, it is reasonable and logical to assume that neither he nor his mother (nor any of the apostles) were white.
America, circa 1492
When white settlers first arrived in North America in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, they carried with them few if any renditions of Jesus. Because of the second commandment (Exodus 20:4), many religious pilgrims considered images of Christ impious or even blasphemous. Early homes and churches were devoid of paintings and drawings of the son of God. The Puritans who prayed for visions of Christ saw him the way the book of Revelation taught them to; they saw a blinding light or, most often, they saw nothing at all.
“Whether during witch hunts or lean times, Jesus as a physical presence or an embodied representation was nowhere to be found in this Puritan America.”
America, circa 1776
You would think, based on inference from today’s right-leaning pedagogues of history, that Jesus played a significant role in the collective psyche of the American Revolution—and you would be wrong.
“As a physical presence, he was almost completely absent, virtually nonexistent. In comparison to how prominent Jesus would become in the United States of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the revolution and the founding of a new nation were profoundly Christ-less.”
America, circa 1816
Enter the American Bible Society (ABS), followed closely by the American Sunday School Union (ASSU) and the American Tract Society (ATS). Three protestant organizations “dedicated to creating a strong and unified America.” These groups made available mass produced visual depictions of Jesus and other characters from the bible that were almost exclusively white.
“Suddenly engravings and etchings found their ways into churches, homes, schools, and outhouses.”
America, circa 1830
Standard Catholic and Protestant doctrine of the nineteenth century was more than a little vague on the value of casting Christ as Caucasian. Thankfully, we have Mormonism to clear things up. Joseph Smith and his followers made clear commonly held white Christian views; light skinned people were descendants of the literate and the godly, dark skinned people were descendants of the cursed and the profane.
“Mormon teachings offered explanations for the pressing racial questions of the day… What did God feel about people with dark skin? …As Mormon theology developed, dark skin represented sin that was present before an individual was born. Immorality darkened one’s skin while moral lives whitened the skin… In this racial mix, and given the political climate of the day, it was obvious and imperative that Jesus would be white.”
America, circa 1915
In the early years of the twentieth century, printed copies of Harold Copping’s The Hope of the World became fixtures in Sunday school classrooms across America. The painting featured five children gathered around a white Jesus. Four of the children are clothed and in physical contact with Christ. The only child that is naked and not physically touching this representation of God’s son is also (coincidentally?) the only black child. American white supremacists saw this setting as fitting and indicative of inherent black inferiority.
America, circa 1939
It was around the time of the Great Depression when a southern literary renaissance helped to further transform white Jesus into a totem of sanctified bigotry and exclusion. Several powerful politicians and business leaders (all of them white, of course) critiqued older images of Christ as “too feminine,” “too womanly,” and “antagonist to modern capitalism.”
“All my life I wondered how many people have been turned away from Christianity by the effeminate, sanctimonious, machine made Christs of second-rate, so-called art?” -Cecil B. DeMille
Conclusion
Throughout much of American history, images of a white Christ have served to sanctify white supremacy. Jesus was tethered to whiteness in film, art and politics. White American Christ is an image born in the early part of the 19th century and has become an image that Americans have glorified and been fighting over ever since.
Before Americans of Color came to know the white Christ as a liberator and spiritual redeemer they came to know him as a justification of slavery and as a symbol of manifest destiny and genocide. White Jesus presided over the buying and selling of human beings, and of the pilfering of indigenous lands—and he proclaimed it “good.”
Something to Think About
Even if you and millions of Americans like you find the race of Jesus irrelevant to your faith you still cannot avoid images of him and what those images have represented historically. There is an unnerving psychological perception that whiteness is superior and the image of white Christ helps to reinforce that racist delusion. This image helps to elevate and substantiate ascendancy without proof and without thought. White Jesus is inarguably a totem of racial hierarchy—why else would a burning cross and emblematic Christian iconography come to signify Christ’s endorsement of the ku klux klan?
White Christ helps to enable white men to become the center of privilege and opportunity. White + Christ = Power.
__________________________________
"The blond-haired, blue-eyed white man has taught you and me to worship a white Jesus, and to shout and sing and pray to this God that is his God, the white man's God. The white man has taught us to shout and sing and pray until we die, to wait until death, for some dreamy heaven-in-the-hereafter when we're dead, while this white man has his milk and honey in the streets paved with golden dollars right here on this earth!" -Malcolm X
__________________________________
SEE ALSO: Republican Jesus
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Let’s get out in front of this potential quagmire from the get-go: There is no reliable way of knowing what Jesus actually looked like. The gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John never reference his skin color. However, given what we know about first century populations of Galilee, it is reasonable and logical to assume that neither he nor his mother (nor any of the apostles) were white.
America, circa 1492
When white settlers first arrived in North America in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, they carried with them few if any renditions of Jesus. Because of the second commandment (Exodus 20:4), many religious pilgrims considered images of Christ impious or even blasphemous. Early homes and churches were devoid of paintings and drawings of the son of God. The Puritans who prayed for visions of Christ saw him the way the book of Revelation taught them to; they saw a blinding light or, most often, they saw nothing at all.
“Whether during witch hunts or lean times, Jesus as a physical presence or an embodied representation was nowhere to be found in this Puritan America.”
America, circa 1776
You would think, based on inference from today’s right-leaning pedagogues of history, that Jesus played a significant role in the collective psyche of the American Revolution—and you would be wrong.
“As a physical presence, he was almost completely absent, virtually nonexistent. In comparison to how prominent Jesus would become in the United States of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the revolution and the founding of a new nation were profoundly Christ-less.”
America, circa 1816
Enter the American Bible Society (ABS), followed closely by the American Sunday School Union (ASSU) and the American Tract Society (ATS). Three protestant organizations “dedicated to creating a strong and unified America.” These groups made available mass produced visual depictions of Jesus and other characters from the bible that were almost exclusively white.
“Suddenly engravings and etchings found their ways into churches, homes, schools, and outhouses.”
America, circa 1830
Standard Catholic and Protestant doctrine of the nineteenth century was more than a little vague on the value of casting Christ as Caucasian. Thankfully, we have Mormonism to clear things up. Joseph Smith and his followers made clear commonly held white Christian views; light skinned people were descendants of the literate and the godly, dark skinned people were descendants of the cursed and the profane.
“Mormon teachings offered explanations for the pressing racial questions of the day… What did God feel about people with dark skin? …As Mormon theology developed, dark skin represented sin that was present before an individual was born. Immorality darkened one’s skin while moral lives whitened the skin… In this racial mix, and given the political climate of the day, it was obvious and imperative that Jesus would be white.”
America, circa 1915
In the early years of the twentieth century, printed copies of Harold Copping’s The Hope of the World became fixtures in Sunday school classrooms across America. The painting featured five children gathered around a white Jesus. Four of the children are clothed and in physical contact with Christ. The only child that is naked and not physically touching this representation of God’s son is also (coincidentally?) the only black child. American white supremacists saw this setting as fitting and indicative of inherent black inferiority.
America, circa 1939
It was around the time of the Great Depression when a southern literary renaissance helped to further transform white Jesus into a totem of sanctified bigotry and exclusion. Several powerful politicians and business leaders (all of them white, of course) critiqued older images of Christ as “too feminine,” “too womanly,” and “antagonist to modern capitalism.”
“All my life I wondered how many people have been turned away from Christianity by the effeminate, sanctimonious, machine made Christs of second-rate, so-called art?” -Cecil B. DeMille
Conclusion
Throughout much of American history, images of a white Christ have served to sanctify white supremacy. Jesus was tethered to whiteness in film, art and politics. White American Christ is an image born in the early part of the 19th century and has become an image that Americans have glorified and been fighting over ever since.
Before Americans of Color came to know the white Christ as a liberator and spiritual redeemer they came to know him as a justification of slavery and as a symbol of manifest destiny and genocide. White Jesus presided over the buying and selling of human beings, and of the pilfering of indigenous lands—and he proclaimed it “good.”
Something to Think About
Even if you and millions of Americans like you find the race of Jesus irrelevant to your faith you still cannot avoid images of him and what those images have represented historically. There is an unnerving psychological perception that whiteness is superior and the image of white Christ helps to reinforce that racist delusion. This image helps to elevate and substantiate ascendancy without proof and without thought. White Jesus is inarguably a totem of racial hierarchy—why else would a burning cross and emblematic Christian iconography come to signify Christ’s endorsement of the ku klux klan?
White Christ helps to enable white men to become the center of privilege and opportunity. White + Christ = Power.
__________________________________
"The blond-haired, blue-eyed white man has taught you and me to worship a white Jesus, and to shout and sing and pray to this God that is his God, the white man's God. The white man has taught us to shout and sing and pray until we die, to wait until death, for some dreamy heaven-in-the-hereafter when we're dead, while this white man has his milk and honey in the streets paved with golden dollars right here on this earth!" -Malcolm X
__________________________________
SEE ALSO: Republican Jesus
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
February 27, 2013
A really good idea -- tracing the history of an image -- but leaves the reader overwhelmed by information, stories, and examples with very little analysis of what it all means.
Its most disappointing that he doesn't investigate deeply why the image of Christ solidifies in the late 19th century. He does mention white retrenchment, civil war reaction, industrialization and mass media but there's not enough to make sense of it all. Its superficial. Contrasting the prior ambiguous figure of Christ in the 17th and 18th century as opposed to the 19th century would have perhaps generated greater understanding. The breakdown of the white Christ during the civil rights era would have been a good time to correlate the role of religion and race in America but again it seems he was trying to avoid tying the two to closely together.
A well researched book that lets its information and stories go wanting for more analysis.
Its most disappointing that he doesn't investigate deeply why the image of Christ solidifies in the late 19th century. He does mention white retrenchment, civil war reaction, industrialization and mass media but there's not enough to make sense of it all. Its superficial. Contrasting the prior ambiguous figure of Christ in the 17th and 18th century as opposed to the 19th century would have perhaps generated greater understanding. The breakdown of the white Christ during the civil rights era would have been a good time to correlate the role of religion and race in America but again it seems he was trying to avoid tying the two to closely together.
A well researched book that lets its information and stories go wanting for more analysis.
February 17, 2018
Growing up in a white, fundamentalist Baptist home in a predominately Black and Hispanic neighbourhood, As a child, I never really thought much about visual images of Jesus. He was White sure, but it never really occurred to me to think otherwise.
From the evidence presented in this fascinating book, until the recent past, not many others questioned this either.
From the founding of America and the Puritans, the idea of Jesus having a physical appearance was anathema and heresy. The Puritans and the English in fact sought out images of God and actively destroyed them where they found them.
Right up until the middle of the 19th century in fact, nobody really tried to depict him him physical form.
Enter the Civil War.
The Defeated South loses it's "peculiar institution" of slavery and its identity. Worse, they lose God himself to abolitionists who have successfully cast him as the liberator of Black men and women.
During reconstruction we begin to see physical depictions of God to match the story of the Lost Cause in which the South, rather than the slaves, were the people who truly suffered and God truly cared for.
It was an incredibly successful effort that many could argue continues in visual and cultural form right up until the civil rights movements of the 1950s where images and conceptions of God began to be challenged again.
What I particularly enjoyed about this book is that the author doesn't limit this study to merely Black and White conceptions of God. He examines how Native Americans, Hispanics, and other marginalised groups also contested white cultural claims to God and attempted to reclaim him for themselves.
While this book was at times a bit unfocused and tended to jump from one topic to another without fully exploring a subject, it remains an ambitious and fascinating exploration of competing images of God and culture.
From the evidence presented in this fascinating book, until the recent past, not many others questioned this either.
From the founding of America and the Puritans, the idea of Jesus having a physical appearance was anathema and heresy. The Puritans and the English in fact sought out images of God and actively destroyed them where they found them.
Right up until the middle of the 19th century in fact, nobody really tried to depict him him physical form.
Enter the Civil War.
The Defeated South loses it's "peculiar institution" of slavery and its identity. Worse, they lose God himself to abolitionists who have successfully cast him as the liberator of Black men and women.
During reconstruction we begin to see physical depictions of God to match the story of the Lost Cause in which the South, rather than the slaves, were the people who truly suffered and God truly cared for.
It was an incredibly successful effort that many could argue continues in visual and cultural form right up until the civil rights movements of the 1950s where images and conceptions of God began to be challenged again.
What I particularly enjoyed about this book is that the author doesn't limit this study to merely Black and White conceptions of God. He examines how Native Americans, Hispanics, and other marginalised groups also contested white cultural claims to God and attempted to reclaim him for themselves.
While this book was at times a bit unfocused and tended to jump from one topic to another without fully exploring a subject, it remains an ambitious and fascinating exploration of competing images of God and culture.
March 2, 2013
Pop quiz: What did Jesus look like? Most people would answer that he was tall, white with light brown, straight hair, a beard and blue eyes, sort of Nordic-looking. Where did we get this idea (and why do so many people believe it) when we know he was Jewish and not from anywhere near Norway?
"The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America" does a great job answering this question. You don't need to be religious or even Christian to enjoy this look at the history and evolution of Jesus' appearance in the US. I especially enjoyed the sections on the Puritans, African Americans' view about Jesus' appearance, and the last two chapters of the book that recounted more recent history including popular movies such as Mel Gibson's "The Passion of Christ" as well as lower-brow TV sitcom episodes from "All in the Family" to "South Park."
The one bummer for me was the relative lack of photos. There just weren't nearly enough. When a book is all about someone's appearance, you really need more photos of the paintings and etc. that the authors mention than was presented in the book. I'm a huge lover of paper books, but probably reading this book on an e-reader would be pretty handy because you could Google the artworks they reference as you're reading.
An Informative, well-written and entertaining read. I recommend it.
"The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America" does a great job answering this question. You don't need to be religious or even Christian to enjoy this look at the history and evolution of Jesus' appearance in the US. I especially enjoyed the sections on the Puritans, African Americans' view about Jesus' appearance, and the last two chapters of the book that recounted more recent history including popular movies such as Mel Gibson's "The Passion of Christ" as well as lower-brow TV sitcom episodes from "All in the Family" to "South Park."
The one bummer for me was the relative lack of photos. There just weren't nearly enough. When a book is all about someone's appearance, you really need more photos of the paintings and etc. that the authors mention than was presented in the book. I'm a huge lover of paper books, but probably reading this book on an e-reader would be pretty handy because you could Google the artworks they reference as you're reading.
An Informative, well-written and entertaining read. I recommend it.
June 30, 2021
G. K. Chesterton wrote America “is a nation with the soul of a church.” Paul Harvey seeks to address the nature of Chesterton’s soulish nation church. “The Color of Christ” is a jarring examination of America’s fixation of Christ imagery. Once abhorrent of iconography, Harvey posits America rather quickly aborted the idea of an imageless Christ for one that embodied the national need at any particular time in American history. From the very earliest of colonial era British America to the present-day, Harvey surgically extracts the national need and juxtaposes it against the Christ image of that time. Is the nation a church? If so, who’s church? Harvey lays bare the answer with a riveting explanation coupled with a steady pace keeping the reader or listener attuned and engaged.
June 15, 2021
Such an important book! Loved it, made me rethink a lot of how Jesus was presented, what the real message of Christ was and people have been forced to worship him instead of inviting them to worship him. The conquest of natives in the Americas was brutal and lot of it was in the name of Christ. It made research the Doctrine of Discovery more than before. it is super interesting that the God of the Oppressors is the same God of the Oppressed.
In recent years, there has been a flurry of new works from within Christian theology interrogating the origins of race, and exploring how Western thinking of race evolved in conversation with theological commitments. Works such as those by J. Kameron Carter, Willie Jennings, James Cone, and Miguel de la Torre have attempted to–in one way or another–provide an archeology of race and theology from the side of theology. While different from each other, they have this one thread in common: that Christianity has predominately been a white affair.
It is here that Blum and Harvey offer a potent and compelling re-reading of the relationship between racialization and theology which is sure to both attract attention, and to stir conversation about whether or not Christianity (at least, in the American context) has been as monological as has been commonly assumed. Blum and Harvey weave together a story of race and religion in which the image of Jesus–as it was appropriated and re-appropriated–appears from the very beginning of the American colonies as a work in process.
Blum and Harvey’s work opens by asking the question of how images are produced within cultures. To produce an image is, theologically and materially, a complicated issue, particular when the image in question is Jesus Christ. While Catholicism had a long history of iconography, many of the earliest settlers, particularly the Protestants, according to Blum and Harvey, saw such icons as potentially idolatrous. This theological aversion to imaging Jesus Christ left the playing field wide open in the New World for a variety of images. As Quakers, Puritans, and Jesuits began to interact with the original inhabitants, accounts from both African slaves and Native Americans speak of dreams depicting Jesus as a slave or as a Native American. Imagistic and vision-oriented accounts of Jesus began to become more common, unchecked by any other depiction which the Christian colonists might offer in response. Even when depicted as light-skinned in early colonial art, Jesus appears not as powerful, but as the suffering Christ, an image which became prominently used by African slaves. Over against a reticence for icons in public life, African-Americans began early on to speak of Christ as their brother, the one who would advocate for their freedom.
It would not be until the mid-1800s that Jesus began to be depicted as not simply light-skinned, but distinctly white, in large part due, Blum and Harvey contend, to the emergence of the Mormons. In Joseph Smith’s visions, Jesus was no longer simply light-skinned, but white-skinned and blue-eyed. Hispanic, black, and Native American images of Jesus continued to flourish, but gradually, white depictions of Jesus became more common, as Protestants became more distanced from their iconoclastic past. Through the time of the Civil War, African-American identification of Jesus as black sat side by side with Lakota images of Christ as Indian and Mormon depictions of a white Jesus. Ironically, due to the Mormons’ outsider position politically and religiously, it was the Native American and African-American images which retained more cultural currency than a distinctly white Jesus.
Though white images of Jesus were kept in slave homes during the Civil War, distinctly African-American images of Jesus flourished alongside white ones until the turn of the 20th century. At that time, missionary expansion, seeking more effective ways to promote the Christian Gospel, turned to tracts, films, and books which propagated the white Jesus. African-American and Native American images retained their backers, criticizing a collusion of whiteness with Jesus, but became significantly smaller voices, lacking the material capital to produce their images for a wider audience. Throughout the era of the Great Depression, artists such as Clementine Hunter, Langston Hughes, Black Elk, and William H. Johnson continued to produce images depicting Christ as an African-American, such that even in an age of cultural ascendency of a distinctly white Jesus, white iconic dominance was not univocal.
Moving into the Civil Rights era and beyond, Blum and Harvey explore the ways in which Christ is once again depicted as belonging to the experience of African-Americans, and how, in more decisive ways, the relationship between Jesus and whiteness is called into question in the burgeoning liberation theology of the 1960s and 1970s. As the 20th century unfolded, a field which had been dominated by the iconic images of Warner Sallman became more pluralized once again, as Asian, Latino, African-American, and Middle-Eastern images of Jesus came into their own.
One of the greatest contributions of this work is the way in which their story thickens and complicates the trajectories of contemporary liberation theology. Rather than locating liberation theology in the late 20th century, Blum and Harvey show how iconic theology and racial reconfiguration of Jesus is as old as America itself. Similarly, Blum and Harvey show that, while white images of Jesus are certainly the most prevalent ones both historically and culturally, they have never been the only images available or the only stories that have been told. To put it differently, depictions of Jesus in ways other than white need not trade on a narrative which pits one race against another, or describe Jesus as only white in order to describe Jesus otherwise. For Blum and Harvey, Jesus in America is a Jesus who has always been racially in negotiation.
This insight brings us to a second–that the production of the images of Jesus goes hand in hand with how the groups producing these images have been recognized as political agents or not. In other words, the proliferation of Jesus in racially plural ways corresponds to the ways in which those races are a part of a national polity. The most ironic part of this particular story comes when, following the Civil War, African-Americans and their black Jesus are fully a part of the national conciseness, while the renegade Mormons with their white Jesus remain on the outer fringes.
In sum, Blum and Harvey’s book should prompt a rethinking of the story of American Christianity and race. This is not to say that Christianity has not been used to oppress one race or another. Rather, Blum and Harvey’s story is one which shows that the image of Jesus as a white oppressor in American Christianity is far from the only story. Rather, because Jesus has been depicted in multiple ways from the beginning, the resources to see Jesus in other ways do not need to be invented for American Christians, as they have always been there. The Color of Christ is a book which deserves to widely discussed and debated, and more importantly, to be listened to.
In recent years, there has been a flurry of new works from within Christian theology interrogating the origins of race, and exploring how Western thinking of race evolved in conversation with theological commitments. Works such as those by J. Kameron Carter, Willie Jennings, James Cone, and Miguel de la Torre have attempted to–in one way or another–provide an archeology of race and theology from the side of theology. While different from each other, they have this one thread in common: that Christianity has predominately been a white affair.
It is here that Blum and Harvey offer a potent and compelling re-reading of the relationship between racialization and theology which is sure to both attract attention, and to stir conversation about whether or not Christianity (at least, in the American context) has been as monological as has been commonly assumed. Blum and Harvey weave together a story of race and religion in which the image of Jesus–as it was appropriated and re-appropriated–appears from the very beginning of the American colonies as a work in process.
Blum and Harvey’s work opens by asking the question of how images are produced within cultures. To produce an image is, theologically and materially, a complicated issue, particular when the image in question is Jesus Christ. While Catholicism had a long history of iconography, many of the earliest settlers, particularly the Protestants, according to Blum and Harvey, saw such icons as potentially idolatrous. This theological aversion to imaging Jesus Christ left the playing field wide open in the New World for a variety of images. As Quakers, Puritans, and Jesuits began to interact with the original inhabitants, accounts from both African slaves and Native Americans speak of dreams depicting Jesus as a slave or as a Native American. Imagistic and vision-oriented accounts of Jesus began to become more common, unchecked by any other depiction which the Christian colonists might offer in response. Even when depicted as light-skinned in early colonial art, Jesus appears not as powerful, but as the suffering Christ, an image which became prominently used by African slaves. Over against a reticence for icons in public life, African-Americans began early on to speak of Christ as their brother, the one who would advocate for their freedom.
It would not be until the mid-1800s that Jesus began to be depicted as not simply light-skinned, but distinctly white, in large part due, Blum and Harvey contend, to the emergence of the Mormons. In Joseph Smith’s visions, Jesus was no longer simply light-skinned, but white-skinned and blue-eyed. Hispanic, black, and Native American images of Jesus continued to flourish, but gradually, white depictions of Jesus became more common, as Protestants became more distanced from their iconoclastic past. Through the time of the Civil War, African-American identification of Jesus as black sat side by side with Lakota images of Christ as Indian and Mormon depictions of a white Jesus. Ironically, due to the Mormons’ outsider position politically and religiously, it was the Native American and African-American images which retained more cultural currency than a distinctly white Jesus.
Though white images of Jesus were kept in slave homes during the Civil War, distinctly African-American images of Jesus flourished alongside white ones until the turn of the 20th century. At that time, missionary expansion, seeking more effective ways to promote the Christian Gospel, turned to tracts, films, and books which propagated the white Jesus. African-American and Native American images retained their backers, criticizing a collusion of whiteness with Jesus, but became significantly smaller voices, lacking the material capital to produce their images for a wider audience. Throughout the era of the Great Depression, artists such as Clementine Hunter, Langston Hughes, Black Elk, and William H. Johnson continued to produce images depicting Christ as an African-American, such that even in an age of cultural ascendency of a distinctly white Jesus, white iconic dominance was not univocal.
Moving into the Civil Rights era and beyond, Blum and Harvey explore the ways in which Christ is once again depicted as belonging to the experience of African-Americans, and how, in more decisive ways, the relationship between Jesus and whiteness is called into question in the burgeoning liberation theology of the 1960s and 1970s. As the 20th century unfolded, a field which had been dominated by the iconic images of Warner Sallman became more pluralized once again, as Asian, Latino, African-American, and Middle-Eastern images of Jesus came into their own.
One of the greatest contributions of this work is the way in which their story thickens and complicates the trajectories of contemporary liberation theology. Rather than locating liberation theology in the late 20th century, Blum and Harvey show how iconic theology and racial reconfiguration of Jesus is as old as America itself. Similarly, Blum and Harvey show that, while white images of Jesus are certainly the most prevalent ones both historically and culturally, they have never been the only images available or the only stories that have been told. To put it differently, depictions of Jesus in ways other than white need not trade on a narrative which pits one race against another, or describe Jesus as only white in order to describe Jesus otherwise. For Blum and Harvey, Jesus in America is a Jesus who has always been racially in negotiation.
This insight brings us to a second–that the production of the images of Jesus goes hand in hand with how the groups producing these images have been recognized as political agents or not. In other words, the proliferation of Jesus in racially plural ways corresponds to the ways in which those races are a part of a national polity. The most ironic part of this particular story comes when, following the Civil War, African-Americans and their black Jesus are fully a part of the national conciseness, while the renegade Mormons with their white Jesus remain on the outer fringes.
In sum, Blum and Harvey’s book should prompt a rethinking of the story of American Christianity and race. This is not to say that Christianity has not been used to oppress one race or another. Rather, Blum and Harvey’s story is one which shows that the image of Jesus as a white oppressor in American Christianity is far from the only story. Rather, because Jesus has been depicted in multiple ways from the beginning, the resources to see Jesus in other ways do not need to be invented for American Christians, as they have always been there. The Color of Christ is a book which deserves to widely discussed and debated, and more importantly, to be listened to.
December 29, 2020
Fascinating topic, comprehensively explored with an intense number of stories and facts (but sidestepping much analysis, for better or worse).
August 27, 2015
Edward J. Blum and Paul Harvey have written a marvelous book that tells the story of how Americans have envisioned Christ -- ethnically, racially, etc. from the earliest days of European presence in the New World to the present. They delve into social, political, theological, and cultural aspects of American encounters with Jesus, especially how a white Jesus came to dominate our vision of Jesus and the effect that has had on social-cultural understandings.
Take and read -- you'll benefit. Publication date is due in September.
Here is my full review: http://www.bobcornwall.com/2012/08/th...
Take and read -- you'll benefit. Publication date is due in September.
Here is my full review: http://www.bobcornwall.com/2012/08/th...
January 13, 2016
vary informative, on the history and evolution of the image of Jesus. portrayed through film, and art, over the centuries..
May 1, 2019
Slightly deceiving.
DNF
DNF
September 3, 2020
Summary: History of the visual and descriptions of Jesus throughout the history of the United States.
I have been interested in The Color of Christ for a while, but I had not picked it up until Audible.com included it as part of the Audible Plus Catalogue. This new benefit allows members to listen to a couple thousand (mostly older) audiobooks for free.
The Color of Christ is a history of how Jesus has been portrayed and discussed throughout the history of the United States. My main takeaway is that while many have thought of Jesus as white, the actual images of Jesus as white, are relatively recent. Puritans had a strong iconoclast orientation as well as an understanding of the second commandment as including all representations of Jesus. While other Christian communities in the US were more likely to allow for pictures of Jesus, those groups were less culturally influential. It was not until around the 1820s that increased Catholic immigration and other forces started to weaken the cultural prohibitions to representing Christ.
Similar to what was illustrated in Jesus and John Wayne, the way that many argued against the Puritan opposition to representing Jesus Christ was as a means of Christian education. About that time, changes in printing technology allowed for low-cost pamphlets and books to include images. There is an interesting tidbit about the development of Mormon theology. Initially, Joseph Smith spoke about Jesus speaking to him through a bright light. But in later revisions of the story (in the 1820s), it was the tangible physical Jesus, who he described as White with blue eyes. That White Jesus became essential to the development of Mormon theology.
There are so many historical details that were new to me in this book. Part of what was new was Native American pastors that spoke out against white supremacy, slavery, and the lack of Christian ethics. Samson Occom wrote one of the first hymnals in the US and helped found, and fundraise for a school that was originally supposed to be for Native Americans but became Dartmouth. William Apess was a Native American pastor in the early 19th century. He passed away at only 41 but had written several books, including an autobiography and spoke out against the mistreatment of Native Americans and Black slaves and for the importance of being both a Christian and a Pequot.
Another detail I had never heard about was the (fake) Letter of Lentulus. This letter (probably from the 15th century) claimed to be from a Roman official contemporary with Jesus. It was first translated into English in 1680. The portion describing Jesus includes this passage:
He is a man of medium size (statura procerus, mediocris et spectabilis); he has a venerable aspect, and his beholders can both fear and love him. His hair is of the colour of the ripe hazel-nut, straight down to the ears, but below the ears wavy and curled, with a bluish and bright reflection, flowing over his shoulders. It is parted in two on the top of the head, after the pattern of the Nazarenes. His brow is smooth and very cheerful with a face without wrinkle or spot, embellished by a slightly reddish complexion. His nose and mouth are faultless. His beard is abundant, of the colour of his hair, not long, but divided at the chin.
This description widely impacted how Jesus was portrayed even though it was known to be a fake relatively early. Even early cinema portrayals of Jesus referenced the letter for 'historical accuracy'.
There is a good discussion about Sallman's Head of Christ, the most well known and commercially reproduce an image of Christ. Again, much of the push to reproduce the image was evangelistic and related, part of an opposition to the spread of communism. It is estimated that more than a billion copies of the image have been printed.
The strength of the book is that it talks about not just the art, but the culture around the art. There is a very good discussion about liberation theology and the development of Black and other representational images of Christ as well as the earlier backlashes against an overtly White Jesus. The book ends with recent tv and movies like The Passion, Dogma and South Park.
February 3, 2020
Interesting history tracing the depiction of Christ in America: what those depictions looked like / what media they were in; the sources for concepts, ideas, and ideologies that informed those depictions; the cultural and political reasons certain depictions (i.e., that of a white Jesus) gained widespread distribution in American while others (i.e., those of a non-white Jesus) at times gained momentum, but ultimately remain "behind" the normative white Jesus of contemporary America.
The writing is academic, but not difficult or obscure (I'd say it's undergraduate level in terms of its accessibility), and it's a quick read. However, due to the breadth of the temporal and physical material they're attempting to cover, there are topics where more nuance would have been helpful. It's definitely an introduction to the topic; if I wanted to investigate a particular historical claim they're making however I'd be better served going to specific sources with more depth.
That said, it's a book I'd highly recommend, especially if one has never thought much about why Jesus is so often depicted as a white man in Christian art. One of the main takeaways, which they argued well, was that the American concept of Jesus's race was greatly influenced by the popularity of the Publius Lentulus letter (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_...), which describes a fair Christ with hair parted at the center and going down to his shoulders and a beard. The letter is a forgery (it presents itself as an eyewitness account), something that was repeatedly ignored and overlooked by various groups invested in promoting a white Christ in America.
For those interested in thinking about the relationship between racism and religion in America, this book provides another important framework to be aware of (the aesthetics of race in religion). Reading this certainly has me thinking about the various religious art I have in my life, and how I can consciously counter underlying racism.
The writing is academic, but not difficult or obscure (I'd say it's undergraduate level in terms of its accessibility), and it's a quick read. However, due to the breadth of the temporal and physical material they're attempting to cover, there are topics where more nuance would have been helpful. It's definitely an introduction to the topic; if I wanted to investigate a particular historical claim they're making however I'd be better served going to specific sources with more depth.
That said, it's a book I'd highly recommend, especially if one has never thought much about why Jesus is so often depicted as a white man in Christian art. One of the main takeaways, which they argued well, was that the American concept of Jesus's race was greatly influenced by the popularity of the Publius Lentulus letter (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_...), which describes a fair Christ with hair parted at the center and going down to his shoulders and a beard. The letter is a forgery (it presents itself as an eyewitness account), something that was repeatedly ignored and overlooked by various groups invested in promoting a white Christ in America.
For those interested in thinking about the relationship between racism and religion in America, this book provides another important framework to be aware of (the aesthetics of race in religion). Reading this certainly has me thinking about the various religious art I have in my life, and how I can consciously counter underlying racism.
February 12, 2019
Amazing history, flawed historians.
This is an incredible history, examining visual representations of Jesus Christ through the history of America as a lens to understand the changing understanding of race. The authors look at whites, blacks, Mormons and Indians, and their depictions of a racialized Jesus. This way of doing history, looking at a thin thread that strings together multiple eras, allows for us to amble through America's complex racial history in a fairly compact form, but it also often times means there are these long gaps.
These gaps are inherent in this kind of history. It makes it feel jumpy, but it is one of the things that one must deal with as a historian. Unfortunately, these authors deal with it poorly. They often times try to fill these gaps by making assertions that stretch belief. In talking about Mormons, they make the claim that Mormons were disturbed that, during Reconstruction, blacks were given rights that white Mormons were denied. They provide evidence for this, and it is a well-made point. But then they make the claim that this racial anger drove Mormons to give up polygamy in order to gain statehood. They provide no evidence for this, and the point seems bogus.
These kinds of tenuous points are made repeatedly. At one point, the authors suggest that President Coolidge has something in common with Hitler because they both watch the same film about Jesus. They also say that “Dr. King died because of his efforts to remake Jesus and America.”
They did not have to make these tenuous claims. They did so because they thought it would make the narrative more solid, but it undercuts the validity of their argument. Still, it is a great history that is well worth the read.
This is an incredible history, examining visual representations of Jesus Christ through the history of America as a lens to understand the changing understanding of race. The authors look at whites, blacks, Mormons and Indians, and their depictions of a racialized Jesus. This way of doing history, looking at a thin thread that strings together multiple eras, allows for us to amble through America's complex racial history in a fairly compact form, but it also often times means there are these long gaps.
These gaps are inherent in this kind of history. It makes it feel jumpy, but it is one of the things that one must deal with as a historian. Unfortunately, these authors deal with it poorly. They often times try to fill these gaps by making assertions that stretch belief. In talking about Mormons, they make the claim that Mormons were disturbed that, during Reconstruction, blacks were given rights that white Mormons were denied. They provide evidence for this, and it is a well-made point. But then they make the claim that this racial anger drove Mormons to give up polygamy in order to gain statehood. They provide no evidence for this, and the point seems bogus.
These kinds of tenuous points are made repeatedly. At one point, the authors suggest that President Coolidge has something in common with Hitler because they both watch the same film about Jesus. They also say that “Dr. King died because of his efforts to remake Jesus and America.”
They did not have to make these tenuous claims. They did so because they thought it would make the narrative more solid, but it undercuts the validity of their argument. Still, it is a great history that is well worth the read.
July 10, 2018
Pretty interesting, a lot of good information and analysis. Since college, I've been frustrated by depictions of Jesus as blue-eyed and light-skinned but hadn't thought about the way that it would especially affect black people who use these images in their places of worship. I had also never seen Native American or Asian Jesus depictions and they're a great addition to my conception of Christ. I also hadn't thought about the way that Christ as white was used to promote white supremacy, it always seemed nonsensical to use Christ as an image of hatred and exclusion but the radical, racist right's adoption of a white Christ was crucial to the supposed legitimacy of their disgusting aims.
There was a quote in the book that I found problematic but I don't have it with me, I'll edit this review to include it later. I also think it's weird to refer to black people are African Americans but maybe that's a newer shift among non-black people.
Also frustrating is that as a book about black people, written by white people and narrated by a white guy, they really should have made sure that in the audiobook the white guy was pronouncing black people's names correctly. As well-researched as the book was, it was distracting, disrespectful, and incongruous to hear the narrator mispronounce W.E.B. Du Bois (should be "du boys," the way he himself pronounced it) and Tupac (literally 2Pac, not sure how he bungled that one).
There was a quote in the book that I found problematic but I don't have it with me, I'll edit this review to include it later. I also think it's weird to refer to black people are African Americans but maybe that's a newer shift among non-black people.
Also frustrating is that as a book about black people, written by white people and narrated by a white guy, they really should have made sure that in the audiobook the white guy was pronouncing black people's names correctly. As well-researched as the book was, it was distracting, disrespectful, and incongruous to hear the narrator mispronounce W.E.B. Du Bois (should be "du boys," the way he himself pronounced it) and Tupac (literally 2Pac, not sure how he bungled that one).
April 1, 2022
Me: I just started a new book. It feels as if it was published by a university press.
My sister: Was it published by a university press?
Me: Yes.
A perfect example of being fished in by an appealing cover. I'm not saying this was a bad book, just un-pick-uppable. I set myself a goal of reading a chapter a day, and there are 9 chapters (plus a long introduction and an epilogue), and I'd say until about chapter 7, I was playing catchup on the chapter from the day before.
So the premise is intriguing: how has Jesus been depicted throughout American history, and how has that been used to uplift and/or subjugate the American people? Each chapter moves the idea further long the timeline, from early settlers to Joseph Smith and the Mormons heading West, the Native peoples, slavery, and so on. At first, Jesus wasn't depicted at all, as it was considered idolatry, and then of course, he became the white Jesus that was ubiquitous throughout the country.
Unfortunately, not many of the examples cited are pictured, so if I was curious enough, I had to Google it, and I was only curious enough about a third of the time. To really captivate the reader, this book needed copious illustrations, maybe a full-color insert (I'm always a big fan of a full-color insert).
Anyway, the way it's presented, it's more of a "huh" than the "wow" it could have been.
My sister: Was it published by a university press?
Me: Yes.
A perfect example of being fished in by an appealing cover. I'm not saying this was a bad book, just un-pick-uppable. I set myself a goal of reading a chapter a day, and there are 9 chapters (plus a long introduction and an epilogue), and I'd say until about chapter 7, I was playing catchup on the chapter from the day before.
So the premise is intriguing: how has Jesus been depicted throughout American history, and how has that been used to uplift and/or subjugate the American people? Each chapter moves the idea further long the timeline, from early settlers to Joseph Smith and the Mormons heading West, the Native peoples, slavery, and so on. At first, Jesus wasn't depicted at all, as it was considered idolatry, and then of course, he became the white Jesus that was ubiquitous throughout the country.
Unfortunately, not many of the examples cited are pictured, so if I was curious enough, I had to Google it, and I was only curious enough about a third of the time. To really captivate the reader, this book needed copious illustrations, maybe a full-color insert (I'm always a big fan of a full-color insert).
Anyway, the way it's presented, it's more of a "huh" than the "wow" it could have been.
January 29, 2026
This book is super relevant to our countries current political climate and overall history! Ironically “Christ” is in the title yet the book details how Americas image of a white Christ and its meaning for white supremacy (whether intentional or not) really lacks the essence of Christ himself. This is not only because Christ was not white but middle-eastern and brown, but also because the white Jesus was and is used as a figure head for a movement that suppresses brown people, the very demographic Jesus himself would fall into. This book journeys from Americans founding years to today’s media heavy culture. We see how the image of Christ was made malleable first when introduced to native Americans, later how European art contributed to the white Jesus, through the civil rights movement empowered by the black Jesus, and how all of these evolving images of Christ impacts todays society through Hollywood movies, media, and current events. I especially recommend this book to Christians as to identify and work through any internalised white supremacy planted by the westernised Sunday school curriculum that enables any behaviour that contributes to a system that would suppress the very saviour they worship. Overall this book is for anyone eager to be
January 13, 2020
More like 4.5 stars. Should be mandatory reading in every intro to theology class. How do you manipulate people by changing the icon of their beliefs? How do people in power (politicians, priests, pastors, bishops, editors) modify the literal color of something to gain more followers; ostracize a selected group(s); create blame; create "us vs. them"; create scapegoats; change the recording of history.
How do you sell more bibles? More kids' picture books about the bible? Sell more books about Jesus and the bible? You alter the color of Jesus' skin and then try to make that *new* skin color FACT. And then you are relentless in how you market this change and the new skin color. Repeat. Incessantly, over the course of time.
All in all - enthralling read. About something utterly disgusting - the manipulation of people to your benefit (not their benefit). Appreciated the chronological approach and also the contemporaneous approach too (meanwhile over in the part of the US - this was happening but over here in this part of the US - that was happening - and cause effect of both). Just a WOW read.
How do you sell more bibles? More kids' picture books about the bible? Sell more books about Jesus and the bible? You alter the color of Jesus' skin and then try to make that *new* skin color FACT. And then you are relentless in how you market this change and the new skin color. Repeat. Incessantly, over the course of time.
All in all - enthralling read. About something utterly disgusting - the manipulation of people to your benefit (not their benefit). Appreciated the chronological approach and also the contemporaneous approach too (meanwhile over in the part of the US - this was happening but over here in this part of the US - that was happening - and cause effect of both). Just a WOW read.
December 11, 2019
I can really only speak to the scholarship on LDS artwork. There are several pieces of artwork discussed in an LDS context but two of those pieces were not created by LDS artists (the Tiffany stained glass window in the SLC Temple, and the Jesus Christ Visits the Americas. The authors also don't discuss Latter-day Saint placement in the racial hierarchy of the 19th century as a reason for their focus on a white Christ. Much of the discussion to LDS conceptualizations of Christ are from Noel Carmack's article on images of Christ in LDS culture and I'm just wondering why, if that's the basis of argument about LDS conceptions of Christ, there is no discussion of 20th century depictions of Christ.
Was excited to read something putting LDS art of Christ in a new category, but in the end it just felt flat for me. The arguments seemed to coincide with what was said about Christianity in America in general. It is more nuanced than what the authors presented.
Still would recommend even if there's more to be said about LDS visualizations of Christ.
Was excited to read something putting LDS art of Christ in a new category, but in the end it just felt flat for me. The arguments seemed to coincide with what was said about Christianity in America in general. It is more nuanced than what the authors presented.
Still would recommend even if there's more to be said about LDS visualizations of Christ.
January 21, 2024
Gutted this book for RELIGIST 246.
I don't really think about the image of Christ wrt my own faith... I agree with MLK's statement on page 205 ("The color of Jesus' skin is of little or no consequence.") from a religious perspective; when I picture Jesus, I don't give him a skin color... At the same time, in this society, assuming that Jesus is white has further "societal" implications... I've wondered how the same Jesus I see as a friend can be used to push forward such a horrific agenda (ie: KKK), and I think this book helped me come to some sort of answer to that question.
Jesus' race/image is malleable. As Prof. Lum said in class, "People are racist. People who are racist interpret Christianity in a racist way." As much as Jesus is the all-powerful, Jesus' image was created into one His believers needed/wanted. "He was made by men and women, transformed by them, and given powers he could not control" (277).
Very cool to hear from Paul Harvey in class and his writing process. Seems like a huge growth mindset dude
I don't really think about the image of Christ wrt my own faith... I agree with MLK's statement on page 205 ("The color of Jesus' skin is of little or no consequence.") from a religious perspective; when I picture Jesus, I don't give him a skin color... At the same time, in this society, assuming that Jesus is white has further "societal" implications... I've wondered how the same Jesus I see as a friend can be used to push forward such a horrific agenda (ie: KKK), and I think this book helped me come to some sort of answer to that question.
Jesus' race/image is malleable. As Prof. Lum said in class, "People are racist. People who are racist interpret Christianity in a racist way." As much as Jesus is the all-powerful, Jesus' image was created into one His believers needed/wanted. "He was made by men and women, transformed by them, and given powers he could not control" (277).
Very cool to hear from Paul Harvey in class and his writing process. Seems like a huge growth mindset dude
August 7, 2018
This was really interesting, but also somewhat boring and repetitive. I also found the writing to be a bit random and all over the place. It was hard to track where he was going. He also cherry picked examples that he felt captured a whole unproven zeitgeist, at one point even quoting a random 2 year old who recognised Jesus' picture, as if this clearly demonstrated that that whole generation had been influenced by images of Christ. You'd get the impression after reading this book that no one in America's history ever seriously considered that the 'real' Jesus was a middle eastern Jew, but that might not have suited the author's narrative. Overall though it was a fascinating look at how the 'idea' of Jesus and his 'usefulness' in fuelling certain movements were more important to many people than understanding who the real, historical Jesus actually was.
May 30, 2025
Note: I’m reading the audiobook. Maybe the print/ebook has the paintings/artworks pictured in the pages, and that would probably make a difference in the experience.
Still, it seemed the author didn’t have their facts straight. The Hook Head of Christ doesn’t have blue eyes. The eyes are brown with blue flecks of light reflected in them.
A work called “Ecce Homo” by William Page is referenced, and maybe my research skills are lacking, but I could not find any such painting via internet search. Maybe the narrator or author misspoke and meant William Dickes’s painting by that name? Or maybe the author is using the wrong title for William Page’s Head of Christ sketch?
The publisher/producer definitely should have made sure the narrator knew how to pronounce names of such prominent Black figures as W.E.B. DuBois.
Still, it seemed the author didn’t have their facts straight. The Hook Head of Christ doesn’t have blue eyes. The eyes are brown with blue flecks of light reflected in them.
A work called “Ecce Homo” by William Page is referenced, and maybe my research skills are lacking, but I could not find any such painting via internet search. Maybe the narrator or author misspoke and meant William Dickes’s painting by that name? Or maybe the author is using the wrong title for William Page’s Head of Christ sketch?
The publisher/producer definitely should have made sure the narrator knew how to pronounce names of such prominent Black figures as W.E.B. DuBois.
June 18, 2024
"Whether through tracts, Sunday school cards, or church art or on television and in movies, visual depictions of Christ lodged the idea of his whiteness deep within cultural conventions and individual psyches. Before many children could consider other lessons of faith or morality, they had seen images of white Christs and experienced adults seeming to regard the pictures as authentic. The goal of the pictures was to teach Christianity, but an unintended consequence was to create an often unspoken belief that Jesus was white. This made Christ's whiteness a psychological certainty. It could be felt without thought and presumed without proof. To imagine Jesus as other-than-white would demand a conscious process of unlearning."
October 12, 2020
I found this history of the image of Christ in the US and its relationship with race and racism in our country to be mesmerizing. Excellent research presented with clarity of purpose and almost exhaustive sources. Probably the best history book that I have had the pleasure of reading/hearing this year (and I've done some reading during the pandemic).
The narrator gave an impressive and engaging performance. Though I must say, his impersonation of J.J. (Jimmy Walker) on Good Times is disturbing. You really should have just read that straight brother. You simply don't have the chops for that one. With everything else, you were very effective.
The narrator gave an impressive and engaging performance. Though I must say, his impersonation of J.J. (Jimmy Walker) on Good Times is disturbing. You really should have just read that straight brother. You simply don't have the chops for that one. With everything else, you were very effective.
March 6, 2018
This seemed to be really well researched although not what I expected at all. I expected it to be a lot more focused on art but it was less so. Really, actual visual representations of Christ were not touched on until half way through the book. There were times where it felt a bit disjointed, all over the place, or repetitive but I still learned a whole lot that I hadn't known before. I especially appreciated the inclusion of Native Americans which is not all that common (ridiculously) when race in America is discussed.
September 4, 2018
1.5 stars. The tedium of academia with the shallowness and other standard pitfalls of pop-history. This is the kind of infuriating history book people mean when they say that history is fictional. When an author ascribes intentionality to the actions of a dead person or whole people groups in order to serve their own narrative, I lose all trust in the author. Still, i was introduced to a couple interesting anecdotes and historical figures.
October 29, 2020
This is kind of a unique approach to American Black History. It traces that history from the perspective of images of Christ in America throughout that history. While more race history than art history, it is an interesting study of how white Americans established a (likely inaccurate) blue eyed Caucasian Christ to represent their image of the Jewish Son of God. This image was initially adopted by Black Americans, but with significant alterations as history has rolled forward. 3.5 stars.
July 9, 2019
I read this as an assignment for a seminary class. What a read! This covers so so much about American Jesus, how'd he end up so white? I especially appreciated the conversations about Native American relationships to Jesus, though I was very surprised at some parts left out (Our Lady of Guadalupe for example) and disagreed with some of the assessments made. Overall, a good read.
April 11, 2020
Harvey revealed a history of Jesus in America I never knew before. Intertwined with history and hints of satire, there was something interesting on every page. As a Christian, it made me question my own perceptions of Jesus and how I grew up only seeing images of a white Christ. It all makes sense now.
April 6, 2021
An overwhelming amount of information. Well researched for sure, but eventually I got to a point of semi tuning out going "and people changed Jesus image to fit their narrative again." Still a good read, but maybe not for those who want the book to draw more conclusions and synthesize the information more concisely.
October 29, 2021
So much research and so many quotes. All groups in our country fashion Jesus into something that suits them and their needs, none of them biblical. This book begins at the very beginning of our country and proceeds to the present day. It's sad but worth listening to. It help put proper perspective into who we as Christians worship. Hopefully the biblical Jesus.
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