The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America

by Edward J. Blum, Paul Harvey

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807837375
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	09/21/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Edward J. Blum is author of Reforging the White Republic: Race, Religion, and American Nationalism.
Paul Harvey is author of Freedom's Coming: Religious Cultures and the Shaping of the South from the Civil War through the Civil Rights Era.

Table of Contents

Prologue 1

Introduction: The Holy Face of Race 7

Part I Born Across the Sea

1 When Christ Crossed the Atlantic 27

2 Revolutionary Visions in Colonial Confines 53

3 From Light to White in the Early Republic 76

Part II Crucified and Resurrected

4 Body Battles in Antebellum America 105

5 Christ in the Camps 120

6 Nordic and Nativist in an Age of Imperialism 141

Part III Ascended and Still Ascending

7 The Great Commission in the Great Depression 173

8 Civil Rights and the Coloring of Christ 205

9 A Deity in the Digital Age 234

Epilogue: Jesus Jokes 266

Acknowledgments 279

Notes 283

Index 327

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Edward Blum and Paul Harvey's masterful book is a breath of fresh air in our toxic religious culture of learned ignorance and unlearned bigotry."—Cornel West

In starkly poetic prose, this book takes a seemingly simple idea—examine evolving depictions of Jesus in America—and delivers punch after punch. Blum and Harvey provide a new, paradigm-changing window into the issues of race, religion, and power. Anyone wanting to grasp the depth of religion and race in the United States needs this book. It will transform what you thought you knew."—Michael O. Emerson, Rice University, author of Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America

Edward Blum and Paul Harvey have produced an original, impressive, and eye-opening work—as compelling in its vivid detail as it is astonishing in its immense historical sweep. The Color of Christ sets a new standard and establishes a new starting point for anyone interested in the intersection of race and religiosity in the United States. An illuminating study, for which we will long be indebted."—Matthew Frye Jacobson, author of Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race

A sweeping study with a bold argument, clear style, and narrative power. Blum and Harvey explore how white Americans remade Jesus into a white icon. At the same time, they delve into the contested nature of Jesus, with many groups finding their own meanings in him. This is a book of surprises, covering new ground and inviting readers to keep reading to see what new configurations of Jesus will take place around such major events as wars, economic depressions, social justice movements, and theological movements."—Charles Reagan Wilson, Kelly Gene Cook Sr. Chair in History and Professor of Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi

In The Color of Christ, two of our finest historians track the changing portrayals of Jesus in American life against the vicissitudes of history, especially the troubled waters of race relations. In so doing, they have produced a splendid book as well as a unique perspective on American religious history. This is not the first study of the images of Christ in American history, but it is indisputably the best."—Randall Balmer, Dartmouth College

Both finely wrought interpretation and sweeping synthesis, The Color of Christ lays bare the racial transformations, political challenges, and deep ironies embodied in the image of Jesus. Edward Blum and Paul Harvey offer a compelling new view of race, religion, iconography. . .and America itself."—Philip J. Deloria, Carroll Smith-Rosenberg Collegiate Professor of History and American Studies, University of Michigan

Blum and Harvey are two of the most talented scholars of race and religion in the United States, and this pathbreaking book integrates important historical analysis with beautiful and compelling narrative. The Color of Christ brilliantly draws on original research, the latest scholarship, and popular culture to transform the ways that we see Jesus past and present."—Matthew Avery Sutton, author of Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America

The refreshing and engaging story of how the concept of white Jesus was appropriated and used by Americans of all ethnicities to support their cultural, social, and religious intentions. Blum and Harvey's solid historical writing and deft use of material culture and media bring a fresh viewpoint to the subject of race and religion in America."—Anthea Butler, author of Women in the Church of God in Christ: Making a Sanctified World

Editorial Reviews

[A] compelling study. . . . This work will captivate readers of American religious and racial history."—Library Journal

The authors' breadth of research is impressive, and their incorporation of material culture is a model for future scholarship."—Journal of American History

Thoroughly fascinating."—Booklist Starred Review and 2013 Top 10 Black History Nonfiction

A powerful and groundbreaking book. . . . [Blum and Harvey] masterfully probe how a sacred icon can be a tool at once of racial oppression and liberation. A must-read for those interested in American religious history, this book will forever change the way you look at images of Jesus."—Publishers Weekly Starred Review

A fascinating story that we cannot afford to ignore."—Books & Culture

This model of academic inquiry and analysis is clearly written, deeply researched, socially engaged, ambitious in the intellectual scope of its questions about race and religion, and methodical in its answers."—A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2012

This is a key work for students of American Christianity, but also a worthwhile read for undergraduates and general readers interested in the intersection of race, Christianity, and religion. It is an important acquisition for religion collections of all types. Essential. Lower-level undergraduates and above."—Choice

Blum and Harvey have produced a rich and readable narrative that begins with the Puritans and concludes with Jesus in the age of Obama"—Christian Century

A solid contribution to the conversation on religion and race in U.S. history. . . . The American Christian community remains trapped within a web of racial hierarchies, flawed theological assumptions and dangerous patriarchal precedents that continue to inform Christian doctrine and liturgy. The best way to treat an illness is to begin by discovering its root causes. The Color of Christ does just that."—Christian Century

[The Color of Christ is] an eye-opening look at how not just the image but also the idea of Christ has shifted within varying communities and schools of thought throughout American history."—Pop Matters

From the Publisher

Consider the visage of Jesus Christ. No simple task, as Blum (history, San Diego State Univ.; Reforging the White Republic: Race, Religion, and American Nationalism) and Harvey (history, Univ. of Colorado; Freedom's Coming: Religious Cultures and the Shaping of the South from the Civil War Through the Civil Rights Era) demonstrate in their compelling study of the image of Jesus through American history, from the evangelism of early European colonists to the Obama presidency. The authors begin and end with one moment: the 1963 Birmingham Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing, in which four girls were killed and the (white) face of Jesus was blown out of a stained glass window (later replaced by an image of a black Jesus). The Bible provides no physical description of Jesus, leaving believers and opinion makers to visualize him as they will. And they will, generally, visualize him as a tall, handsome, long-haired, bearded white man. This book explores the sociopolitical reasons for this, through many intriguing voices taken from scores of primary and secondary sources. VERDICT Dense, scholarly, and evenhanded, well paired with Stephen Prothero's American Jesus (which it references), this work will captivate readers of American religious and racial history.—Janet Ingraham Dwyer, State Lib. of Ohio, Columbus

Library Journal