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

Compelling overview analysis of the many representations of Christ in American culture that provides telling insight into both racism and resistance to it.

I recently attended a graduate course on "The Contested Colors of Christ" taught by Dr. Blum.. The Color of Christ was the centerpiece text in the course. This book provides an essential balance of theology, history, and Christian ethics for readers and learners. As a preacher of the Gospel, The Color of Christ provides historical perpectives of the Church and those who minister through the church from the Pre-Colonial period in America through the postmodern period to date.The Color of Christ is also an essential resource for the Pastor's professional library because it provides a rainbow of different perspectives of Christ that congregations and parishes need to grow spiritually and ethically in an accurate historical setting. As a Christian educator, The Color of Christ can be used as an excellent resource for a group study in a church setting for congregations that want to grow historically,spiritually and ethically with the wealth of information found in this book. The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America

The Color of Christ has been an eye opener for me, I did not realized that people felt that strong about Jesus Christ being white. The White American that were supreme over blacks and native americans was troubling to me, but after reading the book it made sense, when whites in that time period were beating blacks and suppressing them from voting and getting a quality education was their aim to keep blacks from being knowledgeable of the power of reading, and worshiping God in their on context they controlled them also. The only Jesus they knew was a white Jesus because they control the media, publishing, and marketing of the pictures of the white Jesus. This book has exposed the true color of Christ, He is black, white, asian, and native. This book will be apart of my bible study class this fall.

In the age of the ever growing multi-cultural church, The Color of Christ provides for Pastor's a resource for dealing with a very obvious issue that remains silent even in our most progressive houses of worship. Blum and Harvey take the reader along a historical pathway searching for meaning in the images and portrayals of Christ in race especially as the images lend themselves to the mythical interpretations of white power and superiority. The Color of Christ presents a critical perspective with theological considerations towards fostering healthy discussions towards race and the body of Christ. I would highly recommend The Color of Christ for any pastor or church leader seeking to tap into this conscience among their congregations and deal with the image of Christ as we attempt to form the body of Christ

As a teenager I started questioning the "Caucasian Jesus" portrayed in film and portrait. Even so, I didn't realize just how much my perceptions of Christ had been shaped by people eager to remove any trace of Semitism. This book led me to challenge my ideas not only of the color of Jesus' skin, but my concept of who he was and is.

Reading now for class. Think it's very well done. Engaging.

While I appreciated that the authors were trying to present a balanced and unbiased view of early religion in America, I was disappointed to see that they incorporated anti-Mormon statements without accompanying documentation. Instead they lumped "unidentified eyewitness" testimony and unidentified journal sources attributing prejudicial point of views to Mormon leaders into the same paragraphs with documented sources of Non-Mormon leaders with similar viewpoints. While this may have been unintentional, it is nevertheless highly disappointing; especially in an assigned reading text for a higher education history/religion course.

This is a cutting edge book on how Christ turned so white in America! You also get blow back from African Americans and Native Americans on this journey. I hope this book is just the first take of many. Do read it!

In truth I bought this book without tremendous anticipation. I am interested in Art History and so reading the reviews I thought why not give it a go......but I was so surprised.Although the title is precisely on what the author's focus their research, it is inevitable that they write about a much broader subject. They have produced a social history of the USA. They have given due weight and consideration to that country's development, social mix, economic fortunes and the complexities of change, not least of all due the impact of technology. I commend this book for making me rethink my own views. I commend it equally as a broader history of the complexities of the US.Unfortunately the book does not embrace President Trump and his views and behaviour. There must be scope for the authors to update their views (with an interesting section on the images used on Fox News!).

GREAT 👍

good