Racializing Jesus

Catalog description

Taught by JST. This course explores "racialized" representations of Jesus in the New Testament, biblical scholarship, as well as contemporary culture. Although portraits of Jesus as a white, blue-eyed prophet, messiah, or rabbi inform the popular imagination, these often reflect the social location and racial biases of Western biblical scholars and theologians. However, what if Jesus were Black, Latinx, Amerindian, Asian, or Jewish? How would our understanding of his life, ministry and message change? Why is ethnicity/race an essential category for rethinking Christology as well as for interrogating the intersection between religion, race, and power? Seeking to address these questions, this course will (1) critically engage sources from the New Testament, art, film and media; (2) interrogate the racial reconstructions of Western biblical scholarship as well as contemporary cultural appropriations; and (3) map the implications of a racialized Jesus for marginalized communities in the United States. Key themes informing this course include race/ethnicity, colonialism, Third Reich Christology, civil rights, Black Lives Matter, fundamentalism and immigration, [15 max enrollment]