ABSTRACT
Acknowledging some intellectual distance between Blumenbach and Kant opens space for rethinking the relationship between the emergence of modern racial "science" and the long history of Christian ideas about human origins that predate the field of physical anthropology. This chapter argues that Blumenbach's conceptions of human diversity and the life sciences are an outgrowth of Christian intellectual history, and thus not merely a product of Newtonian science or simply a derivative of Kantian epistemology. Drawing upon new scholarship in the field of religious studies, the chapter explores unrecognized Christian forms of reasoning at play in Blumenbach's vision of the Caucasian and in his account of race. It analyses early Christian accounts of peoplehood and the theology of supersessionism. The chapter focuses on the work of Justin Martyr and examines the racial implications of early Christian beliefs about the superiority of Christian identity over and against that of Jews and other non-Christians.
