ABSTRACT

This book explores Christology through the lens of whiteness, addressing whiteness as a site of privilege and power within the specific context of Christology. It asks whether or not Jesus’ life and work offers theological, religious and ethical resources that can address the question of contemporary forms of white privilege. The text seeks to encourage ways of thinking about whiteness theologically through the mission of Jesus. In this sense, white Christians are encouraged to reflect on how their whiteness is a site of tension in relation to their theological and religious framework. A distinguished team of contributors explore key topics including the Christology of domination, different images of Jesus and the question of identification with Jesus, and the Black Jesus in the inner city.

chapter |18 pages

Introduction

Framing the problem

chapter |17 pages

What Jesus Wouldn't do

A white theologian engages whiteness

chapter |23 pages

Grotesque Un/Knowing of Suffering

A white Christian response

chapter |16 pages

Jesus Must Needs go Through Samaria

Disestablishing the mountains of race and the hegemony of whiteness

chapter |9 pages

The Black Church and Whiteness

Looking for Jesus in strange places

chapter |17 pages

What Would Zacchaeus do?

The case for disidentifying with Jesus

chapter |13 pages

Is Christ White?

Racism and Christology

chapter |20 pages

Upstart Messiahs, Renegade Samaritans, and Temple Exorcisms

What can Jesus' peasant resistance movement in first-century Palestine teach us about confronting “color-blind” whiteness today?

chapter |11 pages

Looking Like Me?

Jesus images, Christology, and the limitations of theological blackness

chapter |16 pages

The (Black) Jesus of Detroit

Reflections on black power and the (white) American Christ