Authors Meet Critics Session on Color of Christ at the AAR: Monday, November 25, 9 - 11:30 a.m.

Paul Harvey

Hoping to see lots of blog friends, readers, and followers at the American Academy of Religion in Baltimore coming up in less than two weeks. There's more stuff to do there in American religious history than one could possibly fairly summarize in a post (you may fine one helpful selective list of sessions here), but here just want to call your attention to the "Authors Meet Critics" session on Edward J. Blum's The Color of Christ, to be held Monday, November 25, 9 - 11:30 a.m., in Convention Center 310. The session is co-sponsored by the North American Religious History Section, and the Afro-American Religious History Group. There is a great lineup of respondents, noted below, and one can only hope that noted Amazon reviewer "Soda Pop Sal" and others will also be able to make it, just to enliven the conversation. Live tweeters are welcome too!

A25-107

• Books under Discussion

North American Religions Section and Afro-American Religious History Group

Theme: Authors Meet Critics: The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America by Paul Harvey and Edward Blum (University of North Carolina Press, 2012)

Stephen Prothero, Boston University, Presiding

Monday - 9:00 AM-11:30 AM

Convention Center-310

From Protestant rejections of religious iconography to the messianic mythologies of American original religions like Mormonism to the poetry of Langston Hughes to the 2008 election of Barack Obama, Jesus Christ has been a “shape-shifting totem” of religious and racial meanings. Exploring such various verbal and visual representations of Jesus Christ in The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America, historians Edward Blum and Paul Harvey tell the story of “the holy face of race in America.” This round table consisting of responses to the book from scholars in various disciplines will evaluate Blum and Harvey’s explanation of “how a land settled, in part, by Puritan iconoclasts from England became one of the most abundant producers and consumers of diverse Jesus imagery.”

Panelists:

Joshua Paddison, Wittenberg University

Kathryn Gin Lum, Stanford University

J. Kameron Carter, Duke University

Responding:

Edward Blum, San Diego State University

Paul W. Harvey, University of Colorado

Jennifer Graber, University of Texas