Challenging White Jesus: Race and the Undergraduate Bible Classroom (original) (raw)

2019, Religious Education

In this article, we offer analysis of and propose means of resistance to White Jesus in undergraduate Bible survey courses. White Jesus functions as a proxy for the operation of white normativity in contexts of religious education. Research on a cohort of first-year undergraduate students demonstrates the durability of race as a factor in students' experiences and outcomes in required Bible courses. After interpreting these findings in light of literature on race, biblical studies, and higher education, we suggest strategic pedagogical interventions that instructors can employ to resist white normativity. Introduction: Jesus, race, and Christian higher education One October morning, just after I posted the grades for the second of three exams, Cecile came to me (John) on the verge of tears. 1 "Dr. Boyles, I don't know what to do. I've gone to church and Sunday school my entire life and I think I am going to fail Bible." Cecile is an African American first semester student enrolled in my required New Testament survey course. Both the words and the tone in which they were delivered spoke volumes. Many factors can shape student experience in an undergraduate Bible survey course-biblical literacy, academic preparation for college, overall adjustment to college life, access to social, financial, and academic resources, interpersonal and intrapersonal issues, and so forth. Yet Cecile named none of those factors. Instead, she identified a disjunction between her past, active involvement in Christian religious education, and her present experience in my college course. Her experience is not uncommon-many students with significant church involvement find a Bible class in an academic context to be a little disorienting, even when the academic context is confessional. Cecile's experience, however, especially in light of my growing relationships with students from diverse backgrounds, left lingering questions about both the religious and academic factors shaping student experience in a course like this. As another professor teaching those same courses, I (Amanda) had similar questions. In this national moment, amid the emboldened efforts of white supremacist groups in the country and on college campuses, the responsibility of faithfully and critically shaping students' encounter with the New Testament takes on a particular urgency. For a great many college students, as for much of Western Christianity, the default, formative image of Jesus is a white man, whether they encountered that image on the television ß 2019 The Religious Education Association 1 Throughout this article, student names have been changed to protect their identities.