Bantum talks race, religion

Posted in Articles, Identity Development/Psychology, Media Archive, Religion, United States on 2011-05-25 18:56Z by Steven

Bantum talks race, religion

The Falcon
Seattle Pacific University
Volume 82, Issue 25 (2011-05-18)

Nicole Critchley

New book looks to redeem ‘mulatto

Mulattos defy classification, said Assistant Professor of Theology Brian Bantum.

Part black and part white, they do not fit neatly into any preconceived notions of our society—and that, in part, is what makes them so fascinating, he said.

“There is a structure of belief in whiteness, this idea of what it should be. It is a very clean system,” Bantum said. “Mulattos mixed things up.”

At Thursday’s Food for Thought in the Library Reading Room, Bantum read from his book “Redeeming Mulatto: A Theology of Race and Christian Hybridity.” Bantum said the inspiration for this book came from his doctoral dissertation and is highly personal.

Bantum’s book discusses theology in a mixed-race world and explores the intersection between identity and theology, he said. He said he began searching for the answer to race through church and religion, because he wanted to know what it meant to be mulatto and Christian…

…But now a third identity, mulatto—neither black nor white—is very strong, he said, and he believes it is directly tied to the Christian concept of a savior who is both divine and human. Bantum said the mixed identity of mulattos is similar to that of Jesus, who is both God and man

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