A Story for all Cultures

JESUS MAFA. The birth of Jesus with shepherds, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=48387 

I work with a diverse group of people at the hospital, many of whom have come to Canada from different countries around the world. At morning rounds this week, I took notice of the number of my coworkers who are people of colour. They came to Canada from Kenya, Eritrea, India, Central America, the Philippines, China, the Caribbean, to name a few countries. I looked for Christmas cards this year that reflected the multicultural makeup of our community and came up short. Nativity scenes invariably feature white faces and I found two troubling pictures of black Magi bowing to a white baby Jesus. I have been thinking a lot about how people of colour internalize these kinds of white images in religious art and classic Bible storybooks. 

"The Life of Jesus Mafa" is a set of 63 pictures from the life and teaching of Jesus, viewed by the artist as if the events had taken place in a village in Cameroon. (source) The pictures are archived at the Vanderbilt University website. I love the life and beauty represented in this collection and can imagine how the people of this culture could identify with these Bible story pictures.  

I have a book by Kenneth E. Bailey called Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes. People read scripture from their own cultural context and the author explains aspects of Middle Eastern culture that cast a different light on scriptural interpretation. His discussion on the birth of Jesus is particularly interesting and the story is quite different from our familiar nativity scenes and stories that combine legend and fact. This article summarizes some of his key points. 

So I continue to look for culturally diverse Christmas art pieces that are more appropriate to share with people like my coworkers. I am trying to imagine myself as a person from a non-white culture as I meditate on the Advent scriptures and readings this month. It is good to challenge our familiar perceptions and look at the Christmas story from another viewpoint.

JESUS MAFA. The Annunciation - Gabriel and Mary, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=48278