'Brown Baby Jesus' Celebrates Jesus' Messy, Multiethnic Family Tree
A conversation with author Dorena Williamson on historical accuracy, representation, and the theology of belonging.
A Google search for “baby Jesus” highlights pretty quickly the issue children’s author Dorena Williamson aims to address with the publication of her book, Brown Baby Jesus. Going by the results presented by the world’s top search engine, one would be left to conclude that Jesus was White — and, of course, one would be wrong.
“We don’t have pictures of what he looked like, specifically. But when I’ve seen a lot of our current images of a blonde, very pale, blue-eyed Jesus, we know that that is certainly not historically accurate,” Williamson told Faithfully Magazine a few weeks before the book’s release.
Williamson, who is African American, is well aware of the baggage that comes with popular visual presentations of a White Jesus.
“So reimagining him as a Middle Eastern brown baby with bushy hair, my hope in doing that is really to say to people who look like you and I that we belong, that we are part of his story, and that Jesus is not just someone for White people,” she added.
Brown Baby Jesus is Williamson’s take on the most significant event in Christian history: the nativity.
There is no shortage of children’s books about the Christmas story, and many of them follow a rigid timeline of events to highlight the significance of Jesus’ birth. Here, also, Williamson takes a different approach.
In Brown Baby Jesus, the bestselling author presents a fluid tale centered not just on the Christian savior, but that also highlights several diverse — and controversial — ancestors who made Jesus’ arrival possible. Set against vibrant illustrations reflecting his early life in Egypt, a young brown-skin Jesus is told by his parents that like Moses, he would also be a deliverer and like Rahab, save his people from destruction. The illustration of “Jesus’s family tree” includes Adam and Eve, who also appear Black.
The goal, according to the publisher, is to show “how God included many races and nations in the story we celebrate each year.”
Williamson has authored several children’s books, including Amazon’s noted “teacher’s pick,” Colorful and Crowned With Glory. Common themes in her books are self-love and diversity, often reflected through racially diverse characters.
In her interview with Faithfully Magazine, Williamson explained the inspiration for her work, including for her latest book, how she hopes to “agitate” some readers with a brown Jesus, and more.
A Conversation with Dorena Williamson
This transcript is an excerpt of a longer Q&A. It has been edited for brevity and clarity. Click the ➤ button in the player below to also listen to this interview.
