Symbolic Blackness and Ethnic Difference in Early Christian Literature (review)

In this moderate sized volume Byron aims to make a substantial contribution to our knowledge of early Christianity through a careful examination and interpretation of symbolic and ethnic language relating to blackness in general, to moral coding, and to the presentation of ethnic groups with black skin. In chapter 1 the author clarifies the direction in which she wishes to proceed by discussing some of the methodological issues involved in our understanding of symbolic and rhetorical language in the ancient world. In chapter 2 the author's discussion of the use of color coded language in the Greco-Roman world amply establishes the presence of at least some prejudice in the classical authors, and her engagement in the long standing debate among classicists and ancient historians with regard to attitudes to color and ethnicity is both interesting and helpful.

In the main second section of the book, Byron provides a competent exposition of the early Christians' use of symbolic blackness, of derived usages of the term "black," and of the ethnic designations "Egyptian" and "Ethiopian." She shows how ethnic designations such as "black" or "the black one" are used to describe sin or vice as well as to explicate issues related to sexual temptation and threats, and to define what is distant or different. She demonstrates how terms for blackness can function in a generally negative fashion by reference to sin or darkness and how in conjunction with ethnic (or sexual) identity they can involve explicitly degrading constructions. On the other hand, individuals identified as black or Ethiopian can also be positive indicators of the wide geographical extent of the gospel message and of its transforming power. Nonetheless, Byron sees the words "black" and blackness" largely as terms for the "other" within the Christian community, and in this way she shows that ethnic prejudice underlay the rhetorical symbolism which was used to define behavior or persons and to exalt the power of the community. She provides a number of striking texts in support of her argument as well as copious notes and an extensive bibliography.

While acknowledging the book's strengths, one must also note that after a rather diffuse introduction, the author's argument unfolds in slightly more than a hundred pages. This short scope is simply not enough for demonstrating her thesis, and repeatedly she states or implies conclusions which have not been established. One wonders whether she has taken into account the possibility that blackness as a moral and religious symbol may have primary reference not to skin or ethnicity but simply to physical darkness or to soiled items in daily experience. Also I looked in vain for any awareness that in order to properly understand the use of terms such as "Ethiopian" or "Egyptian," one should compare these with other national and ethnic descriptors such as "Scythian." Such an approach might help us see that some writers are really concerned with issues such as truth or purity and not just engaging in rhetorical or political power struggles.

A stonger sense of the different purposes and orientations of the literature under discussion would also have been helpful. I found it disconcerting to find the author moving rather widely in the patristic corpus without acknowledging the very different perspectives represented there, especially the mentality of the desert fathers. Can we consider them really representative of the community as a whole? Byron seems not to take into account the great shifts which occurred in early Christianity.

This is a somewhat useful and suggestive book, which is too undeveloped for undergraduate use, but might be quite helpful as a resource for graduate students or scholars interested in the topic. I found myself intrigued by the text, but because of its lack of fullness, I was not able to feel confident about the author's conclusions.