2 days ago
St Augustine portrayed as black in children's book
St Augustine has been pictured as a black man in a children's book written by Church of England officials.
The 4th-century saint, one of the most revered and influential figures in the history of Christianity, has been included in a new book called Heroes of Hope, which features illustrations that show him as a black man.
This book seeks to inspire children with examples of 'Black and brown saints, often erased and whitewashed from history, who formed the church and therefore modern society as we know it today'.
Aurelius Augustinus was born in 345 in a Mediterranean coastal town now in Algeria, and went on to become bishop of the North African settlement of Hippo.
At this time, the area was a Roman province, although Augustine and his mother Saint Monica may have had North African Berber origins.
While this would not make him black, there have been efforts to apply this identity to Augustine, including at the Catholic University of Villanova in Pennsylvania, and art has been commissioned to reflect this.
A leading official at the university wrote in 2023 that it was important to depict the saint as black because 'depicting St. Augustine as a Black man actively decentres whiteness'.
Heroes of Hope was co-written by The Rev Dr Sharon Prentis, the deputy director of the Church of England's racial justice unit.
The unit was set up in 2022, in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests, to accomplish the Church's commitments to achieving racial justice.
Dr Prentis's co-author was Alysia-Lara Ayonrinde, the Church's national education lead for racial justice.
The Church's work on on racial justice has included efforts to make Christian artwork more diverse, while clergy have declared that 'God is not a white man' and worked to make images of Jesus more diverse.
One diocese has moved to 'correct images' in the interests of more diverse racial representation.
The Church has also sought to push racial justice in its affiliated schools, including by ensuring 'theological concepts drive curriculum design… in a way that promotes equity and racial justice'.
There have also been commitments to ensure school leaders are 'more representative of the racial diversity in modern Britain', provide anti-racist assembly material, and establish a 'Racial Justice Sunday' in February of each year.
Heroes of Hope covers the lives of figures beyond Augustine including the ancient African Saint Maurice, known as 'Black Moses' and revered in Eastern Orthodoxy.
The book is being published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, the biggest independent Christian publisher in the UK.
The introduction to the book tells readers: 'Get ready to be inspired by the amazing stories of these 22 individuals who have left a lasting impact on the world. We hope their stories ignite a spark within you to make a difference, whether big or small.'
It is understood the Church of England will have a limited number of free copies to distribute to school.
In 2024, the Church hired a £36,000-a-year 'deconstructing whiteness' officer to combat racial injustice, and it has sought to address monuments and artworks linked to the slave trade.
There have also been promises to provide reparations for Church involvement in slavery, although the extent to which it profited from the trade has been fiercely debated.
Meanwhile, there are also growing secular efforts to provide more diverse histories.
A 2023 illustrated children's book entitled Brilliant Black British History, by Atinuke, a Nigerian-born British author, claimed that 'the very first Britons were black' and that Stonehenge was built while Britain was 'a black country'.
Several organisations, including the London Museum, have claimed that Roman emperor Lucius Septimius Severus was part of 'Black History', despite him not being black.
