James Hal Cone
Encyclopedia
James Hal Cone is an advocate of Black liberation theology
Black liberation theology
Black liberation theology, sometimes shortened to black theology, is a relatively new theological perspective found in some Christian churches in the United States. It maintains that African Americans must be liberated from multiple forms of bondage — political, social, economic, and religious...

, a theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...

 grounded in the experience of African Americans, and related to other Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 liberation theologies
Liberation theology
Liberation theology is a Christian movement in political theology which interprets the teachings of Jesus Christ in terms of a liberation from unjust economic, political, or social conditions...

. In 1969, his book Black Theology and Black Power provided a new way to articulate the distinctiveness of theology in the black Church. James Cone’s work was influential and political from the time of his first publication, and he remains so today. His work has been both utilized and critiqued inside and outside of the African American theological community.

He is currently the Charles Augustus Briggs
Charles Augustus Briggs
Charles Augustus Briggs , American Presbyterian scholar and theologian, was born in New York City, the son of Alanson Briggs and Sarah Mead Berrian...

 Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York
Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York
Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York is a preeminent independent graduate school of theology, located in Manhattan between Claremont Avenue and Broadway, 120th to 122nd Streets. The seminary was founded in 1836 under the Presbyterian Church, and is affiliated with nearby Columbia...

.

Background

Cone was born in Fordyce, Arkansas
Fordyce, Arkansas
Fordyce is a city in Dallas County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 4,799 at the 2000 census.The city is the county seat, home to the 1911 Dallas County Courthouse .-Geography:...

 and grew up in Bearden, Arkansas
Bearden, Arkansas
Bearden is a city in Ouachita County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 1,125 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Camden Micropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Bearden is located at ....

. He and his family attended Macedonia African Methodist Episcopal Church
African Methodist Episcopal Church
The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the A.M.E. Church, is a predominantly African American Methodist denomination based in the United States. It was founded by the Rev. Richard Allen in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1816 from several black Methodist congregations in the...

. He received a B.A. degree from Philander Smith College
Philander Smith College
Philander Smith College is a private, historically black college that is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. It is located in Little Rock, Arkansas. The student body averages around 850 attendees, with around 30% of that figure attending part time. Although known historically as a school...

 in Arkansas in 1958, a B.D. degree from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
Garrett–Evangelical Theological Seminary is a graduate school of theology of the United Methodist Church located in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1853, Garrett-Evangelical is on the campus of Northwestern University and continues many associations with the university...

 in 1961, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....

 in 1963 and 1965, respectively. He taught theology and religion at Philander Smith College, Adrian College in Michigan, and beginning in 1970 at Union Theological Seminary
Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York
Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York is a preeminent independent graduate school of theology, located in Manhattan between Claremont Avenue and Broadway, 120th to 122nd Streets. The seminary was founded in 1836 under the Presbyterian Church, and is affiliated with nearby Columbia...

 in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, where he was awarded the distinguished Charles A. Briggs Chair in systematic theology
Systematic theology
In the context of Christianity, systematic theology is a discipline of Christian theology that attempts to formulate an orderly, rational, and coherent account of the Christian faith and beliefs...

 in 1977.

Hermeneutics

The hermeneutic, or interpretive lens, for James Cone's theology starts with the experience of African Americans, and the theological questions he brings from his own life. He incorporates the powerful role of the black Church in his life, as well as racism experienced by African Americans. For Cone, the theologians he studied in graduate school did not provide meaningful answers to his questions. This disparity became more apparent when he was teaching theology at Philander Smith College
Philander Smith College
Philander Smith College is a private, historically black college that is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. It is located in Little Rock, Arkansas. The student body averages around 850 attendees, with around 30% of that figure attending part time. Although known historically as a school...

 in Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...

. Cone writes, “What could Karl Barth
Karl Barth
Karl Barth was a Swiss Reformed theologian whom critics hold to be among the most important Christian thinkers of the 20th century; Pope Pius XII described him as the most important theologian since Thomas Aquinas...

 possibly mean for black students who had come from the cotton fields of Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...

, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

 and Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...

, seeking to change the structure of their lives in a society that had defined black as non-being?”

Cone's theology also received significant inspiration from a frustration with the Black struggle for civil rights; he felt that Black Christians in North America should not follow the "white Church", on the grounds that it was a willing part of the system that had oppressed black people. Accordingly, his theology was heavily influenced by Malcolm X
Malcolm X
Malcolm X , born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz , was an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its...

 and the Black Power
Black Power
Black Power is a political slogan and a name for various associated ideologies. It is used in the movement among people of Black African descent throughout the world, though primarily by African Americans in the United States...

 movement. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...

 was also an important influence; Cone describes King as a liberation theologian avant la lettre.

Methodology

His methodology for answering the questions raised by the African American Experience is a return to Scripture, and particularly to the liberative elements such as the Exodus
The Exodus
The Exodus is the story of the departure of the Israelites from ancient Egypt described in the Hebrew Bible.Narrowly defined, the term refers only to the departure from Egypt described in the Book of Exodus; more widely, it takes in the subsequent law-givings and wanderings in the wilderness...

-Sinai tradition and the life of Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

. However, Scripture is not the only source which shapes his theology. In response to criticism from other black theologians (including his brother, Cecil), Cone began to make greater use of resources native to the African American Christian community for his theological work, including slave spirituals, the blues, and the writings of prominent African American thinkers like David Walker
David Walker (abolitionist)
David Walker was an outspoken African American activist who demanded the immediate end of slavery in the new nation...

, Henry McNeal Turner
Henry McNeal Turner
Henry McNeal Turner was a bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.-Personal Biography:Turner was born "free" in Newberry Courthouse, South Carolina . Instead of being sold into slavery, his family sent him to live with a Quaker family. The law at the time of his birth prevented a black...

, and W. E. B. Du Bois. His theology developed further in response to critiques by black women, leading Cone to consider gender issues more prominently and foster the development of womanist theology, and also in dialogue with Marxist analysis and the sociology of knowledge.

Contextual theology

Cone's thought, along with Paul Tillich
Paul Tillich
Paul Johannes Tillich was a German-American theologian and Christian existentialist philosopher. Tillich was one of the most influential Protestant theologians of the 20th century...

, stresses the idea that theology is not universal, but tied to specific historical contexts; he thus critiques the Western tradition of abstract theologizing by examining its social context. Cone formulates a theology of liberation from within the context of the Black experience of oppression, interpreting the central kernel of the Gospels as Jesus' identification with the poor and oppressed, the resurrection as the ultimate act of liberation.

As part of his theological analysis, Cone argues for God's own identification with "blackness":
The black theologian must reject any conception of God which stifles black self-determination by picturing God as a God of all peoples. Either God is identified with the oppressed to the point that their experience becomes God's experience, or God is a God of racism.... The blackness of God means that God has made the oppressed condition God's own condition. This is the essence of the Biblical revelation. By electing Israelite slaves as the people of God and by becoming the Oppressed One in Jesus Christ, the human race is made to understand that God is known where human beings experience humiliation and suffering...Liberation is not an afterthought, but the very essence of divine activity. (A Black Theology of Liberation, pp. 63-64)


Despite his associations with the Black Power movement, however, Cone was not entirely focused on ethnicity: "Being black in America has little to do with skin color. Being black means that your heart, your soul, your mind, and your body are where the dispossessed are." (Black Theology and Black Power, p. 151)

In 1977, Cone wrote, with a still more universal vision:
I think the time has come for black theologians and black church people to move beyond a mere reaction to white racism in America and begin to extend our vision of a new socially constructed humanity in the whole inhabited world...For humanity is whole, and cannot be isolated into racial and national groups.


In his 1998 essay "White Theology Revisited," however, he retains his earlier strong critique of the White church and white man for ignoring or failing to address the problem of race.

Early influences

Cone wrote his doctoral thesis on Karl Barth
Karl Barth
Karl Barth was a Swiss Reformed theologian whom critics hold to be among the most important Christian thinkers of the 20th century; Pope Pius XII described him as the most important theologian since Thomas Aquinas...

. His early books (Black Theology and Black Power and A Black Theology of Liberation) draw heavily on mainstream Protestant theologians such as Barth and Paul Tillich
Paul Tillich
Paul Johannes Tillich was a German-American theologian and Christian existentialist philosopher. Tillich was one of the most influential Protestant theologians of the 20th century...

.

Critique

Theologians, such as Delores Williams, have critiqued James Cone for both male-centered language and for not including the experiences of black women in his sources. Williams, in 1993, acknowledged in a footnote in her book Sisters in the Wilderness, that Cone has modified exclusive language for the reprinting of his works and acknowledged the issues with the previous language. However, she argues that he still does not use the experiences of African-American women in his method, and therefore still needs to deal with the sexism of his work.

Other scholarly critiques

Other critique of Cone's theological positions has focused on the need to rely more heavily on sources reflecting black experience in general, on Cone's lack of emphasis on reconciliation within the context of liberation, and on his ideas of God and theodicy
Theodicy
Theodicy is a theological and philosophical study which attempts to prove God's intrinsic or foundational nature of omnibenevolence , omniscience , and omnipotence . Theodicy is usually concerned with the God of the Abrahamic religions Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, due to the relevant...

.

Political commentary and controversy

Aspects of Cone's theology and words for some people have been the subject of controversy in the political context of the 2008 Presidential campaign
United States presidential election, 2008
The United States presidential election of 2008 was the 56th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on November 4, 2008. Democrat Barack Obama, then the junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican John McCain, the senior U.S. Senator from Arizona. Obama received 365...

 as Reverend Jeremiah Wright
Jeremiah Wright
Jeremiah Alvesta Wright, Jr. is Pastor Emeritus of Trinity United Church of Christ , a megachurch in Chicago exceeding 6,000 members...

, at that time pastor of then-candidate Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...

, noted that he had been inspired by Cone's theology.

Some scholars of black theology noted that controversial quotes by Rev. Wright may not necessarily represent black theology. James Cone responded to these alleged controversial comments by noting that he was generally writing about historic white churches and denominations that did nothing to oppose slavery and segregation rather than any white individual.

Hoover Institute fellow Stanley Kurtz
Stanley Kurtz
Stanley Kurtz is an American social commentator who identifies with the conservative movement.-Career and works:He is a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a former Adjunct fellow with Hudson Institute, with a special interest in America's "culture wars." Kurtz writings on the...

, in a political commentary in National Review
National Review
National Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...

, wrote that
Cone defines it as "complete emancipation of black people from white oppression by whatever means black people deem necessary." For Cone, the deeply racist structure of American society leaves blacks with no alternative but radical transformation or social withdrawal. So-called Christianity, as commonly practiced in the United States, is actually the racist Antichrist. "Theologically," Cone affirms, "Malcolm X was not far wrong when he called the white man 'the devil.'" The false Christianity of the white-devil oppressor must be replaced by an authentic Christianity fully identified with the poor and oppressed.

Works

  • Black Theology and Black Power (1969, ISBN 1-57075-157-9)
  • A Black Theology of Liberation (1970, ISBN 0-88344-685-5)
  • The Spirituals and the Blues: An Interpretation (1972 ISBN 0-8164-2073-4)
  • God of the Oppressed (1975, ISBN 1-57075-158-7)
  • The Black church and Marxism: what do they have to say to each other New York : Institute for Democratic Socialism (1980)
  • For My People: Black Theology and the Black Church (Where Have We Been and Where Are We Going?) (1984, ISBN 0-88344-106-3)
  • Martin & Malcolm & America: A Dream or a Nightmare? (1992, ISBN 0-88344-824-6)
  • Speaking the Truth: Ecumenism, Liberation, and Black Theology (1999, ISBN 1-57075-241-9)
  • Risks of Faith: The Emergence of a Black Theology of Liberation, 1968-1998 (1999, ISBN 0-8070-0950-4)

External links

  • Biography at Union Theological Seminary
    Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York
    Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York is a preeminent independent graduate school of theology, located in Manhattan between Claremont Avenue and Broadway, 120th to 122nd Streets. The seminary was founded in 1836 under the Presbyterian Church, and is affiliated with nearby Columbia...

  • James Cone This Far By Faith at PBS
    Public Broadcasting Service
    The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....

  • James Cone, Bill Moyers' Journal
    Bill Moyers' Journal
    Bill Moyers Journal is an American television current affairs program that covered an array of current affairs and human issues, including but not limited to economics, history, literature, religion, philosophy, science, and most frequently politics...

     at PBS
    Public Broadcasting Service
    The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....

    , November 23, 2007
  • "A Black Theology of Liberation", Terry Matthews, Religion 166: Religion in the United States, Wake Forest University
    Wake Forest University
    Wake Forest University is a private, coeducational university in the U.S. state of North Carolina, founded in 1834. The university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina, the state capital. The Reynolda Campus, the university's main campus, is...

  • "Black Theology as Public Discourse", Noel Leo Erskine, Religion in Public Life, September 30, 1998
  • James Hal Cone Resources from UrbanMinistry.org

Further reading
  • James H. Cone and black liberation theology By Rufus Burrow, Published by McFarland
    McFarland & Company
    McFarland & Company, Inc. is a book publisher of primarily academic and adult nonfiction based in Jefferson, North Carolina. Its president and editor-in-chief is Robert Franklin, who began the enterprise in 1979...

    , 1994, ISBN 0786411465
  • Introducing Black Theology of Liberation By Dwight N. Hopkins, Published by Orbis Books
    Orbis Books
    Orbis Books, is an American imprint of the Maryknoll order, that has been a small but influential publisher of liberation theology works, founded by Nicaraguan Maryknoll priest Miguel D'Escoto with Philip J. Scharper in 1970. It was the first to publish Gustavo Gutiérrez's seminal work A Theology...

    , 1999, ISBN 1570752869
  • Black Faith and Public Talk By Dwight N. Hopkins, Published by Baylor University
    Baylor University
    Baylor University is a private, Christian university located in Waco, Texas. Founded in 1845, Baylor is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.-History:...

    Press, 2007, ISBN 1602580138
  • The Segregated Hour: A Layman's Guide to the History of Black Liberation Theology By Jeremy D. Lucas, Published by Wipf & Stock, 2009, ISBN 978-1606083963
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