James H. Cone
1936–2018
Founder of academic Black theology in the United States, arguing that Christian claims must be tested against God's liberation of people oppressed by racism.
Life and Historical Setting
Cone grew up in the Jim Crow South, was formed in the AME Church, and taught for decades at Union Theological Seminary. The Black freedom struggle and Black Power movement drove his challenge to white American theology.
Work and Contribution
He argued that God's revelation in Jesus identifies with the oppressed and that theology indifferent to racial domination falsifies the gospel. His later work placed the cross beside the history of lynching.
Reception and Influence
Cone created a field, influenced liberation theologies globally, and forced seminaries to confront racial location. Womanist theologians and others also criticized male-centered and insufficiently intersectional aspects of his early work.
Evidence, Debate, and Interpretation
His provocative use of “blackness” and “whiteness” is theological and political as well as descriptive, and changed across his career. Reading isolated early formulas without later development distorts his project.
Known For
- Black Theology
- The Cross and the Lynching Tree
- Liberation
Key Works
Influenced By
Influenced
Conversations
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