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A review by jarreloliveira
Said I Wasn't Gonna Tell Nobody: The Making of a Black Theologian by James H. Cone
5.0
When theologians spend their academic lives discussing the benevolent grandiosity of God, his words, his qualities, his sovereign will, and nature, but the same thinkers fail to confront the realities of their times, namely, the plight of African Americans, we can safely assume these erudite thinkers are simply using theology to avoid the unfortunate circumstances of their anthropology.
I commend the late, great, Professor James H. Cone for being courageous enough to write The Cross and The Lynching Tree, for continuing his academic work, for being a scholar and paving the way for many others to follow in suit, further building upon black liberation theology and condemn white evangelical racism and racist theology for what it was - sin.
His understanding of Malcolm X's anger and appreciation for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.s's led him to a developmental stalemate. He was unsure of how to better his theology without capitulating to one extreme or being accused of cowardice if he took the other. Professor Cone was enamored by King's distinguished drive in the path of non-violence and immediate change. He looked up to King's effort to hail the cross of Christ as the pinnacle of black endurance through suffering, pain, and terror. He read through King's speeches where the Civil Rights maverick condemned white supremacy, systemic racism, and white moderates who talked much and did little, and sustained the status quo and hegemony. Professor Cone was enraged when King was assassinated and his bend toward non-violence all but faded, temptation luring him toward X's rhetoric and the Nation of Islam's separatist invective.
Unsure of which path to take, he found refuge and solace in the works and life of the enigmatic and wordsmith author and speaker, James Baldwin.
Baldwin not only appreciated King's non-violence, but he also welcomed X's rage. Baldwin put to words and brought to life that which burned most in the black intellect and the black lived experience in America. He called whites evildoers and evil, he called for a distancing from Christianity because it no longer persisted of Christians but of men and women who lynched black bodies behind church buildings.
James H. Cone found in the author James Baldwin a quintessential hero. The perfect mix between the anger-filled X and the non-violence-focused King.
Professor Cone's theological, social, and moral formation involved the works of Christian thinkers but also non-Christian spiritual giants, namely, Howard Thurman who penned the inimitable book, Jesus and the Disinherited.
It was a relief to take in this professor's formation, knowing and understanding that theologians have to grapple not only with the beauty of who God is and what God has accomplished, but also, who God is doing all those things for.
I am now very suspicious of ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ who speak plainly and loudly about Jesus but are mute concerning Jesus's followers - those who suffer at the hands of other Christians.
Much appreciated book and I hope others make time for its content and the Holy Spirit that lived then is still working in us today, pushing us to further liberate our theology from ethnocentric patterns and arrogance.
I pray it's not too late.
I commend the late, great, Professor James H. Cone for being courageous enough to write The Cross and The Lynching Tree, for continuing his academic work, for being a scholar and paving the way for many others to follow in suit, further building upon black liberation theology and condemn white evangelical racism and racist theology for what it was - sin.
His understanding of Malcolm X's anger and appreciation for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.s's led him to a developmental stalemate. He was unsure of how to better his theology without capitulating to one extreme or being accused of cowardice if he took the other. Professor Cone was enamored by King's distinguished drive in the path of non-violence and immediate change. He looked up to King's effort to hail the cross of Christ as the pinnacle of black endurance through suffering, pain, and terror. He read through King's speeches where the Civil Rights maverick condemned white supremacy, systemic racism, and white moderates who talked much and did little, and sustained the status quo and hegemony. Professor Cone was enraged when King was assassinated and his bend toward non-violence all but faded, temptation luring him toward X's rhetoric and the Nation of Islam's separatist invective.
Unsure of which path to take, he found refuge and solace in the works and life of the enigmatic and wordsmith author and speaker, James Baldwin.
Baldwin not only appreciated King's non-violence, but he also welcomed X's rage. Baldwin put to words and brought to life that which burned most in the black intellect and the black lived experience in America. He called whites evildoers and evil, he called for a distancing from Christianity because it no longer persisted of Christians but of men and women who lynched black bodies behind church buildings.
James H. Cone found in the author James Baldwin a quintessential hero. The perfect mix between the anger-filled X and the non-violence-focused King.
Professor Cone's theological, social, and moral formation involved the works of Christian thinkers but also non-Christian spiritual giants, namely, Howard Thurman who penned the inimitable book, Jesus and the Disinherited.
It was a relief to take in this professor's formation, knowing and understanding that theologians have to grapple not only with the beauty of who God is and what God has accomplished, but also, who God is doing all those things for.
I am now very suspicious of ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ who speak plainly and loudly about Jesus but are mute concerning Jesus's followers - those who suffer at the hands of other Christians.
Much appreciated book and I hope others make time for its content and the Holy Spirit that lived then is still working in us today, pushing us to further liberate our theology from ethnocentric patterns and arrogance.
I pray it's not too late.