James Hal Cone Book Report

865 Words4 Pages

James Hal Cone (born August 5, 1938) is an American theologian, best known for his advocacy of Black theology and Black Liberation Theology. Cone was born in Fordyce, Arkansas and grew up in Bearden, Arkansas. Cone received his call to the ministry and became a pastor at age sixteen in 1954. He and his family attended Macedonia African Methodist Episcopal Church. He received a B.A. degree from Philander Smith College in Arkansas in 1958, a B.D. degree from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in 1961, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Northwestern University 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 in New York City, where he was awarded the distinguished Charles A. Briggs Chair in systematic theology in 1977. He taught theology and religion at Philander Smith College, Adrian College in Michigan, and beginning in 1970 at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, where he was awarded the distinguished Charles A. Briggs Chair in systematic theology in 1977. The thesis of this book is that one's social and historical context decides not only the questions 2 we address to God but also the mode or form of the …show more content…

His blackness is literal in the sense that he truly becomes one with the oppressed blacks, taking their suffering as he suffering and revealing that he is found in the history of our struggle, the story of our pain, and the rhythm of our bodies. Jesus is found in the sociological context that gave birth to Aretha Franklin singing “Spirit in the Dark” and Roberta Flack proclaiming that “I told Jesus that it will be all right if he changed my name.” Christ's blackness is the American expression of the truth of his parable about the Last Judgment: “Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me” (Matt.

Open Document