Theology and Power in the Work of James H. Cone

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ADMAfrican-American Religion Roberts29 April 1995

Theology and Power in the Work of James H. Cone

In his

Black Theology and Black Power,

James H. Cone reconciles the two phenomena of his title inan effort to reveal the political force Christianity. For too long, he argues, African-Americanshave struggled under the belief that Christianity is removed from their battle to attain politicalfreedom, and that the only liberation religion will help them achieve is in the after-life.According to Cone, Black Theology is the key to unleashing Black Power; the two together arethe keys to a true liberation, in which the black man acquires freedom on his own terms and atthe same time achieves a sense of self-worth. The path from Black Power to liberation is anarduous one, filled with many philosophical, spiritual, political, and even physical hardships, but Cone is convinced that the completion of the path is not impossible—indeed, it may beinevitable. Cone’s argument in

Black Theology and Black Power

traces the path fromslavery/racism to this true liberation, and along the way explains difficult, controversial issuesthat have inflamed and alienated black and white religionists alike, and refutes opposingviewpoints regarding a variety of issues, from the role of love to the use of violence in the strug-gle for liberation. These two issues, like Black Theology and Black Power, commingle in Cone’sexposition, as one becomes an expression of the other. Cone’s work, as much a call to action as atheological treatise, proposes a program of politicized Christianity that is, fundamentally, arevolt.Cone begins his discussion of the Christian way to liberation by considering the defini-tion of the term “Black Power.” He is careful to avoid abstractions in his definition, realizingthat the philosophical problems Black Power poses have real-world incarnations. He notes thatBlack Power is an intriguing philosophical topic precisely because of its concrete implications

outside of the academy. “The ability to probe for deeper meanings of words as they relate tovarious manifestations of reality is what makes the intellectual pursuit worthwhile” (Cone 1969,6), he writes, introducing the theme of abstraction and reality which permeates both his bookand the debate on Black Christianity. His straight-forward approach to the complicated issue of Black Power anticipates the clear-mindedness with which Cone handles even the most explosiveproblems of racism in 1960s America, and serves as a foundation on which he is able to build anintricate opinion on Black religiosity. By beginning his work with a clear definition of his terms,Cone immediately establishes a common ground, a place even his opponents can agree withhim, at least initially. Section names in chapters have provocative but clear names like “What isBlack Power?”, “What is the Gospel of Jesus?” and “What is the Church?” But even in hisconcise definitions, particularly in the one of Black Power, there is an assertion of independence,as though the ability to define one’s own terms were, in itself, a statement or manifestation of liberation. It is a control over language, a control which Cone believes has been in the hands of whites for too long. The definition also harbors an insistent claim of black self-determination. ForCone, Black Power means “

complete emancipation of black people from white oppression by whatevermeans black people deem necessary

” (Emphasis Cone’s. Cone 1969, 6). Cone implies that blacks willdecide the meaning of black power on both semantic and real-world levels. In other words, themanifestation of Black Power in language and action will be determined by blacks, and blackalone. He reaffirms this determination immediately after supplying his definition, bringing intothe discussion the notion of liberation not just from oppressive whites, but from the inaccurateimage some blacks had of themselves. “Black Power means black freedom, black self determination, wherein black people no longer view themselves as without human dignity butas men, human beings with the ability to carve out their own destiny.” Cone’s mention of “human dignity” recalls centuries of whites denying blacks

manhood,

and the consequent blackliterature demanding recognition of equality. “For three hundred years [blacks] have cried,waited, voted, marched, picketed, and boycotted, but whites still refuse to recognize theirhumanity” Cone writes, acknowledging the tradition of which he is a part. Blending this

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demand with the religious realm figures Cone as the inheritor of David Walker, who nearly ahundred-fifty years earlier attacked the white church with equal scorn, and hinted at a solutionthrough the blending of religious and political spheres. Walker’s legacy is active in

BlackTheology and Black Power

, and it is the blood of men like Walker that seems to inspire every one of Cone’s words.Also flourishing in Cone’s text is the work of certain white Christian theologians such asPaul Tillich, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and (especially) Karl Barth, as well as atheist-existentialists like Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, and even (without being mentioned explicitly) MartinBuber. That Cone had the courage and the open-mind to apply these white theological notionsto a radical black philosophy speaks to his conviction that the black man will determine whichportions of the white discourse to accept and which to reject. As with the use of definition of Black Power, Cone’s language is, in itself, an instance of liberation, a moment in which Coneexercises the very self-determination he advocates for other blacks. The two most significantideas Cone in part drew from the above thinkers are existentialism and Christian-based politicalactivism. Although black theologians ranging from Gayraud Wilmore to Cecil Cone, theauthor’s brother, would eventually criticize Cone for using white thinkers in his theologicalarguments (Cone 1982, 60), Cone’s application of the white men’s work served to bolster hispostulation that oppressed populations everywhere can follow Christian doctrine whileliberating themselves, that being Christian mandates self-liberation. While emphasizing that itdoes not matter what whites thought of his work, he includes those without black skin in hisaudience, maintaining that to be black means that “your heart, your soul, your mind, and your body are where the dispossessed are” (Cone 1969, 151). As such, thinkers like Barth, WilliamSloane Coffin, Jr., and Camus strive for (or are themselves) the dispossessed, and are therefore fitto be included among his sources. Bonhoeffer, for example, was himself lynched by the Nazis(Jones and Wilson 1987, 469). The white thinkers from whom Cone drew some inspiration hadthe First and Second World Wars to inspire their thoughts on existentialism and activism, so it isno wonder that the work of these men was grounded in the terrible reality which faced them.

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