James Cone on the Cross and Resurrection as Transforming Power

Last updated on: October 28, 2015 at 2:44 pm by Kyle Roberts

James Cone on the Cross and Resurrection as Transforming Power 2015-10-28T14:44:37-05:00 Kyle Roberts

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

When I read James Cone’s God of the Oppressed eight or nine years ago, the significance of the contextuality of theology was deeply impressed upon me.

While I could not feel or know the power and passion of liberation theology from the perspective of one who was oppressed, I could feel the sting of critique against my own complicity in structures of oppression and my of my own ignorance in the ways that my

James Cone, image CC BY-SA 3.0

context blinded me to the severity and extent of oppression and marginalization–experienced by so many on the “outside” or “underside” of fundamental human rights, much less of society’s privileges.

To hear Cone say that “God is Black,” because God is on the side of the oppressed was a startling thing for me to hear. And yet it was necessary to awaken me from my blinders and my ignorance of the extent to which my own cultural/racial/socio-economic, etc. context shaped my own image of who God is (and of who God is not). I could not think of theology in the same light after that.

The following excerpt is from God of the Oppressed. This work, which followed both Black Theology and Black Power and A Black Theology of Liberation, stands as one of the most important books in contemporary theology–and may well go down as one of the most important books in the history theology, period.

In this section, Cone is addressing the “centrality of the New Testament’s emphasis on God’s liberation of the poor,” as a way of threading a line of continuity through the whole Bible, Old and New Testaments. And yet, with that continuity of emphasis, there was still a difference.

Cone sources the distinction in the person of Christ and the cross and resurrection; the distinction is a “new element,” of divine freedom breaking into history and also transcending it. In the Incarnation of God in Christ, divine freedom is made available for transformation, but a kind of freedom and transformation which is “not dependent on sociopolitical limitations..” He writes:

The cross and resurrection of Jesus stand at the center of the New Testament story, without which nothing is revealed that was not already known in the Old Testament. In the light of Jesus’ death and resurrection, his earthly life achieves a radical significance not otherwise possible. The cross-resurrection events mean that we now know that Jesus’ ministry with the poor and the wretched was God effecting the divine will to liberate the oppressed. The Jesus story is the poor person’s story, because God in Christ becomes poor and weak in order that the oppressed might become liberated from poverty and powerlessness. God becomes the victim in their place and thus transforms the condition of slavery into the battleground for the struggle of freedom. This is what Christ’s resurrection means. The oppressed are freed for struggle, for battle in the pursuit of humanity.

Jesus was not simply a nice fellow who happened to like the poor. Rather his actions have their origin in God’s eternal being. They represent a new vision of divine freedom, climaxed with the cross and the resurrection, wherein God breaks into history for the liberation of slaves from societal oppression. Jesus’ actions represent God’s will not to let his creation be destroyed by non-creative powers. The cross and the resurrection show that freedom promised is now fully available in Jesus Christ. This is the essence of the New Testament story without which Christian theology is impossible (73-74).

Image Source

Uncategorized

black liberation theology

God of the Oppressed

James Cone

resurrection

Previous Post

October 27, 2015

Dear Pastor: Don't Peddle Certainty, Offer Passion Instead

Next Post

October 30, 2015 Haunted by Caputo (and the "Specter")

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month December 2020 November 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 December 2018 July 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz