Title:
Black Theology and Black Power
Author:
James H. Cone
Year of Publication:
1969
Thesis:
"Christianity is Black Power.' (ix) That is, Jesus sided with the most oppressed people in society, and therefore our interpretation of the Gospel needs to reflect that. In contrast, he notes, "The white missionaries sought to interpret hope in a way that made it unrelated to the present. They taught the slave that to hope means to look to heaven for a reward for being obedient to the master on earth. It meant accepting his present deplorable lot as a slave." (102)
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Preface to the 1989 Edition
Preface
Introduction
I - Toward a Constructive Definition of Black Power
- What is Black Power?
> "the only response to white racism." (5 - Carmichael)
>"It means complete emancipation of black people from white oppression by whatever means black people deem necessary." The methods may include selective buying, boycotting, marching, or even rebellion. Black Power means black freedom, black self-determination, wherein black people no longer view themselves as without human dignity but as men, human beings with the ability to carv out their own destiny. In short, as Stokely Carmichael would say, Black Power means T.C.B., Take Care of Business--Black folk taking care of black folks' business, not on the terms of the oppressor, but on those of the oppressed." (6)
- Black Power and Existential Absurdity
- Is Black Power a Form of Black Racism?
- Why Integration is not the Answer
- Issues - Integration doesn't happen on equal footing - must recognize and deal with history, fact of Blackness
Is There and Appropriate Response to White Racism?
- Is there an Appropriate Response to White Racism?
- How Does Black Power Relate to White Guilt?
- "When white do-gooders are confronted with the style of Black Power, realizing that black people really place them in the same category with the George Wallaces, they react defensively, saying, "It's not my fault" or "I am not responsible." Sometimes they continue by suggesting that their town (because of their unselfish involvement in civil rights) is better or less racist than others." (23)
- Continues to discuss the fallacy of this position
- White people are responsible for racism, and there are no excuses for inaction - quote from Karl Jaspers on responsibility:
"There exists among men, because they are men, a solidarity which each shares responsibility for every injustice and every wrong committed in the world, and especially for crimes that are committed in his presence or of which he cannot be ignorant. If I do not do whatever I can to prevent them, I am an accomplice in htem. If I have not risked my life in order to prevent the murder of other men, if I have stood siletn, I feel guilty in a sense that cannot in any adequate fashion be undesrtood juridically, or politically, or morally..that I am still alive after things have been doen wieght on me as a guilt that cannot be expiated." (24)
- Black Power and the White Liberal?
- Black Power: Hope or Despair?
II - The Gospel of Jesus, Black People, and Black Power
- What is the Gospel of Jesus?
- Christ, Black Power, and Freedom?
- The Righteousness of God and Black Power
- Christian Love and Black Power
- The Holy Spirit and Black Power
III - The White Church and Black Power
- What is the Church?
- The White Church and Black Power?
- Black Power and American Theology
IV - The Black Church and Black Power
- The Black Church Before the Civil War
- The Post-Civil War Black Church
V - Some Perspectives of Black Theology
- On Black Suffering
- On Religious Authority
- On Eschatology
- On the Creation of New Values
VI - Revolution, Violence, and Reconciliation in Black
- Theology
- Revolution
- Violence
- Reconciliation
- Notes
- Index
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Quotes:
"But insofar as racism is still found in the churches and in society, theologians and preachers of the Christian gospel must make it unquestionably clear that the God of Moses and of Jeses makes an unqualified solidarity with the victims, empowering them to fight against injustice." (ix)
On sexism
"But I decided to let the language remain unchanged as a reminder of how sexist I once was and also that I might be encouraged never to forget it. It is easy to change the language of oppression without changing the sociopolitical situation of its victims. I know existentially what this means from the vantage point of racism. Whites have learned how to use less offensive language, but they have not changed the power relations between blacks and whites in the society. Because of the process of changing their language, combined with the token presence of middle-class African-Americans in their institutions, it is now even more difficult to define the racist behavior of whites." (x)
On Black Power
"If whites do not get off the backs of blacks ,they must expect that blacks will literally throw them off by whatever means are at their disposal. that is the meaning of Black Power." (22)
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