James Cone Dies At 81, Was Father Of Black Liberation Theology

NEW YORK, NY – "The history of the black-white relations in this country from the Civil War to the present unmistakably shows that as a people, America has never intended for blacks to be free. To this day, in the eyes of most white Americans, the black man remains subhuman."

Those words, written by James Cone in his monumental work Black Theology & Black Power in 1969, sent shockwaves not just through the world of theology but through a country gripped by riots and demonstrations.

His words – intended to show people of color how the Gospels worked in their lives, lives where they were often met with oppression and worse – gave birth to the movement known as "Black Liberation Theology."

On Saturday, his death was announced by Union Theological Seminary in New York where he was the Bill & Judith Moyers Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology.

"James Cone was not just a professor," the school said. "He was a prophet — a theological giant who shook the foundations of Christianity, dragging us miles closer to justice.

"He showed the world that the gospel cannot be separated from the push for black freedom — that black liberation is God’s story."

Cone said that he wanted to "teach people how to be both unapologetically black and Christian at the same time."

He urged people to see Jesus not just as a concept but as a man tied to historical events.

"Jesus Christ is not a proposition which exists merely in our heads," he wrote. "He is an event of liberation, a happening in the lives of oppressed people struggling for political freedom."

In an introduction to the 1997 edition of his classic Black Theology & Black Power, he wrote, "I wanted to speak on behalf of the voiceless black masses in the name of Jesus, whose gospel I believed had been greatly distorted by the preaching theology of white churches."

Cone often cited Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. as major influences on his work and his thinking.

He has published 12 books and more than 150 articles. An ordained minister in the African Methodist Church, he lectured before universities, churches and community groups throughout the United States as well as in Europe, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.

His most recent book, The Cross and The Lynching Tree came out last year and was honored with the 2018 Grawemeyer Award in Religion from the University of Louisville and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

In the book, he wrote, "The crucifixion was clearly a first-century lynching. Both are symbols of the death of the innocent, mob hysteria, humiliation, and terror.

"They both also reveal a thirst for life that refuses to let the worst determine our final meaning and demonstrate that God can transform ugliness into beauty, into God’s liberating presence."

His death was mourned on social media by colleagues, former students and people who only knew him through his work.

"James Cone was the theological giant and genius in our midst! He was the greatest liberation theologian to emerge in the American empire," Professor Cornel West wrote. "He never ever sold out."

Cone was born on August 5, 1936 in Fordyce, Arkansas, and received degrees from Philander Smith College and Garrett Theological Seminary in that state before heading to Northwestern University where he received both a Masters and a Doctorate.

He had been teaching at Union Theological Seminary since 1969.

The school – which has set up a form on its website for people to contribute memories of Cone – said that he recently completed a memoir, Said I Wasn't Going To Tell Nobody, and it will be published later this year.

In the book, he says that "I write because writing is the way I fight. Teaching is the way I resist, doing what I can to subvert white supremacy."

Cone is survived by his sons Michael and Charles, daughters Robynn and Krystal, and two grandchildren, Jolei and Miles.

Photo courtesy Union Theological Seminary.