James H. Cone (1938–2018)

he cross and the lynching tree are the two most emotionally charged symbols in the history of the African American community. In this powerful new work, theologian James H. Cone explores these symbols and their interconnection in the history and souls of black folk. Both the cross and the lynching tree represent the worst in human beings and at the same time a thirst for life that refuses to let the worst determine our final meaning. While the lynching tree symbolized white power and black death, the cross symbolizes divine power and black life God overcoming the power of sin and death. For African Americans, the image of Jesus, hung on a tree to die, powerfully grounded their faith that God was with them, even in the suffering of the lynching era. - from the publisher… (lisätietoja)

In his conclusion, Dr. Cone writes that the 'lynching tree frees the cross from the pieties of well-meaning Christians.' Reading The Cross & The Lynching Tree requires an inversion of logic, one that requires seeing Christ's teaching that 'he who will save his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for (His) sake will find it.' The Cross, like the lynching tree, was an instrument of terror designed to cow an oppressed people into submission and living with its reality liberates people from being silenced by the fear of it. Cone's teaching is a tremendous work of both scholarship and heartfelt preaching.… (lisätietoja)