Abstract
Unlike some of his American colleagues, James Cone tended to distance Black Theology from Africanness in general and African Traditional Religions in particular. Throughout his life this tendency has evolved, but never disappeared altogether. This article sets out to achieve three goals. First, I give a historical account of Cone’s relationship with Africa, particularly with African religiosity, focusing on the criticism he received from his colleagues in the U.S. (notably Gayraud Wilmore, Cecil Cone and Charles Long). Second, I analyse the tension between the Christian and the African in Cone’s theological outlook by probing his notion of indigenization/Africanization among others. Third, I seek to interpret Cone’s binary view of Christianity and Africanness in the light of his chief locus of enunciation, namely Western Christianity (albeit contested). My attempt here is to lay foundations for an engagement with Cone’s attitude toward Africanness from the current South African (decolonial) perspective by considering it, first, within its original African American context.
Highlights
A number of authors have commented on James Cone’s links with Africa, and especially on his legacy in South African Black Theology [BT]
I give a historical account of Cone’s relationship with Africa, and especially with African religiosity, focusing on the criticism he received from his colleagues in the United StatesU.S
In the face of the critique that he received from his brother Cecil, as well as Gayraud Wilmore, Cone insisted that Jesus Christ was the final norm in his perspective on Black theology not because he
Summary
A number of authors have commented on James Cone’s links with Africa, and especially on his legacy in South African Black Theology [BT]. The negative aspect of this relationship has generally received less attention than the positive one. Unlike some of his American colleagues, Cone had a tendency to distance BT from Africanness in general and African Traditional Religions [ATR] in particular. Throughout his life, as his engagements with African theologians started shaping his theological outlook, this tendency has evolved, but never disappeared altogether. Cone’s ambivalent attitude towards Africanness raises questions about the relevance of his Western critique of the West to the decolonial project as it currently unfolds in South Africa among other places. My attempt is to lay foundations for an engagement with Cone’s attitude toward Africanness from the current South African (decolonial) perspective by considering it, first, within the African American context from which it had emerged
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