Looking Back at the Evolution of James Cone’s Theological Anthropology: A Brief Commentary

Sekhmet Ra Em Kht Maat

doi:10.3390/rel10110596

Abstract

Reverend Dr. James Hal Cone has unquestionably been a key architect in defining Black liberation theology. Trained in the Western theological tradition at Garrett Theological Seminary, Cone became an expert on the theology of Twentieth-century Swiss-German theologian Karl Barth. Cone’s study of Barth led to his 1965 doctoral dissertation, “The Doctrine of Man in the Theology of Karl Barth,” where he critically examined Barth’s Epistle to the Romans and Church Dogmatics. His contemporaries and more recent African American theologians and religious scholars have questioned the extent to which Karl Barth’s ideas shaped Cone’s Black theology. The purpose of this brief commentary is to review the major ideas in “The Doctrine of Man” and Black Theology and Black Power, his first book, to explore which theological concepts Cone borrows from Barth, if any, and how Cone utilizes them within his articulation of a Black theological anthropology and Black liberation theology.

Highlights

Black Power, his first book, to explore which theological concepts Cone borrows from Barth, if any, and how Cone utilizes them within his articulation of a Black theological anthropology and Black liberation theology
It is without question that ancestor Reverend Dr James Hal Cone has been one of the key architects in defining and shaping the Black liberation theological tradition
Methodist Episcopal bishop Henry McNeil Turner had already identified that a people’s creator must be a reflection of themselves, and the God of his people must be Black, Cone’s writings were one of the first academic texts to explore the relationship between the African American human condition and the working of God in the world, or in other words a Black theological anthropology (Carter 2014, pp.177–78; Cone 1984)

Summary

Introduction

It is without question that ancestor Reverend Dr James Hal Cone has been one of the key architects in defining and shaping the Black liberation theological tradition. In 1969, African American theologians Charles Long and Gayraud Wilmore, among others, were the first to question the extent to which Cone’s concepts in Black Theology and Black Power were borrowed from Barth, Paul Tillich, and other white theologians (Cone 1981). I come to this reflection, which began during a seminary course on Karl Barth, seeking to tease out the trajectory of Cone’s early theological ideas In doing so, this brief article examines how Cone’s “The Doctrine of Man” unpacks Barth’s theological anthropology, as written in the Epistle to the Romans and Church Dogmatics. This brief article examines how Cone’s “The Doctrine of Man” unpacks Barth’s theological anthropology, as written in the Epistle to the Romans and Church Dogmatics It outlines how Cone reconsiders, reframes, and reconstructs Barth’s ideas in Black Theology and Black Power. Cone strategically utilize Barth’s ideas in the development of a Black theological anthropology? Is

Cone on Barth

Moving beyond Barth’s “Doctrine of Man”

Cone and an African American-Centered Theological Anthropology

Conclusions