The Yes and No of God’s Providence: James H. Cone’s Paradoxical Relationship to the Theology of Karl Barth

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper explores James H. Cone’s paradoxical relationship to the theology of Karl Barth through a case study on their respective accounts of providence. It suggests that Cone’s ambivalence about efforts to relate his theological project to that of Karl Barth resonates with Barth’s hopes for how future generations of Christian theologians would engage with his theology. Barth feared that the reception of his theology would devolve into an insular, scholastic conversation about his ideas, influence, and legacy, and Cone experienced his formal theological education as a realization of those fears. Their mutual disdain for questions of Barth’s theological legacy and influence and their shared conviction that theology ought to engage with its social and political contexts offer a framework for a new assessment of the relationship between their theological projects. An examination of their respective theologies of providence offers a suggestive case study of the paradoxical connection between them.