“As Martin Luther
King said, we must learn to live together as human beings, treating
each other with dignity and respect, or we will perish together as
fools. There is no other choice. I choose life.”
James H. Cone is
widely recognized as the founder of Black Liberation Theology—a
synthesis of the Gospel message embodied by Martin Luther King, Jr.,
and the spirit of Black pride embodied by Malcolm X. Prompted by the
Detroit riots and the death of King, Cone, a young theology
professor, was impelled to write his first book, Black Theology and
Black Power, followed by A Black Theology of Liberation. With these
works he established himself as one of the most prophetic and
challenging voices of our time.
In this powerful and
passionate memoir—his final work—Cone describes the obstacles he
overcame to find his voice, to respond to the signs of the times, and
to offer a voice for those—like the parents who raised him in
Bearden, Arkansas in the era of lynching and Jim Crow—who had no
voice. Recounting lessons learned both from critics and students, and
the ongoing challenge of his models King, Malcolm X, and James
Baldwin, he describes his efforts to use theology as a tool in the
struggle against oppression and for a better world.
