James H. Cone Short Quotes

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Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love.

James H. Cone
Any theology that is indifferent to the theme of liberation is not Christian theology.

James H. Cone
To be Christian is to be one of those whom God has chosen. God has chosen black people!

James H. Cone
The acid test of any truth is found in whether it aids victims in their struggle to overcome victimisation.

James H. Cone
Any talk about God that fails to make God's liberation of the oppressed its starting point is not Christian.

James H. Cone
'People should love each other' sounds like Riis Park at sundown. It has very little meaning to the world at large.

James H. Cone
The Christian does not decide between violence and nonviolence, evil and good. He decides between the less and the greater evil.

James H. Cone
Black Power seeks not understanding but conflict; addresses blacks and not whites; seeks to develop black support, but not white good will.

James H. Cone
Being black in America has little to do with skin color. Being black means that your heart, your soul, your mind, and your body are where the dispossessed are.

James H. Cone
Therefore, simply to say that Jesus did not use violence is no evidence relevant to the condition of black people as they decide on what to do about white oppression.

James H. Cone
By becoming poor and entrusting divine revelation to a carpenter from Nazareth, God makes clear where one has to be in order to hear the divine word and experience divine presence.

James H. Cone
If the church... does not make God's liberation of the oppressed central in its mission and proclamation, how can it rest easy with a condemned criminal as the dominant symbol of its message?

James H. Cone
The revolution which Black Theology advocates … [means] confronting white racists and saying: 'If it's a fight you want, I am prepared to oblige you.' This is what the black revolution means.

James H. Cone
We cannot solve ethical questions of the twentieth century by looking at what Jesus did in the first. Our choices are not the same as his. Being Christians does not mean following 'in his steps.'

James H. Cone
Testimony is an integral part of the Black religious tradition. It is the occasion where the believer stands before the community of faith in order to give account of the hope that is in him or her.

James H. Cone