—Xavier Pickett is the Founder and President of Reformed Blacks of America, a Philadelphia based think tank, and a Ph.D. candidate in Religion & Society at Princeton Theological Seminary.
Carter begins the fourth chapter by situating James H. Cone’s groundbreaking theological work in the history of American theology. According to Carter, “Its groundbreaking nature lies in its attempt to uncover the theological significance and political promise of black faith and existence given the racist practices and dispositions of America and, indeed, of modernity” (157). The question “what makes white theology, in fact, white?” is the central concern in examining the theology of Cone. For Carter, “how this question is answered reveals the degree to which black theology as a mode of theological reflection adequately identifies what is aberrantly theological about the modern, Euro-American discourse of race and racial character. Additionally, it reveals the degree to which black theology offers a philosophical corrective to the problem of white theology” (158).
Cone’s significant theological corrective is that “the humanity that God of Israel assumes in Jesus of Nazareth is the location from which God secures and affirms all of creation in its historical unfoldings. Continue reading “Carter Book Event: Theologizing Race: James H. Cone, Liberation, and the Theological Meaning of Blackness (Chapter 4)”
