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The Story Context of Black Theology
By James H. Cone

"The theme of liberation expressed in story-form is the essence of black religion. Both the content and form were essentially determined by black people's social existence ... When Christianity was taught to them and they began to read the Bible, blacks simply appropriated those biblical stories that met their historical need. This is why some themes are stressed and others are overlooked ... They did not debate religion on an abstract theological level but lived their religion concretely in history. "

BECAUSE Christian theology is human speech about God, it is always related to historical situations, and thus all of its assertions are culturally limited. Although God, the subject of theology, is eternal, theology itself is-like those who articulate it limited by history and time. It is not universal language; it is interested language, always reflecting the values and aspirations of a particular people in a particular time and place. In North America it is evident that white theology was formed in accordance with the needs of a people dependent upon the slave labor of blacks. Therefore, despite certain variations, theological issues have been shaped in such a way that slavery and other structures of oppression could either be justified or else omitted altogether from the realm of moral discourse.

Like white American theology, black thought on Christianity has been influenced by its social context. But unlike white theologians, who spoke to and for the culture of the ruling class, black people's religious ideas were shaped by the cultural and political existence of the victims in North America. Unlike Europeans who immigrated to this land to escape from tyranny, Africans came in chains to serve a nation of tyrants. It was the slave-experience that shaped our idea of this land. And this difference in social existence between Europeans and Africans must be recognized if we are to understand correctly the contrast in the form and content of black and white theology.

James H. Cone is Professor of Theology, Union Theological Seminary, New York. He is the author of Black Theology and Black Power (1969), A Black Theology of Liberation (1970), The Spirituals and the Blues (1972). This present article comprises part of Dr. Cone's paper, "The Social Context of Theology," which was presented at the 1974 annual meeting of the American Theological Society. The full text is incorporated in a new book by Dr. Cone, God of the Oppressed, a Crossroad Book published by the Seabury Press.

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The form of black religious thought is expressed in the style of story, and its content is liberation. Black theology is the story of black people's struggle for liberation in an extreme situation of oppression. Consequently, there is no sharp distinction between thought and practice, worship and theology, because black theological reflections about God occurred in the black struggle of freedom.

White theologians built logical systems; black folks told tales. Whites debated the validity of infant baptism or the issue of predestination and free will; blacks recited biblical stories about God leading the Israelites from Egyptian bondage, Joshua and the battle of Jericho, and the Hebrew children in the fiery furnace. White theologians argued about the general status of religious assertions in view of the development of science generally and Darwin's Origin of Species in particular; blacks were more concerned about their status in American society and its relation to the biblical claim that Jesus came to set the captives free. White thought on the Christian view of salvation was largely "spiritual" and sometimes "rational," but usually separated from the concrete struggle of freedom in this world. Black thought was largely eschatological and never abstract but usually related to their struggle against earthly oppression.

I

The difference in the form of black and white religious thought is on the one hand sociological. Since blacks were slaves and had to work from sun-up to nightfall, they did not have time for the art of philosophical and theological discourse. They, therefore, did not know about the systems of Augustine, Calvin, or Edwards. And if Ernst Bloch is correct in his contention that "need is the mother of thought,"¹ then it can be said that black slaves did not need to know about Anselm's ontological argument, Descartes Cogito, ergo sum, and Kant's Ding an sich. Such were not their philosophical and theological problems as defined by their social reality. Blacks did not ask whether God existed or whether divine existence can be rationally demonstrated. Divine existence was taken for granted, because God was the point of departure for their faith. The divine question which they addressed was whether God was with them in their struggle for liberation. Neither did blacks ask about the general status of their personal existence or that of the physical world. The brutal presence of white people did not allow that sort of philosophical skepticism to enter their consciousness. Therefore the classical philosophical debate about the priority of concepts versus things, which motivated Kant and his predecessors' reflective endeavors, did not interest black people. What was "real" was the presence of oppression and the historical need to strive against it. They perhaps intuitively perceived that the problem of the auction block and slave drivers would not be solved

¹ A Philosophy of the Future, trans. by J. Cumming (New York: Seabury Press, 1970), pp. 2f.

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through philosophical debate. The problem had to be handled at the level of concrete history as that history was defined by the presence of slavemasters. Slaves, therefore, had to devise a language commensurate with their social situation. That was why they told stories. Through the medium of stories, black slaves created concrete and vivid pictures of their past and present existence, using the historical images of God's dealings with his people and thus breaking open a future for the oppressed not known to ordinary historical observation.

The difference between black and white thought is also theological. Black people did not devise various philosophical arguments for God's existence, because the God of black experience was not a metaphysical idea. He was the God of history, the Liberator of the oppressed from bondage. Jesus was not an abstract Word of God, but God's Word made flesh who came to set the prisoner free. He was the "Lamb of God" that was born in Bethlehem and was slain on Golgotha's hill. He was also "the Risen Lord" and "the King of Kings." He was their Alpha and Omega, the One who had come to make the first last and the last first.

While white preachers and theologians often defined Jesus Christ as a spiritual savior, the deliverer of people from sin and guilt, black preachers were unquestionably historical. They viewed God as the Liberator in history. That was why the black church was involved in the abolitionist movement in the nineteenth century and the Civil Rights movement in the twentieth. Black preachers reasoned that if God delivered Israel from Pharoah's army and Daniel from the lion's den, then he will deliver black people from American slavery and oppression. So the content of their thought was liberation and they communicated that message through preaching, singing, and praying, telling the story of how "We shall overcome."

Consider the song about that "Old Ship of Zion" and how "she had landed many a thousand ... and will land as many a more. O glory, Hallelu!" They say "she is loaded down with angels ... and King Jesus is the Captain." The presence of Jesus as the Captain was black people's assurance that the ship would "carry [them] all home." The "Old Ship of Zion" was a symbol that their life had meaning despite the condition of servitude. It was their guarantee that their future was in the hands of the One who died on Calvary. That was why they proclaimed: "Glory hallelujah!" It was an affirmation of faith that black slaves would triumph over life's contradictions, because they had met the Captain of that "Old Ship of Zion" and were already on board.

At other times, the salvation story was described as "the gospel train." Blacks described this reality with eschatological and future expectation: "The gospel train is coming." And they also saw it as already realized in their present: "I hear it just at hand" and "the car wheels moving and rumbling thro' the land." One can "hear the bell and the whistle" and it's "coming round the curve." Of course, this is not a normal train, not one created by white society. This is an es-

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chatological train, the train of salvation, and it will carry the oppressed to glory. If you miss this train, "you're left behind." That partly accounts for the urgency of the call to:

Get on board, Children,
Get on board, Children,
Get on board, Children,
There's room for many a more.

There is no excuse for not making the existential decision to "Get on board" because:

The fare is cheap and all can go,
The rich and the poor are there
No second-class on board the train,
No difference in the fare.

Salvation is not only a train and a ship but also a sweet chariot, swinging low, "coming for to carry me home." It is that "Old time religion" that brought the slaves out of bondage and "good when you're in trouble." It's that "rock in a weary land" and the "shelter in the time of storm." It is the divine presence in their situation that holds their humanity together in the midst of the brokenness of black existence. It is the power to endure in struggle and the patience to remain calm when surrounded by inexplicable evil. That was why black people sang "Been down in the valley so long, and I ain't got weary yet." They did not give up in despair during slavery and subsequent oppression, because of the presence of the One who controls life and who can overcome its contradictions. This is the time of black religion, and it was expressed in concrete images derived from their social situation.

II

The relation between the form and the content of black thought was dialectical. The story was both the medium through which truth was communicated and also a constituent of truth itself. In the telling of a truthful story, the reality of liberation to which the story pointed was also revealed in the actual telling of the story itself. That was why an equal, and often greater emphasis, was placed on the story-teller.

In black churches, the one who preaches the Word is primarily a story-teller. And thus when the black church community invites a minister as pastor, their chief question is: "Can the Reverend tell the story?" This question refers both to the theme of black religion and also to the act of story-telling itself. It refers to a person's ability to recite God's historical dealings with his people from Abraham to Jesus, from St. Paul to John on the island of Patmos, and to the preacher's ability to relate these biblical stories to contemporary black stories. The past and present are joined dialectically, creating a black vision of the future.

Black churches usually do not emphasize academic degrees as a criterion for preaching, because they do not associate a learned discourse with story-telling. Indeed many blacks are suspicious of "in-

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tellectuals" in the pulpit, because they identify that term with white people. Black church people contend that one needs more than "book-learning" in order to tell God's story. One needs to be converted to the faith and called to the ministry of Jesus Christ. When these two events happen, then one is ready to be used by God as the instrument of his story, of his dealings with his people.

In the black church, little emphasis is placed on the modern distinction between liberals and fundamentalists as found in white churches. Blacks show little concern about the abstract status of the Bible, whether fallible or infallible. Their concern is with Scripture as a living reality in the concreteness of their existence. Since the biblical story of God's dealings with people can be told in various ways, the chief concern of the people is not the information the preacher includes in his message but rather how he arranges that information into a story and how he relates it all to the daily lives of the people. The preacher may begin with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden or with John on the island of Patmos. The concern is not where he begins because the people already know the various scenes in God's drama with his people. They are concerned with how the preacher takes the bare facts of God's story and weaves them into the structure of their lives, giving his unique touch as a story-teller.

Consider the sermon "Behold the Rib!" The preacher begins by emphasizing the power of God. He is "High-riding and strong armed God" who "walk[s] acrost his globe creation ... wid de blue elements for a helmet ... and a wall of fire round his feet." "He wakes the sun every morning from its fiery bed wid de breath of his smile and commands de moon wid his eyes." Then the preacher moves to the essence of the story as suggested by his subject:

So God put Adam into a deep sleep
And took out a bone, ah hah!
And it is said that it was a rib.
Behold de rib!
A bone out of man's side.
He put de man to sleep and made wo-man,
And men and women been sleeping together ever since.
Behold de rib!
Brothers, if God
Had taken dat bone out of man's head
He would have meant for women to rule, hah!
If he had taken a bone out of his foot,
He would have meant for us to dominize and rule.
He could have made her out of back-bone
And then she would have been behind us.
But, no, God Almighty, he took de bone out of his side
So dat places de woman beside us.
Hah! God knowed his own mind.
Behold de rib!²

² Cited in Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps, Book of Negro Folklore (1969), p. 234.

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This sermon stresses not only the power of God but the equality of man and woman in God's creation. The rib, rather than symbolizing the woman's inferiority, actually stands for equal status, the right to be fully human. That is why the preacher placed so much emphasis on the phrase "Behold de rib!" The rib is not a "foot-bone" or a "backbone," both of which represent inferiority. It is a "side-bone," thereby making woman equal to man.

Sometimes it was difficult to understand the exact verbal point the black preacher was making. But because the power of the story was embedded in the act of telling itself, it did not always matter. One could hear the message in the passion and mood which was created by the rising and failing of the voice as the preacher moved in bodily rhythm across the pulpit and in the aisle, describing rapidly the different scenes of God's salvation drama. The message was in the feeling of the Spirit that moved "from heart to heart and from breast to breast" throughout the congregation as the preacher hummed and moaned the story. The truth of the story was dependent upon whether the people received that extra strength to go one more mile in their struggle to survive and whether they received the courage to strive one more time to right the wrongs in this world. The message was the passion for affirming the truth of their lives, a truth not recognized in the white world. And this "knowledge" was received every time the biblical story was preached as it was meant to be. That was why the people inquired of every minister: "Can the Reverend tell the story?"

The theme of liberation expressed in story-form is the essence of black religion. Both the content and form were essentially determined by black people's social existence. Because black people were oppressed but not destroyed by it, they intuitively knew that servitude was a denial of their essential worth. They therefore looked for religious and secular themes in their social existence that promised release from the pain of slavery and oppression. It was not simply through an exegetical study of the Bible that blacks decided to center their preaching on the Exodus and not Paul's letter to Philemon; neither was it through exegesis that they centered their spirituals on the cross and resurrection of Jesus and not his birth in Bethlehem. In view of their social situation of oppression, black people needed liberating visions so that they would not let historical limitations determine their perception of black being. Therefore, when Christianity was taught to them and they began to read the Bible, blacks simply appropriated those biblical stories that met their historical need. That was why some themes are stressed and others are overlooked. The one theme that stood out above all other themes was liberation, and that was because of the social conditions of slavery. Such traditional Calvinistic problems as unconditional election and limited atonement did not occur to them. They did not debate religion on an abstract theological level but lived their religion concretely in history.

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III

Like the theme of liberation, the form of black religion in story was chosen for similar sociological reasons. The easiest way for the oppressed to defy conceptual definitions that justify their existence in servitude is to tell stories about another reality where they are accepted as human beings. Story is not only easy to understand and to remember, it is often deceptive to those who stand outside the community where it was created. This is the meaning behind the black comment:

The white man is always trying to know into somebody else's business. All right, I'll set something outside the door of my mind for him to play with and handle. He can read my writing but he sho' can't read my mind. I'll put this play toy in his hand, and he will seize it and go away. Then I'll say my say and sing my song.³

What white slave masters would have recognized that the tales of Brer Rabbit and his triumphs over the stronger animals actually expressed black slaves' conscious hopes and dreams of overcoming the slavemasters themselves? Who among the white community would have perceived that in the singing and preaching about "crossing the river Jordan and entering the New Jerusalem" that black slaves were sometimes talking about Canada, Africa, and America north of the Mason Dixon line? White slave masters were no brighter than our contemporary white theologians who can only see in black religion what their axiological presuppositions permit them to see. And that vision usually extends no further than some notion of black "otherworldliness" leading to passivity. But there is something much deeper than that simplistic idea in black religion. Nat Turner's spirit is buried beneath the shouts and the cries. And that spirit will soon rise and claim the eschatological future promised in God's encounter with his community.

It is difficult to express this liberating truth in rational discourse alone; it must be told in story. And when this truth is told as it was meant to be, the oppressed are transformed, taken into another world and given a glimpse of the promised land. And when they leave the church, they often say to one another what the disciples said after having experienced the Risen Lord: "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?" (Luke 24:32).

³ Zora Neale Hurston, Mules and Men (New York: Perennial Library, Harper, 1970), pp. 18-19.