Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X were the 2 most prominent African-American leaders of the 20th Century. In this book Dr. Cone explores how each leader rose to prominence. He also show why they did not win total acceptance from African-Americans. He compares and contrast their ideas and shows their strong and weak points.

Martin and Malcolm and America presents an extraordinary comparison of the two most influential figures of the Civil Rights movement. It is especially enlightening because it presents the sides of each man which the world has forgotten, that is, the militant nature of the later teachings of Dr. King and the more conciliatory nature of the later teachings of Brother Malcolm. James Cone also focuses heavily on the religious aspects of each man's teaching, arguing that neither man's philosophy can be separated from the religious doctrines he espoused.

If I had one critique of this book, it is that Cone relies too heavily on the Autobiography of Malcolm X for his Malcolm information. Almost all of his Malcolm info is quoted directly from that book, and like most autobiographies, Malcolm wrote/dictated with a bit of license. Having read the autobiography twice, it got a bit annoying at times to reread Malcolm's own words about himself. Malcolm was a far more complex (and more interesting) character than he portrayed himself to be, and that part was left out. (For more info, I'd recommend "Malcolm : The Life of the Man Who Changed Black America.")

All in all, though, this is a book that should be on your bookshelf. Highly recommended.

Cone presents an indepth review of how Martin King and Malcolm X complimented and connected in their efforts to address problems of race and class in America. Used as a text in undergraduate courses on "social problems", this work offer students new insight into the lives and visions of these two American leaders and their attempts to confront the problems of our time. Well written and easily understood, Cone's work is a useful and challenging tool for better understanding the issues of race and class in America.

The reviewer who said that this was the best book of its kind on the subject is right. I use this book to teach a college course in Religion in America to freshmen, and they find it fascinating. While most books of articles have a few winners and a lot of articles that are not very engaging, each offering in this book is so interesting that I occasionally reread them for pleasure. Hackett and the authors of the articles have keyed in on issues central to the religious experience of Americans from many traditions.

David Hackett is an unaturally gifted writer, scholar, and dude. The Reader became an instant favorite of mine upon having the desire to rekindle my days of studying the sociology of religion with Dr. Hackett at the University of Florida. Each chapter provides insight into Americans as religious folk living in a secular world. For all those interested in American religion, culture, and society; Religion and American Culture : A Reader is much more than a competent professor's ladder climbing to tenure. It is a masterwork.

I had the privilege of studying Religion and American Culture with Dr. Hackett. This text was effective in its presentation of American Religious History, and made a special effort to include scholarship that focused on forgotten/ignored aspects of American Religious History, including African-Americans, Women, and Native Americans.

While it is of the most benefit to those engaged in formal academic study, it should prove insightful to most any reader with an interest in the subject matter.

This book is a must read for those who come from a conservative anglo-american background. It helped me to realize the way that my culture has often distorted my understanding of God's work, and it opened my eyes to new ways of viewing God that are challenging but refreshing. As racial reconciliation becomes a larger issue in the church today, this book is important for all laypeople who are serious about reconciling.

The history of white Christianity reveals an otherworldliness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ that eliminates much concern for the earth and its inhabitants. The overspiritualization of the Bible's concepts opens the door for oppression. People think that deliverance and liberation is not for this fallen world but the next. But the Black community would disagree, and they'd have the Bible to agree with them.

Cone shows wonderfully how the Black African community of the days of slavery and afterward actually had a more biblical view of the Gospel. Yes, the Gospel involves heaven, the next life, salvation unto eternal life. But the Gospel is clearly demonstrated, both in the Old and New Testaments, to be one that shows God's concern for the earth and its inhabitants without distinctions. The concept of God cannot co-exist with the concept of continuing oppression, even in a fallen world.

Cone shows how the spirituals and the blues (secular spirituals) are a foundational binding force, much like American Sign Language is for the Deaf community. Remove the Blues and the spirituals and you try to destroy the personhood, humanness, and the dignity of the people of the Black community who are also made in the image of God.

This book had quite an affect on me because I, as a white person, I held to much otherworldly interpretations of the Gospel and much else in scripture. I recently learned that the Hebrew word for vanity and vain is never used in the book of Ecclesiastes! The word simply means temporary and the book expresses that we are not to trust in temporary things, but we can joy in them as a gift from God. Both the Old and New Testaments teach that the earth and all else created is good (beneficial according to Hebrew and Greek). I have also seen that earthly liberation and dignity of all people, whether believers in God or not, is a focus of God. Many people are going to hell, but they still deserve to be shone dignity because they are made in the image of God (see Genesis 9 on why God instituted the death penalty: it was because it was an attack on God's image in man, and there weren't any white people yet). Cone has effectively shown me that while not perfect, earlier Black theology is quite biblical and shows the Gospel to be what it is: a power for transforming the earth as well as a power to take people to heaven. It provides not only spiritual liberation but earthly liberation as well.

Cone presents various interpretations of the spirituals and concisely teaches where some views are right and some are wrong. Spirituals were quite earth centered without ignoring heaven. Jordan and sweet chariot and other terms actually referred to earthly hopes, not heavenly ones.

I read this book in a few days and immediately began reading it again, it was that enlightening and freeing. With just over 130 pages, I became truly more bonded with my Black brethren in Christ and with my Black brethren who are not Christians but are made in the image of God.

With careful openness and alertness, one realizes that the plight of the Black community is a shared one all over the world. People of differing color all over the world, in every nation, can have earthly hope for the same reasons that Blacks in America had earthly hope: The Gospel can free anybody from oppression. Every oppression in the world has the light of the hope of liberation over it, and it is very well taught in Black liberation theology as found in the spirituals.

One other important point, I was reminded that most people in the world, including in America, and throughout all history, have not had the opportunity or the time to be studied theologians, even of the layman's type. Yet, the "ignorant" of scripture often have a better understanding of the Bible for contemporary life than do theologians. I've learned once again that the less learned in the scriptures may, in fact, have much more to teach me, especially about how to change the world. I mean, hey, heaven is perfect, so obviously the transforming power of the Gospel must be for an imperfect place, and we are living in it.

For such a short, concise book, it speaks to so many issues even outside the Black community and the spiritual and blues themselves. It is a book written on a very specific topic that gives hope to everyone, for the spirituals and the blues are, in fact, a common issue to all men, women, and children, especially those of color.

Black Man Emerging: Facing the Past and Seizing a Future in America is a seminal text on the issues facing black men today.

This is a collection of essays written over a 31-year period (1968-1998). As might reasonably be expected, Cone has matured and learned his craft better over the years. The older essays are still worth reading, but the best ones are those he wrote during the eighties and nineties, especially the ones he wrote in 1994 and 1998.

Cone's "Black Theology" is a "Liberation Theology." Cone contends that liberation is the central message of the Bible. While it is clear that a message of liberation can be found in the Bible, it is not the central message of the Torah or the Prophets. The particular liberation that these books extoll is liberation OF THE JEWS. Not until the Pauline Epistles and the lectionaries of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John do we get some hint of a message of liberation for everybody. Even then, the message of liberation is not really for everyone; Paul advises slaves to obey their masters "in all things", and advises masters to give their servants "that which is just and equal," (Col. 3:22-4:1)

But although Cone sometimes overstates his case, this is definitely a book to be taken seriously. Cone gives us whites the opportunity to see ourselves thru the eyes of an intelligent and articulate black person. We may not greatly like all that we see, but it is up to US to remake ourselves into non-racists. Neither James Cone, nor Malcolm X., nor Martin Luther King, nor Whitney Young, nor any of their black successors can do that for us. WE must act. Cone can help show us how, but WE must take seriously the need to change ourselves. We must cure ourselves of racism, and sexism, and every other ism that permits us to discount others because of their race, religion, sex, sexuality, etc.

If we don't realize that there is a problem, we are not going to solve it. Read "Risks of Faith." If you are not a Christian, just ignore Cone's Christian bias. It isn't essential to the insights you can obtain from the book. Insights into the content and pervasiveness of racism can help Atheists, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, Pagans, and others, as well as Christians to see where their act needs cleaning up and to get going on what needs to be done.

This book should strike a responsive chord especially among Jews, who have been persecuted in most of the same ways, and just as unfairly, as blacks.

Thank you, James H. Cone, for "Risks of Faith." Keep up the good work.

Cone offers a radical reexamination of Christianity from the perspective of an oppressed Black community, dealing primarily with the notion that "white" theology cannot be accepted by African Americans, unless it can be directly related to "black" freedom from oppression. "Black" and "White" do not necessarily relate to skin pigmentation but to "one's attitude and action toward the liberation of the oppressed black people from white racism". Blackness is thus "an ontological symbol for all people who participate in the liberation of man from oppression". Seen in this light, "blackness" can be attributed to people who do not have black skin but who do work for the liberation of African Americans. By contrast, "whiteness" in Cone's thought symbolizes the ethnocentric activity of "madmen sick with their own self-concept" and thus blind to that which ails them and oppresses others. Whiteness, in Cone's view, symbolizes sickness and oppression, and White theology is therefore viewed as a theological extension of that sickness and oppression. Cone emphasizes that there is a very close relationship between black theology and what has been termed "black power". Cone says that black power is a phrase that represents both black freedom and black self-determination "wherein black people no longer view themselves as without human dignity but as men, human beings with the ability to carve out their own destiny." Cone's theology asks the question, "What does the Christian gospel have to say to powerless black men whose existence is threatened daily by the insidious tentacles of white power?" He says Black Theology is derived from "...common experience among black people in America that Black Theology elevates as the supreme test of truth". To put it simply, Black Theology knows no authority more binding than the experience of oppression itself. This alone must be the ultimate authority in Black religious matters. Cone's book, A Black Theology of Liberation has been labeled as revolutionary because it claims that White theology has no relevance as Jesus Christ's message because it was "...not related to the liberation of the poor." It also asserts that "racism... is found not only in American society and its churches but particularly in the discipline in theology, affecting its nature and purpose." Cone rejects any form of Christianity that defends the oppressive status quo. He argues persuasively that the God of the Bible is first of all, a God of the poor and of those seeking freedom from oppression. Cone feels that what was needed was a "fresh start" in theology that would rise out of the black struggle for justice, and be in no way dependent upon the approval of white academics or religious leaders. Cone contends that theology grows out of the experience of the community; the community itself defines what God means. Western European theology serves the oppressors; therefore, theology for African Americans should validate the African American struggle for freedom from oppression and for justice. Cone argues that God must be on the side of oppressed Black people and presents the concept of a black God, with the words: "To say God is Creator means... I am black because God is black!" He claims that the preaching of God's Word, the teaching of God's love for mankind, love for one's neighbor, and forgiveness are spoken with a "white" interpretation. Although Cone admits that the teaching of brotherly kindness may have slightly helped his cause, he attacks the hypocrisy of white theologians who preach love, yet do nothing to ease the oppression of blacks. Cone states that the sole purpose of God in black theology is to "illuminate the black condition so that blacks can see that their liberation is the manifestation of God's activity". He reconciles the objections of some that proclaim the need of a more universal God in Black Theology; he replies that God is universal, He is Black. One of the more controversial aspects of Cone's Theology is his view that Jesus, too is black: "The 'raceless' American Christ has a light skin, wavy brown hair, and sometimes - wonder of wonders - blue eyes. For whites to find him with big lips and kinky hair is as offensive as it was for the Pharisees to find him partying with tax collectors. But whether whites want to hear it or not, Christ is black... with all of the features which are so detestable to white society".

While being a step forward in the process towards Black Liberation, Cone is unfortunately misinformed concerning certain biblical aspects about which he speaks. For instance, he claims that God chose the Israelite people when he saw their suffering in Egypt. Based on this assumption he takes this one step forward and states that for this reason, God now identifies with the blacks, because of their oppression. However, God's covenant with Israel stretches back generations before they ever entered Egypt, and before they were ever oppressed.

Cone's claim that any who dare to critique his theology are simply revealing the racist nature within themselves, is sad. Gustavo Gutierez also wrote a book of Liberation Theology, he deemed it his love letter to God, in which he denounced all sorts of corporate powers and establishments. Cone hates people, white people. Gutierez despises the institutions that have brought us to this period of hate. There is a difference here, and a difference worth noting.

This book is a "10" in it's dealing with Liberation Theology but Cone deals exclusively with the topic of liberation. Heaven, Hell, the millenium, eschatology, revelation are all ignored. For Cone, Christian Theology means nothing if it doesn't help free the oppressed in America now. The promise of a far off heaven where everything is wonderful does nothing to releive that pain that oppressed Black Americans feel today. He asks if he should stand by and watch the children suffer while telling them to be patient and wait for the promised land. Cone connects Jesus with his plight when he says that God chose to reveal himself as a poor, oppressed Jewish carpenter-not some one wealthy and powerful.

He admits his own shortcomings in the preface for not dealing as effectively as he could have with women's and other minorities issues. His focus is freedom for Black America-for this he makes no apologies!

In advance, sorry fo he typos my keyboard is messed up.
This is not for those who read for fun. Cone states in 10 pages what most could in haf a page He uses te extra space to ramble and rant. He contiuley repeats himself over and over , like a broken record player.
For learning purposes, I recomend going to a libray and photo copying the valuable sections of the book. If your a teacher lookng to make sheets from this book, hen geta diffrnt book.Speaking as a pupil, students would rather not plough through this long winded babble

i am jewish and did not hesitate to read this book. it gives you a good definition of black power. i learned that black power is not the oppisite of white power, but is by any means neccary. i suggest for everyone to read this book. james h cone is a prophet.