Book Cover Image of The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James H. Cone

The Cross and the Lynching Tree
by James H. Cone

Publication Date: Feb 21, 2013
List Price: $27.00
Format: Paperback, 224 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9781626980051
Imprint: Orbis Books
Publisher: Orbis Books
Parent Company: Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers

Read Our Review of The Cross and the Lynching Tree


Paperback Description:

The cross and the lynching tree are the two most emotionally charged symbols in the history of the African American community. In this powerful new work, theologian James H. Cone explores these symbols and their interconnection in the history and souls of African Americans.

They put him to death by hanging him on a tree. Acts 10:39

The cross and the lynching tree are the two most emotionally charged symbols in the history of the African American community. In this powerful new work, theologian James H. Cone explores these symbols and their interconnection in the history and souls of black folk. Both the cross and the lynching tree represent the worst in human beings and at the same time a thirst for life that refuses to let the worst determine our final meaning. While the lynching tree symbolized white power and black death, the cross symbolizes divine power and black life God overcoming the power of sin and death. For African Americans, the image of Jesus, hung on a tree to die, powerfully grounded their faith that God was with them, even in the suffering of the lynching era.

In a work that spans social history, theology, and cultural studies, Cone explores the message of the spirituals and the power of the blues; the passion and of Emmet Till and the engaged vision of Martin Luther King, Jr.; he invokes the spirits of Billie Holliday and Langston Hughes, Fannie Lou Hamer and Ida B. Well, and the witness of black artists, writers, preachers, and fighters for justice. And he remembers the victims, especially the 5,000 who perished during the lynching period. Through their witness he contemplates the greatest challenge of any Christian theology to explain how life can be made meaningful in the face of death and injustice.



book cover The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James H. ConeBooks similiar to The Cross and the Lynching Tree may be found in the categories below: