The Cross and the Lynching Tree

In his concluding remarks, James Cone recalls his experience as a young boy waiting for his father to come home at the end of the day, inviting the reader to empathize a little with his anxiety in wondering about his father's fate each day after work. This experience led to his struggle with the Christian faith even as a child: “Belief in a good and just God was no easy matter for any Black person living in the so-called Christian South” (212). He sums up his question in this way: “If God loves black people, why then do we suffer so much?” (213). This question motivated him from his earliest memories all the way through his education and career as an academic, teacher, and writer.

The entirety of his career, the author writes, is a result of that initial questioning and struggle, and led to his constant search for answers on how the gospel message of liberation could be applied and transformative for the Black community. In Cone’s words, the lynching era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries was “the Heart of Darkness for the African American community” (213) and served to catalyze a powerful civil rights movement that was ultimately rooted in eschatological hope as offered by the Christian faith in a crucified Messiah.