The Cross and the Lynching Tree

"They're selling postcards of the hanging They're painting the passports brown." White boys like me mostly didn't know what Bob Dylan was singing about when "Desolation Row" first came out on "Highway 61 Revisited." James Cone's book tells us it was about lynching. Lynching was a public spectacle wher......more

To say that James Cone an I are theologically far apart would be a fairly significant understatement. I am a conservative evangelical while he is one of the primary voices behind black liberation theology, standing well within the liberal theological tradition. Despite those differences, I was very......more

Summary: A reflection on the parallel between the cross and the lynching tree, the perplexing reality that this has been missed within the white community, and how an understanding of this connection and the meaning of the cross has offered hope for the long struggle of the African-American communit......more

Wow. What a profound and haunting book. While I disagree with Cone theologically in some places, I think his central thesis is sound. His evidence – accounts of lynching, white theologians, gospel hymns, black artists, womanist theologians – is formidable and damning. As a white Christian who is a Re......more

James H. Cone’s “The Cross and the Lynching Tree” is a profound reflection on black suffering at the cruel hands of white supremacy and the astonishing parallels between the Crucified One and black victims of lynching. Cone wonders why theologians have not considered the parallels between the cross......more