Quotes from James H. Cone

But there is no perfect guide for discerning God's movement in the world, Contrary to what many conservatives say, the Bible is not a blueprint on this matter. It is a valuable symbol for point to God's revelation in Jesus, but it is not self-interpreting. We are thus place in an existential situation of freedom in which the burden is on us to make decisions without a guaranteed ethical guide.

One can never wrestle enough with God if one does so out of a pure regard for truth," wrote French philosopher, activist, and mystic Simone Weil. "Christ likes for us to prefer truth to him because, before being Christ, he is truth. If one turns aside from him to go toward the truth, one will not go far before falling into his arms.

The word of God is upon me, [and] it's like fire shut up in my bones. And I just have to tell it." What King had to tell was the truth about war, racism, and poverty. "It may hurt me," he said. "But when I took up the cross I recognized its meaning... It is not something that you wear. The cross is something that you bear and ultimately that you die on."

Unlike Europeans who immigrated to this land to escape from tyranny, Africans came in chains to serve a nation of tyrants.

What people think about God, Jesus Christ, and the Church cannot be separated from their own social and political status in a given society.

If we cannot recognize the truth, then it cannot liberate us from untruth.

The acceptance of the gift of freedom transforms our perception of our social and political existence.

Any analysis of the gospel which did not begin and end with God's liberation of the oppressed was ipso facto unchristian.

To be Christian is to be one of those whom God has chosen. God has chosen black people!

Testimony is an integral part of the Black religious tradition. It is the occasion where the believer stands before the community of faith in order to give account of the hope that is in him or her.

If we save the planet and have a society of inequality, we wouldn't have saved much.

Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love.