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ABSTRACT
There has been much criticism – and an overall unfortunate dismissal – of William R. Jones' Is God A White Racist?: A Preamble to Black Theology (1973) in the literature of Black liberation theology. What is undertheorized, however, is the constructive possibilities of Jones' work. Analyzing the theological debate between Jones and James H. Cone provides us with the necessary material in order to construct a Black theology that commences with the assumptions of Jones' theodicy. I argue that theodicy is a useful “controlling category” for Black liberation theology, but only – and here I am following Kant – as a result of how its collapses rational arguments for believing in God/liberation. And it is precisely this failure that makes it profoundly useful as an avenue into understanding the contours of “Black faith” that undergirds Black liberation theology.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Morrison, Sula, 77–8.
2 Thatamanil, “Against Explanation and for Consolation,” 28.
3 Leibniz, Theodicy.
4 Kant, “On the Miscarriage of All Philosophical Trials in Theodicy,” 34. Robert Allen translates das Zwechwidrige as counter purposiveness. It can be understood as something done or established against its own reason or will.
5 Jones, “Theodicy,” 45–54.
6 Jones, Is God a White Racist? A Preamble to Black Theology, ix.
7 Jackson, Islam and the Problem of Black Suffering, 4.
8 See: Cone, Black Theology & Black Power; Cone, A Black Theology of Liberation; Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation; Cone, God of the Oppressed, Boff and Boff, Introducing Liberation Theology; Grant, White Women's Christ and Black Women's Jesus; Townes, In a blaze of glory.
9 John H. McClendon III and Brittney Neal have accurately highlighted that, “to the extent that Black liberation theologians adopted philosophical theology, we discover that most were inclined to view philosophy as an instrument to illuminate theological claims rather than critique them.” For more of their reading see: “Philosophy of Religion and the African American Experience: Conversations with My Christian Friends” John H. McClendon III with the assistance of Brittney Neal. Volume 300. Brill-Rodopi (2018).
10 For Jones, a misreligion is a religion that sustains enslavement for Black adherents and uses vicarious/redemptive suffering for its justification. This is the foundation for what he calls Whiteanity as opposed to Christianity.
11 Editor’s Note: Whilst not disagreeing with the author, I would suggest that Anthony B. Pinn has been a noted exception, in this regard. See his magisterial Why Lord?: Suffering and Evil in Black Theology.
12 For Kant, Job’s embrace of his limitation in the face of theodical interpretations was proof of sincere faith, a faith not grounded in knowledge or routinized behavior at the expense of moral integrity. Kant writes, “The faith, however, which sprang in him for such a vexing resolution of his doubts – namely merely from being convicted of ignorance – could only arise in the soul of a man who, in the midst of his strongest doubts, could yet say (Job 27:5-6): ‘Till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me, etc.’ Immanuel Kant, “On the Miscarriage of All Philosophical Trials in Theodicy,” 33.
13 Jones, Is God a White Racist? A Preamble to Black Theology, XXV.
14 I am using the term “sympathetic” because I believe Jones has historically been misunderstood. I do not think he was trying to use theodicy as a way to discredit Black liberation theology. I think he was gesturing towards a desire for more logical rigor in its theological underpinning.
15 For Jones, humanocentric theism, “provides a consistent framework for accommodating the freedom of [humanity], an indispensable ingredient of a theology of liberation.” It traces the cause of racism to human forces. It removes a theological and moral escape often used by sympathizers of racial oppression.
16 See: Camus, L'Homme révolté.
17 Swedish theologian, Anders Nygren, argues that Golgatha was God showing selfless Agape love. See: Agape and Eros.
18 See: Yvette, The Choice: The Issue of Black Survival in America.
19 Jones, “Sartre’s Philosophical Anthropology in Relation to His Ethics.”
20 Sartre writes in Existentialism Is A Humanism,
Here again, the essence of man precedes historical primitive existence in nature. Atheistic existentialism, which I represent, is more consistent. It states that if God does not exist, there is at least one being in whom existence precedes essence – a being whose existence comes before its essence, a being who exists before he can be defined by any concept of it. That being is man, or, as Heidegger put it, the human reality. We mean that man first exist: he materializes in the world, encounters himself, and only afterwards defines himself.
21 See: Berlant, Cruel Optimism.
22 Twenty years after Jones’ text is published, Delores Williams publishes Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-talk.
23 Jones, Is God a White Racist? A Preamble to Black Theology, 18.
24 Cone, A Black Theology of Liberation, 27.
25 Baldwin, The Fire Next Time, 47.
26 Jones, Is God a White Racist? A Preamble to Black Theology, 74.
27 In writing about providence, Emil Brunner states there is, “Nothing ‘casual’ about life, nothing that happens’ anyhow.” See: Brunner, Divine Imperative.
28 Rubenstein, After Auschwitz: History, Theology, and Contemporary Judaism, 153
29 Ibid., X.
30 Jones, Is God a White Racist? A Preamble to Black Theology, 107.
31 Ibid., 188.
32 Ibid., 195.
33 Ibid.
34 Ibid., 196.
35 Tilley, The Evils of Theodicy.
36 Kant, “On the Miscarriage of All Philosophical Trials in Theodicy,” 34
37 Niebuhr, Beyond Tragedy: Essays on the Christian Interpretation of History.
38 West, Prophecy Deliverance! An Afro-American Revolutionary Christianity, 35.
39 Cone, Black Theology and Black Power, 38.
40 Ibid., 117.
41 Through the Yakub story, Elijah taught that Black people were the original people. He preached that the U.S. was in the middle of a rising Armageddon and awaiting its inevitable destruction because of how they have mistreated Afro-Asiatic humans. For more on Elijah Muhammad’s theology, see: Muhammad, Message to the Blackman in America; for biographical information see: Clegg, An Original Man.
42 Cone, Black Theology of Liberation, XV.
43 Ibid., 58.
44 Cone writes, In the 23rd footnote of chapter 8 of God of the Oppressed, that Jones’ criticism is outside the perspective of Black theology. For Cone it is an external critique not an internal critique. Therefore, Jones is incapable of fully understanding the structure and frame of reference for Cone’s theology. In other words, Cone finds Jones’ criticism unfair.
45 Cone, My Soul Looks Back, 63.
46 Cone, Said I Wasn’t Gonna Tell Nobody, 91.
47 Cone, The Cross and the lynching Tree, 107.
48 Cone, The Spirituals and the Blues: An Interpretation, 65.
49 Ibid., 44.
50 Ibid.
51 Ibid., 102.
52 For Ashon Crawley, Black sound and noise – particularly from the Blackpentecostal aesthetic – challenges and indicts the violent Western philosophical and theological epistemology on which liberation theologies overly relies. See: Crawley, Blackpentecostal Breath.
53 Cone, The Cross and the Lynching Tree, 154.
54 Ibid., 156.
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Notes on contributors
Jamall A. Calloway
Jamall A. Calloway was born in Oakland, CA. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies and an Affiliated Faculty member in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of San Diego. He is also the minister of the Church of Christ at Mount Washington in the Berkshires of Massachusetts.