While we acknowledge that all expressions of liberation theology are not identical, we must protest very strongly against the false divisions that some make: between black theology in South Africa and black theology in the United States, between black theology and African theology, and between black theology and Latin American liberation theology. But moving away from the illusioned universality of western theology to the contextuality of liberation theology is a risky business; one that cannot be done innocently. In the search for theological and human authenticity in its own situation, black theology does not stand alone. It is but one expression of this search going on within many different contexts. Until now, the Christian church had chosen to move through history with a bland kind of innocence, hiding the painful truths of oppression behind a facade of myths and real or imagined anxieties. This is no longer possible. The oppressed who believe in God, the Father of Jesus Christ, no longer want to believe in the myths created to subjugate them. It is no longer possible to innocently accept history "as it happens," silently hoping that God would take the responsibility for human failure. The theology of liberation spells out this realization. For the Christian church it constitutes, in no uncertain terms, farewell to innocence.

"The introduction to this edition by Cornel West was originally published in Dwight N. Hopkins, ed., Black Faith and Public Talk: Critical Essays on James H. Cone's Black Theology & Black Power (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1999; reprinted 2007 by Baylor University Press)."

"The classic text in black theology, with a new foreword by Peter J. Paris and a new afterword by Kelly Brown Douglas"--

This volume in the Library of Theological Ethics series draws on writings from the early nineteenth through the late twentieth centuries to explore the intersection of black experience and Christian faith throughout the history of the United States. The first sections follow the many dimensions of the African American struggle with racism in this country: struggles against theories of white supremacy, against chattel slavery, and against racial segregation and discrimination. The latter sections turn to the black Christian vision of human flourishing, drawing on perspectives from the arts, religion, philosophy, ethics, and theology. It introduces students to major voices from African American Christianity, including Frederick Douglass, Richard Allen, W. E. B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King Jr., Bayard Rustin, Barbara Jordan, James H. Cone, and Jacqueline Grant. This is the essential resource for anyone who wishes to understand the role that Christian faith has played in the African American struggle for a more just society.