he cross and the lynching tree are the two most emotionally charged symbols in the history of the African American community. In this powerful new work, theologian James H. Cone explores these symbols and their interconnection in the history and souls of black folk. Both the cross and the lynching tree represent the worst in human beings and at the same time a thirst for life that refuses to let the worst determine our final meaning. While the lynching tree symbolized white power and black death, the cross symbolizes divine power and black life God overcoming the power of sin and death. For African Americans, the image of Jesus, hung on a tree to die, powerfully grounded their faith that God was with them, even in the suffering of the lynching era. - from the publisher

In his conclusion, Dr. Cone writes that the 'lynching tree frees the cross from the pieties of well-meaning Christians.' Reading The Cross & The Lynching Tree requires an inversion of logic, one that requires seeing Christ's teaching that 'he who will save his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for (His) sake will find it.' The Cross, like the lynching tree, was an instrument of terror designed to cow an oppressed people into submission and living with its reality liberates people from being silenced by the fear of it. Cone's teaching is a tremendous work of both scholarship and heartfelt preaching. ( )

Excellent and heartbreaking and quite the reckoning. The Christian God is a god of the oppressed. Those without power take solace in the cross and what came after. America was never a Christian nation, not with a history of violence like this. When will we stop being the oppressors. ( )

An amazing book in structure and analysis. His sections on artistry, MLK, and Reinhold Niebuhr are amazing. The parts on feminism and the blues aren't as strong, but should still be read. Overall, as people get into an uproar on Critical Race Theory, or any thinking that looks at the context and history of how racism has influenced America, this book is a must-read. His overall contrasting of how white Christians can look to Jesus, while still using lynching historically needs to be reckoned with. ( )

Non-Fiction that focuses on the parallels between Jesus's Crucifixion and the terror of the Lynching Era in America. SO GOOD. Has opened my eyes to so much. I think all white American Christians should have to read this book. Will probably write a detailed blog post about this book because I have SO MANY THOUGHTS both about how education has failed to teach me--a good student--American history but also just on the lack of communal repentance in white churches. Like seriously, my education never covered the civil rights era (in public schools! IN THE DEEP SOUTH) and my limited understanding of lynching literally came from Quantum Leap. 10/10 highly recommend. ( )