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Is it possible to understand what God's love means for the oppressed without making wrath an essential ingredient of that love? What could love possibly mean in a racist society except the righteous condemnation of everything racist? Most theological treatments of God's love fail to place the proper emphasis on God's wrath, suggesting that love is completely self-giving without any demand for obedience.

— James H. Cone A Black Theology of Liberation (1970)

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More quotes by James H. Cone

Being black in America has little to do with skin color. Being black means that your heart, your soul, your mind, and your body are where the dispossessed are.

Black Theology and Black Power (1969)

By becoming poor and entrusting divine revelation to a carpenter from Nazareth, God makes clear where one has to be in order to hear the divine word and experience divine presence.

Speaking the Truth: Ecumenism, Liberation, and Black Theology (1986)

If the church ... does not make God's liberation of the oppressed central in its mission and proclamation, how can it rest easy with a condemned criminal as the dominant symbol of its message?

Speaking the Truth: Ecumenism, Liberation, and Black Theology (1986)

A man is free when he sees clearly the fulfillment of his being and is thus capable of making the envisioned self a reality.

Black Theology and Black Power (1969)

Black Power seeks not understanding but conflict; addresses blacks and not whites; seeks to develop black support, but not white good will.

Black Theology and Black Power (1969)

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Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind.

William Shakespeare A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595)

To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.

Bertrand Russell Marriage and Morals (1929)

Not for the body, but for the heart; companion and company are needed.

Sanu Sharma

Love seldom haunts the breast where learning lies,
And Venus sets ere Mercury can rise.

Alexander Pope

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: James H. Cone (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.