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How can Christian theology truly speak of the hope of Jesus Christ, unless that hope begins and ends with the liberation of the poor in the social existence in which theology takes shape? In America this means that there can be no talk about hope in the Christian sense unless it is talk about the freedom of black, red, and brown people.

— James H. Cone God of the Oppressed (1975)

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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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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.