Beyond Nonviolence James Cone and the Black Radical

Abstract

Is violence antithetical to the gospel of Jesus of Nazareth? Christian theology and communities of faith often framed violence as oppositional to the Christian faith. In the aftermath of state-sanctioned violence causing the deaths of black people in the United States, protests, uprisings, and lootings ensued. Counterviolence has been met with disapproval and imperatives to employ Martin Luther King, Jr.’s method of nonviolence. In dialogue with James Cone and the black radical tradition, this paper argues that the violent/ nonviolent binary obfuscates how violence may be used as a tool of liberation for those who are oppressed by systemic violence. Black liberation theology’s turn from the singular nonviolent approach allowed for it to embrace violence as an option to affirm black humanity in the face of annihilation. Without embracing violence as a normative modality, black liberation theology allows black and brown people to utilize violence as a form of self-love and self-affirmation in the 21st century.