God of the Oppressed - James Cone

⭐ 10.0/10

(Originally written by Beans)

Whew! This book was good. I read this over the course of a few months, a chapter or two every week and discussed it with a friend. Looking back I think that was the best way to do it because this book is DENSE. Cone essentially calls us and invites us into a deeper understanding of Jesus and scripture and the work that is to be done, namely liberation of the poor and the oppressed. So really big picture, large scope theology that, in my opinion every white person should consider.

While Cone is quite radical and unchanging in a lot of his thinking and the statements he makes, he does not ever veer from his love for Jesus, others or scripture; I really appreciated how Christo-centric his worldview is and how he still honoured scripture, and actually was the reason for his beliefs.

It is somewhat understandable where Cone was coming from considering his context and social location, however, probably the only thing I disagreed with him on was his view on violence. He didn’t think it was wrong to steal or destroy oppressors property or use force against them. He states that violence is present regardless of our stance, it’s up to us to decide which side we will be on, the oppressed or the oppressor.

Theres about a million things I could say about this book, so I’ll stop here. It really was incredibly enriching and challenging to read this. I can’t recommend it enough.