W. E. B. Du Bois called black faith “a pythian madness” and “a demoniac possession”—“sprung from the African forests,” “mad with supernatural joy.”[46] One has to be a little mad, kind of crazy, to find salvation in the cross, victory in defeat, and life in death. This is why the meaning of the cross is intensely debated today, especially by secular and religious intellectuals who reject the absurd idea that a shameful, despicable death could “reveal” anything.
