God of the Oppressed

by James H. Cone

Tell the innocent how fortunate they are, for they shall eat the fruit of their labors. Woe to the guilty! How unfortunate they are, for what their hands have done shall be done to them. (Isaiah 3:10–11 NRSV)

This view is the theological assumption of Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic theory of history as found in I and II Kings. It is also found in Proverbs. The fear of the Lord prolongs life, but the years of the wicked will be short. (Proverbs 10:27 RSV)

Although the idea that suffering was the just punishment for sins is clearly present in the Bible, that formula was often contradicted by history. It was not difficult for the people to see that wicked persons did not always suffer for their wrongdoings, and neither did the righteous always prosper. The opposite often occurred. That is why Jeremiah complained: You have right on your side, Yahweh, when I complain about you. But I would like to debate a point...

And Habakkuk, who was concerned about the use of evil as an instrument of divine purpose, also questioned the justice of God. Your eyes are too pure to behold evil, and you cannot look on wrongdoing; Why do you look on the treacherous, and are silent when th...

For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith. (Habakkuk 2:3–4 NRSV)

Better is a little that the righteous has than the abundance of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken; but the Lord upholds the righteous. (Psalm 37:16–17 RSV; cf Proverbs 24:19f.)

The basic Deuteronomic answer, thus applied, did not explain the problem of suffering, and its inadequacy was brought to a head in Job and Ecclesiastes. The latter not only rejects the Deuteronomic success formula as affirmed by the sages of the book of Proverbs, it says clearly that the problem of suffering is insoluble, completely beyond any rational or religious explanation. Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. (Ecclesiastes 1:2 NRSV)

The same fate comes to all, to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to those who sacrifice and those who do not sacrifice. As to the good, so are the sinners…. The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to the skillful; but time and chance happen to them all. For no one can anticipate the time of disaster. Like fish taken in a cruel net, and like birds which are caught in a snare, so mortals are snared at a time of calamity, when it suddenly falls upon them. (Ecclesiastes 9:2; 11–12 NRSV)

Job, while not embracing the skeptical and sometimes cynical attitude of Ecclesiastes, also wrestles with the problem of suffering, as that problem is directly related to human fellowship with God. Job is described as “blameless and upright, one who feared God, and turned away from evil” (1:1 RSV).

Like Ecclesiastes, this book is concerned with suffering insofar as it usurps life's meaning as defined by human fellowship with God. Because Job's friends accepted the dogma of retribution as the rule for measuring human fellowship with God, Job protested that their God was unjust.

Far be it from me to say that you are right; till I die I will not put away my integrity from me. I hold fast to my righteousness, and will not let it go; my heart does not reproach me for any of my days. (Job 27:5–6 RSV)

Job concludes with an audacious challenge: “Let the Almighty answer me!” (31:35). The Almighty answers, but not according to Job's definition of the problem of suffering. God transposes the issue to another level, emphasizing divine power and knowledge in contrast to human weakness and ignorance. Where were you when I l...

After God's challenging confrontation, reminding Job of his ignorance, Job repents. Job's repentance is not due to his acceptance of his punishment as just when understood in the light of the retribution dogma. His contrition is due to his recognition that God's revelation transcends human comprehension. God cannot be defined by human logic. Consequently “prosperity and adversity have no necessary connection with goodness and wickedness.”4 Thus Job says: I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know…. I had ...

In addition to the idea that God's revelation cannot be limited to the dogma of retribution, the book of Job suggests two additional responses to human suffering. First, the Prologue suggests that Job's suffering was a test of his faith (1:6–12), a theme also found in Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac (Gen. 22:1–19). Second, the Epilogue touches on the theme that suffering can be redemptive (42:10), a theme that is dominant in...

SUFFERING IN THE WESTERN THEOLOGICAL TRADITION Regarding the definition of the problem of suffering, it is unfortunate that most of the exponents of the Western theological tradition have not paid sufficient attention to the biblical view.10 Although

When theology defines the problem of suffering within the context of philosophical discourse, it inevitably locates the Christian approach to suffering in the wrong place. In philosophy, human suffering is an aspect of the problem of evil. Thus the crux of the problem is: How do we rationally reconcile a God unlimited both in power and in goodness with the presence of evil, moral and natural? Epicurus (341–270 B.C.) was probably the first to state the theoretical implications of this dilemma.

Because Western theology has been influenced too much by philosophy and too little by the Bible in its analysis of the problem of suffering, it has often contributed to the religious justification of unjust structures that oppress the poor. That is why theologians spend more time discussing metaphysical speculations about the origin of evil than showing what the oppressed must do in order to eliminate the social and political structures that create evil. By focusing on metaphysics, theologians make the problem of evil a matter of intellectual theory and more often than not end up suggesting solutions that have nothing to do with the liberation of the poor from bondage.

In reflecting upon evil, I tend almost inevitably, to regard it as a disorder which I view from outside and of which I seek to discover the causes or secret aims. Why is it that the “mechanism” functions so defectively? Or is the defect merely apparent and due to a real defect in my vision? In this case the defect is in myself, yet it remains objective to my thought, which discovers it and observes it. But evil which is only stated or observed is no longer evil which is suffered: in fact, it ceases to be evil. In reality, I can only grasp it as evil in the measure in which it touches me—that is to say, in the measure in which I am involved, as one is involved in a lawsuit. Being “involved” is the fundamental fact; I cannot leave it out of account except by an unjustifiable fiction, for in doing so, I proceed as though I were God, and a God who is an onlooker at that.15

It is hard not to conclude that the main reason theologians have said little that can be used in the struggle of the oppressed is due to the fact that they have been only spectators and not victims of suffering.

SUFFERING IN THE BLACK RELIGIOUS TRADITION In contrast to the spectator approach of the Western theological tradition, the black religious perspective on suffering was created in the context of the human struggle against slavery and segregation. Whether we speak of the spirituals or the blues, the prayers and sermons of black preachers or the folkloric tales of Br'er Rabbit and High John the Conqueror, black reflections about suffering have not been removed from life but involved in life, that is, the struggle to affirm humanity despite the dehumanizing conditions of slavery and segregation. Therefore, to understand the dynamic movement of black thought in relation to black suffering as black people attempted to make sense out of black life, it is necessary to keep in mind the social and political existence from which black thinking emerged. Black religious thought represents the theological response of an African people to their situation of servitude in North America.

The slave seculars actually ridiculed the religious perspective of the spirituals. As Sterling Brown reports, some black slaves sang: “I don't want to ride no golden chariot; I don't want no golden crown; I want to stay down here and be, just as I am without one plea.” One father, who is in heaven, White man owe me eleven and pay me seven, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, And if I hadn't took that, I wouldn't had none.18

The blues, on the other hand, do not make many direct criticisms of the black religious faith. Yet they are clearly indifferent toward God and thus represent an attempt to create meaning out of life without reference to Jesus Christ. They are an expression of black people's recognition of the absurdity of black life in a white world, which regards blackness as nonbeing. They say we are the Lawd's children, I don't say that ain't true, They say we are the Lawd's children, I don't say that ain't true, But if we are the same like each other, ooh, well, well, why do they treat me like they do?

Because the Christian answer to that question was not satisfactory to many black poets and novelists of the twentieth century, they concluded that the God of Jesus Christ was an opiate for black people. As early as 1906, in response to the slaughter of black people in Atlanta, W.E.B. Du Bois made his protest against the silence of God. Done at Atlanta, in the Day of Death, 1906. O Silent God, though Whose voice afar in mist and mystery hath left our ears an-hungered in these fearful days…. Bewildered we are…mad with madness of a mobbed and mocked and murdered people; straining at the armposts of Thy Throne, we raise our shackled hands and charge Thee, God, by the bones of our stolen fathers, by the tears of our dead mothers, by the blood of Thy crucified Christ: What meaneth...

appeal like Du Bois's was pointless but that the entire history of black religion, particularly as characterized in the “sorrow songs,” had contributed to black people's passivity and submission in the context of slavery and oppression. Bitter was the day When… …only in the sorrow songs Relief was found— Yet no relief, But merely humble life and silent death Eased by a Name That hypnotized the pain away— O, precious Name of Jesus in that day! That day is past. I know full well now Jesus could not die for me— That only my own hands, Dark as the earth, Can make my earth-dark body free.20