Toward an evangelical theology of power and privilege in conversation with James Cone

Abstract

James Cone has offered a salient critique of White theology in which he has repeatedly called for White theologians to see their theological and exegetical work as grounded in biases derived from White power and privilege. This critique has been largely ignored or discounted by White theologians generally and evangelical theologians specifically. White evangelical theologians have failed to engage in constructive projects that make race, power and privilege the centerpiece of theological reflection. This is due in large part to the fact that cognitive propositional evangelical theology has lacked the methodological resources to generate a theology of power and privilege capable of both maintaining the centrality of Scripture and integrating critics, like Cone, as conversation partners in the theological process. This project aims to move toward a theology of power and privilege that can be faithful to Cone’s critique and still be identified as an evangelical theology. The methodology engaged follows a hermeneutical model that recognizes author bias and challenges it by taking seriously Cone’s critique, using it to evaluate a reformed evangelical theological tradition inclusive of John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Hodge and Carl Henry to ask if the tradition evidences Cone’s claims of embedded racism. Further the project looks at key biblical passages and their interpretations to ask if they have been rightly understood by the evangelical theological tradition under consideration. Based on all this work an analysis is presented of evangelical doctrinal views and constructive suggestions offered toward a theology of power and privilege that also takes into consideration the ethical appropriation of this theology. The project tests the ability of evangelical theology to deal with and formulate theology that remains both recognizably evangelical and is cognizant and responsive to Cone’s critique.