34 pages • 1 hour read
James H. ConeThe Cross and the Lynching Tree
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2011A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Essay Topics
Compose an essay drawing out the explicit parallels between the author’s account of the lynching tree and the narrative of the gospels in the New Testament. Use explicit narrative details from the text as found in the four Christian gospel accounts of Jesus’ death, as well as explicit details found in Cone’s recorded accounts in the text.
Show how the author synthesizes his admiration for Reinhold Niebuhr as a Christian theologian while at the same time criticizing him for failing to see certain aspects of oppression to which he could have spoken eloquently. Use examples from the text.
In what way does the author draw on the religious themes espoused by Martin Luther King Jr., and in what way does he draw on political themes espoused by figures such as Malcolm X. Compare and contrast the two streams of thought in Cone’s work.
Highlight the themes of suffering and redemption in the various literary sources cited in Chapter 4. How does Cone receive them into his own thinking and use them to explain his main theme of uniting the cross and the lynching tree?
How does the fifth chapter offer a feminist/womanist critique of Cone’s theological work and the larger field of academic theology from a Black perspective?
Show how Cone’s approach, especially as laid out in the fourth chapter, could be useful in the work of Christian apologetics, demonstrating that the Christian worldview is both coherent and worthy of credibility.
Show how Cone’s lived experience contributed to his future work as an academic and social justice advocate. Use examples drawn from his own recollections in the text and connect them to specific examples of his philosophical and theological reflections.
How would a greater emphasis on the female perspective and experience of the lynching era contribute to the author's overall argument?
In what ways does the author argue that the lynching of Emmett Till was the final catalyst for the civil rights movement? How is this event a core memory both for the author and for the African American community as a whole in America?
Write an essay that demonstrates how the famous Billie Holiday song “Strange Fruit” is an encapsulation of James Cone’s thesis on the relation between the cross and the lynching tree, especially regarding its depiction of the Black body as “fruit” as a parallel to the body of Christ on the cross?
