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.
Index of Terms
Lynching Tree
The work’s title, The Cross and the Lynching Tree, may cause some to think that the author is referring to one specific tree—as “the cross” obviously refers to one specific cross, the one used in the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth—but this is not the case. When the author refers to “the lynching tree,” he refers to the object in the abstract, using it as a substantive noun to refer to any or all trees or gibbets upon which the victim was hung. While the author explains that the action of lynching did not always refer to hanging specifically, this was the most common use of the term, referring to the spectacle of such a public act of violence; the act of hanging someone on a tree specifically is what gives the author the parallel imagery with that of the crucifixion.
White Supremacy
White supremacy refers to the racially motivated ideology that elevates a specific group of people based purely on their supposed race and skin color. In America, the author argues that white supremacy has its roots in the relationship between white slave owners and Black slaves, as white men and women usually considered themselves to be of higher intelligence and greater worth and thus enabled by nature to dominate and wield power over all other races. Politically this was useful as a means to colonize other nation-states; culturally, it was a means to maintain influence and economic prosperity at the expense of Black men and women long after the abolition of slavery and the end to officially sanctioned segregation.
Segregation
The official emancipation of all slaves in 1863 gave certain legal status and protection to former slaves, but culturally no change had been accomplished. Racial segregation—the practice of separation based purely on skin color—was a lived reality for Black Americans in almost every possible realm: housing, banking, schooling, hospitals, churches, and transportation, among many others. Officially put to an end by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, segregation continued to be an issue for many years as the law took time to be enforced and received into the common consciousness.
Redemptive Suffering
The doctrine of redemptive suffering is the Christian teaching that human suffering can be actuated for redemptive purposes if united to the cross of Jesus. When suffering is approached in a way that offers the experience to God as a way of purifying one’s life, gaining grace, or as a prayer for a higher purpose, it can be endured in a way in which hope is maintained. Some critics point out that this teaching seems to glorify suffering, excuse it, or make light of it. Still, the author demonstrates that this is not the case and that the ultimate act of redemptive suffering was that of Jesus himself, who united himself to the poor and sinful by enduring the ultimate act of humiliation and violence.
Liberation Theology
Liberation theology is a theological methodology that privileges the relief of material suffering in the realms of politics, economics, and culture. Rather than focusing on the traditionally central aspects of Christian doctrine and practice, which aim to relieve spiritual suffering and sinfulness—aimed at a supernatural end—liberation theology focuses on worldly means by which the poor and marginalized can be liberated, aiming at a goal that terminates in a natural end. Liberation theology became popular among theologians focusing on the political oppression in Latin American countries, but it was quickly adopted by theologians in African American Christian spaces.
