James Cone on Theology and Life

I firmly believe that the issues to which theology addresses itself should be those that emerge out of life in society as persons seek to achieve meaning in a dehumanized world. This does not mean that theologians should ignore the scriptures and the traditions of the churches, or that these sources of the past should be manipulated to accommodate contemporary concerns without regard to their original historical setting and meaning. Rather it means that theologians should not do theology on the basis of scripture and tradition as if the existential and historical concerns of present-day humankind were nonexistent.

I believe that Christian theology achieves its distinctive identity when it takes on the issues of those who are struggling to be human in an oppressive world. Christians believe that their faith has something to say about this world and about the human beings in it - something that can make a decisive difference in the quality of life. It is therefore the task of theology to demonstrate the difference that the gospel can and does make in human lives, using the resources of the scriptures and traditions of the churches as well as other modern tools of social, historical, cultural, economic, and philosophical analysis.

Theological problems are not given by divine fiat, nor are theologians' solutions derived only from fixed divine revelation. Theological problems arise from theologians' interests, the issues that they consider important in the definition of their discipline. To whom theologians talk and what they talk about is a choice that they make so as to concretize what is regarded as theology. Therefore one knows what is important for theologians by whom they talk to and by what they choose to talk about. The issues that define the work of theology define theology itself.

-James Cone, For My People, pg. 28-29