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A review by moreteamorecats
Prophesy Deliverance!: An Afro-American Revolutionary Christianity by Cornel West
4.0
Those who have had Cornel West as their teacher never forget him. For the rest of us, this book is as close as we get to the West of the classroom. We watch him posing questions, opening up problems by typologies, bringing his students immense intellectual distances in a short time, and making it all look easy.
The core argument here is about the roots of White supremacy; the core narrative, about African-Americans' political response to that ideology. West is an independent leftist, beholden to no party or theory: He draws on Foucault, various Marxisms, and most of all (though not always overtly) on the prophetic insight of Black Christians into their spiritual situation. The book makes a terrific conversation-starter. As a scholar, I want something meatier, more complete; but as a teacher, I can't ask for a more inspiring model.
Much of what's in here was West's half of a course, co-taught at Union Theological Seminary with [a:James Cone|17438|James H. Cone|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1281326117p2/17438.jpg], on Black theology and Marxism. I mention that, not simply to toot my school's horn, but to explain this book's striking aporias. West is presupposing that you know a particular telling of Black theology and history, represented by Cone's essays of the late '70s and early '80s (if you need something in book form, try [b:God of the Oppressed|271652|God of the Oppressed|James H. Cone|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173310171s/271652.jpg|263367] or [b:For My People|2737548|For My People|Margaret Walker|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg|2763199]) and Gayraud Wilmore's [b:Black Religion and Black Radicalism|1387540|Black Religion and Black Radicalism An Interpretation of the Religious History of African Americans|Gayraud S. Wilmore|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1183175871s/1387540.jpg|1377605].
The core argument here is about the roots of White supremacy; the core narrative, about African-Americans' political response to that ideology. West is an independent leftist, beholden to no party or theory: He draws on Foucault, various Marxisms, and most of all (though not always overtly) on the prophetic insight of Black Christians into their spiritual situation. The book makes a terrific conversation-starter. As a scholar, I want something meatier, more complete; but as a teacher, I can't ask for a more inspiring model.
Much of what's in here was West's half of a course, co-taught at Union Theological Seminary with [a:James Cone|17438|James H. Cone|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1281326117p2/17438.jpg], on Black theology and Marxism. I mention that, not simply to toot my school's horn, but to explain this book's striking aporias. West is presupposing that you know a particular telling of Black theology and history, represented by Cone's essays of the late '70s and early '80s (if you need something in book form, try [b:God of the Oppressed|271652|God of the Oppressed|James H. Cone|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173310171s/271652.jpg|263367] or [b:For My People|2737548|For My People|Margaret Walker|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg|2763199]) and Gayraud Wilmore's [b:Black Religion and Black Radicalism|1387540|Black Religion and Black Radicalism An Interpretation of the Religious History of African Americans|Gayraud S. Wilmore|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1183175871s/1387540.jpg|1377605].