I found Dr. Cones book to be stimulating reading. His strong feelings were evident and I applaud his courage to criticize those theologians who are insensitive and indifferent to the subjectivity of Black Theology.

Overall, I agree with most of Cones theology. We do part company however at certain intersections.

I am not convinced that Cones unilateral approach is necessarily a good one. I sense something important is missing though I admit I am not at all sure what it is. But certainly, his universalism is so overshadowed with particularity that the casual reader may hastily assume that Cones theology does not include a universal view.

I realize that Dr. Cones approach to theology is from a black perspective. I can surely identify with that. Yet, I question if his identifying Jesus as black is not tantamount to making Jesus in our image. He stated that he was not referring so much to color as he was to Jesus oneness with the black experience. But doesnt Jesus also have an oneness with the Red experience or the Yellow experience?

Because I believe that if blacks were absent from the world, oppression and injustice would still exist, I think any approach to theology must be all inclusive. Theology needs both poles of objectivity and subjectivity.

Yes, Jesus becomes black for the Blacks, but He also becomes brown for the Browns, and white for the Whites who experience the pain of an unjust and unfair social order. I believe that whatever color oppression and injustice is focused on or against, that is the color Jesus becomes to help them struggle vehemently against it.

Jesus Jewishness does not, in my understanding, negate or preclude His universalism. After all, His ability to liberate folks from various diseases and states of being was not limited to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but was inclusive of all believers. Since Jesus was not only Jew but divine as well, I am not sure that Jewishness plus divineness equals particularity. It seems to me that Jesus was particular and yet more than universal; he was human and yet more than human divine.

Saundra L. Washington

Rev. Saundra L. Washington, grew up in Detroit, Michigan and relocated to Boynton Beach, Fl with her husband in 2000. She is an ordained clergywoman, veteran social worker, and Founder of AMEN Ministries and Publishers.

At every opportunity, Saundra enjoys interacting with people of various ethnicities and religions. She considers herself a "people person" and values the worth and dignity of every human being. She is a part of a loving family composed of biological as well as non biological members.

Rev. Washington's personal motto is: I wouldn't take nothing for my journey. I mean nothing.

In addition to aforementioned accomplishments, Saundra is also the author of two coffee table books; Room Beneath the Snow: Poems that Preach and Negative Disturbances: Homilies that Teach. AMEN Ministries Publishers expects to be releasing her latest project, "Out of Deep Waters: a Grief Healing Workbook" in early 2006.