The Spirituals and the Blues

by James H. Cone

James H. Cone revolutionized American theology with the publication in 1969 and 1970 of his first groundbreaking works on Black Liberation Theology--a fusion of themes from the Gospel and the Black Power movement. Some critics challenged him for drawing more on European sources rather than African American history and culture. His response in 1972 was The Spirituals and the Blues, a major examination of the soul-songs that emerged from slavery and Jim Crow oppression. In the Spirituals, as Cone showed, enslaved Black people expressed their deep appropriation of the Gospel message of freedom, and their trust in God's identification with the oppressed. In the Blues, a "secular spiritual" born in the era of segregation and lynching, Black people expressed their dignity, love, and "the gut capacity to survive," amidst all the forces that pressed them down. In a new introduction to this anniversary edition, Cheryl Townsend Gilkes "Cone's work established that theology must attend to the questions and the witness of enslaved Africans and their descendants; they have a voice, through their music, in the serious questions of theology. And fifty years after its first publication in 1972, Cone's work retains its enduring witness."

Genres: Music, Theology, Race, History, Nonfiction, Religion, Christianity

154 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 18, 2012

About the author

James Hal Cone was an advocate of Black liberation theology, a theology grounded in the experience of African Americans, and related to other Christian liberation theologies. In 1969, his book Black Theology and Black Power provided a new way to articulate the distinctiveness of theology in the black Church. James Cone’s work was influential and political from the time of his first publication, and remains so to this day. His work has been both utilized and critiqued inside and outside of the African American theological community.

Reviews

[Jason Gordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to say that this book is wonderfully written. Dr. Cone is quite at home talking about Christianity in the African American community. Christianity in the African American community shares the same iconography as the Christianity of whites, but the iconography in the former community is interpreted differently in so far as these icons are imbued with African traditions. Dr. Cone uses the spirituals to provide a cogent reading/interpretation of African American/Black Christianity and there were quite a few gems that made this book worth reading. For example, the experience of suffering was not used by the African American community to question the justice and righteousness of God. That was a given. The experience of suffering was used to articulate communal concerns 'centered on the faithfulness of the community of believers in a world full of trouble.'

However, while the interpretation of the spirituals is quite excellent, I was disappointed that the blues got one chapter, a chapter that felt rushed. I do hope the author does an expanded/revised edition, but all in all I'd highly recommend it.

[Brooke Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

As usual, Cone beautifully bears witness to the Black experience. This time, he lays out a basic primer on Black music and how it has been used to affirm Black humanity and survival. Though the spirituals and the blues have often been pit against each other (the blues being more “secular and profane”), Cone argues that they are two sides of the same struggle for surviving a white racist world. Grateful for his voice always.

[Jobe Arnold · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great help to my perspective on the Black experience and music in general. I've had the privilege of singing several of these songs in choirs growing up and this book has shed new light on the words I use to sing. While I lack the experience that created the spirituals, blues, and later gospel, jazz, and rap, I think that I can appreciate and play them more authentically after hearing Cone's perspective. I highly recommend this quick read to any musician who plays these genres.

[Wesley Gaines · Rating 5 out of 5]

A triumph. Cone, in soulful and poetic prose lays bare the historical and sociological realities that shaped two essential black genres of music in America, the Spirituals and the Blues. His central contention is that these songs were a way for oppressed blacks to assert their humanity in the face of de-humanizing circumstances like slavery and segregation.
He also performs a theological investigation of historical black Christianity by investigating these genres to see how the oppressed lived out their faith, and how the intellectual milieu of slavery formed their vision of God, His Church, His relationship with the world, His relationship with the Devil, etc.

“the power of song in the struggle for black survival – that is what the spiritual and blues are about.”

[Joe T. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great book. I would like to see similar treatment given to rap music.

[Izaiah Dawkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr.Cone is a master at making a clear connection between pain and music. If you understand that the best music,that transcends time ,comes from pain. Loved the book.

[Michael Doerr · Rating 5 out of 5]

The language of music and the liberation struggle

[Adam Shields · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: A explication of the theological roots of spirituals and the blues. A good example of why White seminary students need to be reading Black and other authors of Color. 

Over the past couple years there have been several minor controversies in US seminaries about assigned texts. Masters Seminary (started by John MacArthur) about a year ago had a former student write about the fact that he had not read a single book by a Black author during his seminary studies. That prompted a response by another former student that was (is?) a staff person at the seminary. The response includes this quote:

"I don’t mean to be dismissive of their contribution, but African-American Christians are a small portion built upon the main foundation, that just so happens to be, according to God’s providence, a white, Western European/English one."

A more recent controversy came up because in the context of a NY Times article about racism in the church, an SBC seminary professor talked about assigning James H Cone and that created calls for the professor to resign, which prompted this response from him. It is yet another example of the systemic problems within the Evangelical church that is ignorant about non-White culture and because of that lack of cultural understanding and a lack of good history, perpetuates a belief in White cultural superiority as the quote above does.

I first read James H Cone during my seminary years almost 25 years ago. But within the past couple years I have read four of Cone’s books and continue to think that White Evangelicals need to grapple with the theological contributions of Black and other theologians outside of the White Evangelical space. I am continually surprised that the case needs to be made for this, but at the same time, I know that personally it is easy to fall into reading the same White, mostly male, authors. This is part of why I have been attempting to keep my reading to no more than 1/3 White authors this year. It takes attention because it is easy to fall into reading what others around me are reading or reading what is most recently on sale, or the new thing that everyone is talking about. And that is probably a White guy.

All of that long introduction brings me to Cone’s The Spirituals and the Blues. You cannot read more than a few pages in any of Cone’s books without finding a reference to music. Someday I would like to put together playlists to accompany each of Cone’s books that would put the original songs in order so that readers can hear the songs in full context as they read.

The Spirituals and the Blues is a short theological book that takes seriously the historical context of the music that has shaped the Black church and then theologically explicates the themes of the music. This is a brief book, only about 150 pages.

Cone places the Spirituals in historical context. The theology of the music was related to the culture and context of the time.

"The essence of antebellum black religion was the emphasis on the somebodiness of black slaves. The content of the black preacher's message stressed the essential worth of their person. "You are created in God's image. You are not slaves, you are not `niggers'; you are God's children."36 Because religion defined the somebodiness of their being, black slaves could retain a sense of the dignity of their person even though they were treated as things."

I have been very slowly reading Fleming Rutledge’s Cruxifixction and she gave me some language that is similar to what Cone is talks about here. Rutledge talks about sin in two ways, the sin of the individual, which is important and does separate us from God, but also ‘Capital S Sin’ which is what she suggests is mostly what Paul is talking about when he talks about sin, the ‘Principalities and Powers’ that Christ defeated with his death and resurrection. This is an area where I do believe that absence of Black theology and a good theology of suffering has harmed White Evangelical theology. For Cone sin and Satan matter:

Satan is not merely an abstract metaphysical evil unrelated to social and political affairs; he represents the concrete presence of evil in an society. That was why exorcisms were central in the ministry of Jesus. The casting out of demons was an attack upon Satan because Jesus was setting people's minds free for the Kingdom which was present in his ministry. To be free from Satan meant to be free for Jesus, who was God making Iiberation a historical reality. Anyone who was not for the Kingdom, as present in the liberating work of Jesus, was automatically for Satan, who stood for enslavement.

Part of what is important in Cone is how he deals with historical reality of White sin.

Howard Thurman's explanation is closer to the truth. He contends that the slaves had been so ruthlessly treated as things by white masters that blacks soon learned to expect nothing but evil from white people. "The fact was that the slave owner was regarded as one outside the pale of moral and ethical responsibility.... Nothing could be expected from him but gross evil—he was in terms of morality— amoral."

That may feel too strong for many White readers, but Cone has plenty of evidence, such as:

Slave catechisms were written to insure that the message of black inferiority and divinely ordained white domination would be instilled in the slaves. Q. What did God make you for? A. To make a crop. Q. What is the meaning of "Thou shalt not commit adultery"? A. To serve our heavenly Father, and our earthly master, obey our overseer, and not steal anything.

The end result was that the spirituals are evidence that, "...enslaved blacks believed that there was an omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient power at work in the world who was on the side of the oppressed and downtrodden.” Which is something that is still controversial in White Evangelical theology.

The majority of the book is about Spirituals, but the Blues also matter. Cone rejects common assumptions that the spirituals were the songs of the religious and the blues were the songs of those that rejected God. Instead he asserts that there were both historical separation and a change purpose.

The spirituals are slave songs, and they deal with historical realities that are pre-Civil war. They were created and sung by the group. The blues, while having some pre-Civil War roots, are essentially post-Civil war in consciousness. They reflect experiences that issued from Emancipation, the Reconstruction Period, and segregation laws. "The blues was conceived," writes LeRoi Jones, "by freedmen and ex slaves — if not as a result of a personal or intellectual experience, at least as an emotional confirmation of, and reaction to, the way in which most Negroes were still forced to exist in the United States." Also, in contrast to the group singing of the spirituals, the blues are intensely personal and individualistic.

As with many older books published by small publishers, The Spirituals and the Blues has a number of typos. Kindle has an option to report mistakes and typos (usually because of bad OCR). I reported about 3 dozen typos, most of them fairly minor. (Two of the quotes above had minor typos that I fixed.)

This probably isn’t the first book I would recommend if you are new to James H Cone, but I think it is probably the least theologically controversial of any of Cone’s books. If you are starting new, I would start with his recent memoir and then The Cross and the Lynching Tree, but I think this would be the third books that I recommend.

[Jacob · Rating 3 out of 5]

A completely new area of study for me. The book wasn’t necessarily bad, it was just very academic and sometimes a little dry. Also, the topic wasn’t something that I personally was extremely interested in. It’s always good to expand one’s horizons though 🤷🏼‍♂️

[J Percell Lakin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really good contribution by James Cone to capture how African-Americans used music (spirituals and the blues) as artistic expressions of black life in America in order to survive. These musical genres helped (and continue to help) African-Americans endure living in a contradictory society, holding on to their dignity and worth in a culture that tries to undermine it at every turn while telling the complete truth of their experiences so as not to be in denial about the harshness of life in a society where white supremacy continues to be an ever-present reality.

As he mentioned in his concluding chapter, James Cone wrote, “The fact that black people keep making music means that we as a people refuse to be destroyed. We refuse to allow the people who oppress us to have the last word about our humanity.”

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

a strong response to the lack of theological and critical reflection on the spirituals and blues. though Cone in his fashion generalizes the various forms and periods of each, Cone’s book is an interesting but also essential placement of the two as not the sacred and profane, but the hopeful sacred and the real sacred. his eschatological readings of the two forms are particularly captivating, as he frames heaven as a promise but not an opium (Marx is cited throughout like his liberation theology text), and suffering as material and ontological than philosophical and aesthetic.

a worthy read for those interested in the spirituals and the blues, with a well articulated statement on musicological and theological scholarship up to the point of publication (1972)

[5greenway · Rating 5 out of 5]

About as good as I'd hoped it'd be. Clear, forceful argument for the specificity and value of two art forms intimately bound with a culture. The theological analysis of spirituals is as strong and challenging as you'd expect from Cone. Would have been interesting to know his thoughts on the 'mainstreaming' of blues forms into a global 'culture' (similar for jazz, hip hop, electronic, etc) and that tension between the particular and the universal (too often smudged by lazy concepts of 'appropriation'), but you can't have everything in a small book...

[Theon Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cone offers an excellent analysis of the theological, historical, and social roots of spirituals and the blues. While I disagree with certain tenets of Cone's liberation theology, his perspective gives him keen insight into the vital role that these forms of music played in African American cultural life as people of color have sought to maintain their humanity against the backdrop of America's vicious legacy of White Supremacy.

[David Withun · Rating 4 out of 5]

-

[Alex Strohschein · Rating 4 out of 5]

James H. Cone was one of the pioneers of black theology in America (indeed, as Cheryl Townsend Gilkes notes in her introduction to the 50th anniversary edition of this book, "on April 5, 1968, with the murder of Martin Luther King Jr., there was only one Black systematic theologian" with a doctorate in theology, p. xiii), specifically, black liberation theology. In 'The Spirituals and the Blues,' Cone delved deep into the black spirituals and blues that had been born out of the experience of the suffering slaves, Cone's African ancestors. This groundbreaking book also represented a departure from Cone's earlier two books that had been criticized for being more Eurocentric in their approach to theology.

Spirituals provided enslaved blacks with powerful expressions of their lament and religious longing. Despite the oppression and torture that many enslaved blacks suffered, they rarely lashed out at God Himself for their lot in life; they adamantly refused to believe that God approved of their white master's cruelty and they took comfort in Jesus, the Suffering Servant's, empathy with them. Spirituals, realistic about Satan, sin, and suffering, also nevertheless were ways that enslaved blacks expressed their sense of dignity as children of God. The theology of the spirituals is not about propositional truths as in so much white evangelical/fundamentalist theology but more about feeling and a sense that history is moving forward towards God's heavenly reign. Cone writes:

For Black slaves, who were condemned to carve out their existence in captivity, heaven meant that the eternal God had made a decision about their humanity that could not be destroyed by white masters. Whites could drive them, beat them, and even kill them; but they believed that God nevertheless had chosen Black slaves as God’s own and that this election bestowed upon them a freedom to be, which could not be measured by what oppressors could do to the physical body. Whites may suppress Black history and define Africans as savages, but the words of slave masters do not have to be taken seriously when the oppressed know that they have a SOMEBODINESS that is guaranteed by God who alone is the ultimate sovereign of the universe. This is what heaven meant for Black slaves (pp. 81-82).

The blues, on the other hand, as "secular spirituals," did not discount God in the atheistic manner of a Richard Dawkins but rather "ignored" God, focusing instead on this-worldly concerns like the "agony of love" and poverty.

I have already read Cone's later book 'The Cross and the Lynching Tree' and both draw upon spirituals to explore blacks' lyrical, liberationist theology so some of the material felt a bit repetitive between the two. Still, Cone's work is incredibly powerful and moving, particularly in academia and among socially liberal movements that see in Christianity only an avatar for white supremacy, imperialism, capitalism, and intolerance. No! says Cone - the very religion that these critics despise was the very faith that offered hope and dignity to the slaves. In this way, Cone's work is, I think, a particularly persuasive form of apologetic and I would recommend his works.

[Thomas Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

James Cone was the second reader of my M.Div. Thesis. I am very grateful for the work of this gentleman. His primary argument is that the Spirituals and the Blues is form of music that is exclusively black. That this form further expresses a theology which defies the categories of theology as constructed by whites. The argument is well laid out.

I asked myself if this was entirely true. I wish James Cone was still around for a one on one conversation. The song which came to my mind was Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues. It has all the elements of the Blues which Cone raises up - right up to the image of a train taking one away from the suffering of this world - and it is written by a white man. In my very limited research I discovered that Johnny Cash's work was influenced by another musician which I imagined might be black. Gordon Jenkins, the artist in question was white. However, that doesn't mean that Jenkins didn't steal his work from Black culture.

Again, I'm certain Cone would have been able to speak to my question and provide me with an insight lost here.

The bottom line for liberation theology is that the work of looking at God and dealing with the vicissitudes of life is best done from the bottom up; and that those who bear the brunt of suffering on this planet have an untapped wisdom important for our future survival. Further, the scriptures at their best make this wisdom available.

Cone is certainly correct in his notion that Black intellectuals have been a sideline to white dialogue which has been completely ignored. As evidence of this simply look at the book I recently reviewed 'The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America'. I cannot remember any discussion of the conversation which was took place in the black community. Take for instance Baptist Conventions. The black community has its own baptist conventions. These conventions had their own arguments about the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. Is there anyone who will say that Martin Luther King Jr. had no significant voice on what it means to be a Christian in America? In fact, when we look at history we leave him out.

Take my denomination, The United Methodist Church. A denomination formed by bringing together two previous denominations - the Evangelical United Brethren and Methodist Episcopal Churches in April of 1968. Whenever we tell that history we never mention that in the same month of that year Martin Luther King Jr. was gunned down at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. IT IS NEVER MENTIONED - BECAUSE IT IS NEVER CONSIDERED RELEVANT. Further, we give little mention to our own denominational legacy of segregation which was a significant issue at the time.

No, Cone's argument is sound. And while we might be able to argue a fine point here and there - there is a gift to be treasured in Black folks' contribution to what it means to be a follower of a man who was whipped and lynched two thousand years ago.

[Dave Byrnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is Cone at his best (as I have seen him) - as a theological commentator on the religious and artistic history of black people in the United States. The music of enslaved and (partially) liberated persons here emerges as perhaps the prime means black folk had for asserting their humanity in the early modern era. The Jesus of the spirituals is someone who is known as a friend and as an example. The world of the blues is the ugly underbelly faced by black Americans at every turn. In neither genre however can be found mere resignation (nor thoughtless repetition of European/“real” music!). The music of black Americans created a world in which joy, despair, hope, and the day to day experience of a people trying to survive could be expressed. I’m unsure if it is due to an update to this book in 1991 (my copy has that and ‘72 as copyright dates, and he mentions emerging rap at the end) or simply the material he was working with, but I noticed virtually none of the sexist language Cone had been guilty/accused of - women are given their due as pioneers and a voices of the people. Having only read God of the Oppressed before (in addition to selections from others works and familiarity with Cone-criticisms), it was fantastic to see little repetition/repackaging of language and thought.

[Garrett Cash · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was not familiar with Cone's theological legacy or work before reading this book, and thought it would be a more straightforward musical examination of the relationship between spirituals and blues. Instead, it is a theologian examining the theology of the spirituals and adding a single chapter to say that the blues as the secular flip side is not profane but simply a different angle on the black experience. Not what I was expecting, but still an interesting interpretation of the lyrical content of these two forms of black art. Cone defends his concept of what seems to be referred to as liberation theology in this book, which I was not previously familiar with. While I had minor disagreements with his interpretations this was a book I feel like anybody interested in what the lyrics in spirituals are saying needs to read. I just walked away wishing there had been more on the music itself rather than pure lyrical theory.

[Andrew (Drew) Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ostensibly a book about black music, but really a theology of the black American slave through spirituals. Can be summed up by the following on page 101: “ the task , however, of black theologians is to move beyond the distortions of black religion to the authentic substance of black religious experience so that it can continue to serve as a positive force in liberating black people. And black theologians will find that the strongest counterweight to the obstacles in the way of historical liberation is that vision of the future defined by the oppressed black slaves.”

[Anwar · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Must For Every Educator and Musician

James H. Cone stands as a major contributor to Black Liberation and reconciliation of using art as a means of coping and survival through our worst experiences. Professor Cone created this book as a means of filling a void from the destruction of Black leadership of the 1960s, and to offer a historical account and then-modern template (which is very much applicable today) to make meaning as an oppressed people and to rebuild the world.

[Pb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating. I read this for my religion and the arts class at Hunter. I created a presentation focusing on the spirituals sections of this book. I learned so much about the black experience in early America and how black people endured the horrors they were put through.

Thorough and explained in a way where I was able to grasp the concepts, and very interesting even though it was for school!!!!!

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short, but a very intriguing overview and theological analysis of the spirituals and the blues. My primarily problem with it, especially having read Cone’s more systematic works, is that it at times he seems to be finding his own theology in the theology of the spirituals and not doing justice to places where his views would be inconsistent with those of the spirituals he cites..

[Joy Reinbold · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third work of James H. Cone that I have read this year (after The Cross and the Lynching Tree and Black Theology and Black Power) and I was expecting it to be my favorite. I didn't like it as much as Black Theology and Black Power, but it was still a wonderful book that left me wanting to read much more on the topic.

[Jeffrey Carey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished this book the afternoon before I saw Sinners for the first time. Cone’s work here contextualizes as it does the twin vehicles of Black expression (the spirituals and the blues; the church and the juke joint) in a hostile, white society, making it in my view an essential companion piece to the film.

[Julia Alberino · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must read for students of history, music, and African-American culture. This is a gem of a book, tracing the roots of the spirituals and the blues, comparing and contrasting them and giving both their place in culture, and how the two musical genres present both despair and hope.

[Drick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short history of the development of spirituals and the blues and how they reflect the struggles of life as an African American in the U.S.

[Ivy]

so much good stuff in here! super short and easy read but will be thinking about this for a while

[Jane Xie · Rating 5 out of 5]

speaks to my soul

[Cienna Rianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everyone, read more James Cone please

[Mauberley]

This is the first book of James Cone's that I have read and I am confident that it won't be the last. I found this to be a fascinating exploration of the meaning/ significance/ power of Black spirituals. For this reader, it was also a sound introduction to the work of James Cone the theologian. As Cone remarks, '...[I]t is through the strength of their hope in God that the oppressed are saved (Romans 8:24). It was this transcendent element of hope (as expressed in black music) which elevated black people above the limitations of the slave experience, and enabled them to view black humanity independently of their oppressors...Heaven was a vision of a new Black Humanity.' (page 90, from the chapter entitled, 'The Meaning of Heaven in Black Spirituals') After spending time this year reading work by Moltmann, Cone offers a an excellent example of 'political theology'. Some may feel that the chapter on the blues is simply too short and I cannot argue with that. I would add that Cone appears reluctant to challenge or explore the deep streak of sexism that makes many blues lyrics unpleasant to hear.
I recommend this to anyone at all interested in any area that I have touched upon in the preceding summary. Cone writes a clear and thoughtful prose infused with a righteous love and anger.