Theology in the Mode of Monk: Misterioso, Volume 3
An Aesthetics of Barth and Cone on Revelation and Freedom
by Raymond Carr
Foreword by Willie James Jennings
Imprint: Cascade Books
This captivating study engages two of the most influential theologians of the twentieth century: Karl Barth, the Swiss Protestant theologian, who constructed his theology "from above" and engaged the powers in the background of Nazi Germany, and James H. Cone, the father of Black Theology in America, who constructed his theology "from below" and confronted white racism--the most intractable issue in America's history. In this three-volume project, Carr employs the aesthetic thinking of the jazz legend Thelonious Monk to reconceptualize, restructure, and advance the theologies of Barth and Cone. In this final volume, Carr appeals to Thelonious Monk's tune "Misterioso" as the framework for Monk's musical thinking as a coherent image to explore the freedom of God as the groundtone for black liberation. He encourages theologians to play in the mystery of God's freedom as the true ground for living freely within the world of the principalities and powers.
Raymond Carr is an international public theologian. His research interests are theologically ecumenical, historically sensitive, and radically inclusive. He is a visiting professor and director of the Codex Charles H. Long Papers Project at Harvard Divinity School, a research scholar at the Moses Mesoamerican Archive and Research Project at Harvard University, and the president elect of the Society for the Study of Black Religion (SSBR).
“This third volume of Raymond Carr’s magisterial comparison of Karl Barth and James Cone retraces the meaning of the political for both these luminaries. Carr in a way unmatched by any interpreter of Barth and Cone lays side by side their notions of freedom and articulates their architecture both historically and theologically through the musicality of Monk. With these three volumes the ground has shifted and Karl Barth and James Cone may now be read together far more productively.”
—Willie Jennings, associate professor of systematic theology and Africana studies, Yale Divinity School
Raymond Carr is one of the few groundbreaking and path-blazing theologians of his generation! This magisterial trilogy on three of the towering spiritual giants of the past one hundred years gives us new terrain in our grim and dim times.”
—Cornel West, professor of philosophy and Christian practice, Union Theological Seminary
“Thelonious Monk’s unprecedented aesthetics allow Raymond Carr to innovate brilliantly a mode that creates the interpenetration of James H. Cone and Karl Barth as supplementation and correction in counterpoint. In this groundbreaking third volume, Carr, himself a theological jazz creator and trickster theoretician, deploys the Monkian melodies to engage sociopolitical reality.”
—Dwight N. Hopkins, professor of theology, University of Chicago
“Raymond Carr undertakes an audacious attempt to construct ‘irregular theology’ in an aesthetic mode through which Karl Barth encounters James Cone. He interrogates and advances Barth’s thinking of freedom (Mozartean) down a line that includes James Cone’s spirituals and blues and Thelonious Monk’s jazz. In Carr’s groundbreaking proposal, Friedrich-Wilhelm Marquardt’s ‘logos of society’ finds significance in the Black experience of sociopolitical struggle. Do not miss this book!”
—Paul S. Chung, director, Karl Barth and Public Theology Center
“Raymond Carr is the Conjunto Cat! ‘Conjunto’ is Spanish for ‘to join together’ or a ‘set’ or a musical group. In Theology in the Mode of Monk, Carr has arranged a new polygonal bandstand on which appears a theological vision and practice whose main players are Karl Barth, James Cone, and Thelonius Monk! Watch out! Give a listen! Read deep! Conjunto can also mean totality, everybody! Come onstage by reading this book and join Raymond Carr’s conjunto.”
—David Carrasco, professor of the study of Latin America, Harvard Divinity School
“Raymond Carr has emerged as one of the most creative minds in contemporary African-American theology. His intensive engagement with James Cone and Karl Barth has already made a mark in the field but is now assured with the appearance of these remarkable volumes.”
—George Hunsinger, professor of systematic theology, Princeton Theological Seminary
“With great erudition and care, Raymond Carr cleverly utilizes the jazz aesthetic of Thelonius Monk to help explore the theological relationships between Karl Barth and James Cone. As he does so, we see the importance of Christ’s faithfulness as our cantus firmus and hear an urgent call for the church to be prophetic as it hears the higher frequencies of God and the lower frequencies of the cries of the oppressed.”
—Gary W. Burnett, senior fellow in New Testament, Belfast Bible College
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