Let Suffering Speak: Cornel West and the Crisis of Contemporary Ethics

Over a lifetime of public engagement in academia and activism, Cornel West has consistently emphasized and uniquely embodied Theodor Adorno’s dictum that “the condition of truth is to allow suffering to speak.” By critically reading West from the vantage of a constructive Christian theology of (the) power(s), Prather takes up West’s insistence that serious moral inquiry begins with attention to moments of crisis and attempts to re-envision the world through the lens of the cross.

This book demonstrates the theological value of West’s philosophical practice and political commitments through an analysis of several interrelated crises besetting contemporary religious and moral life – crises of global capital, of racial identity, of neoliberal democracy, of (post)liberal religion, and of American imperialism. Along the way, Prather draws on and highlights the overlap of West's witness with fresh theological insights from Marxist, womanist, and anti-colonial theory.