James Baldwin’s Understanding of God: Overwhelming Desire and Joy (Black Religion/Womanist Thought/Social Justice)

This book focuses on Baldwin's experiences as a gifted black writer who fought valiantly against racism and wrote openly about homosexual relationships. Baldwin's God is a 'mysteriously impersonal' force he calls love- 'something . . . like a fire, like the wind, something which can change you.' "James Baldwin's Understanding of God focuses on Baldwin's experiences as a gifted black writer who fought valiantly against racism and wrote openly about homosexual relationships. Baldwin's God is a 'mysteriously impersonal' force he calls love, 'something ... like a fire, like the wind, something which can change you.' For Baldwin, 'To be with God is really to be involved with some enormous, overwhelming desire, and joy, and power which you cannot control, which controls you.' Young covers James Baldwin's life from his mid-teens to his death through accounts and analyses of his essays and novels. Sometimes his 'theology' -- what he has to say about his 'God' -- comes straight from his text; other times Young deduces it from his nonfiction prose and the implications of his novels and their protagonists. Young places those works in the context of several historic events that were taking place in the United States at that time"--Provided by publisher Front Matter....Pages i-xiii Introduction....Pages 1-5 Credo....Pages 7-11 Born in a Christian Culture....Pages 13-24 In Search of a Majority....Pages 25-33 Scarred by the Rock....Pages 35-57 Opening the Unusual Door....Pages 59-77 Coming out the Wilderness....Pages 79-100 Weighing Your Gods and You....Pages 101-115 Declining to “Imitate the Son of the Morning”....Pages 117-130 That Train’s Long Gone....Pages 131-145 The Black Issue of the Holy Ghost....Pages 147-162 Ain’t Nothing but Us up the Road....Pages 163-178 A Miracle of Coherence and Release....Pages 179-194 Postscript....Pages 195-197 Back Matter....Pages 199-222 Cover 1 James Baldwin’s Understanding of God 6 Contents 10 Acknowledgments 12 Abbreviations 14 1 Introduction 15 2 Credo 20 3 Born in a Christian Culture 25 4 In Search of a Majority 37 5 Scarred by the Rock 46 6 Opening the Unusual Door 69 7 Coming out the Wilderness 88 8 Weighing Your Gods and You 110 9 Declining to “Imitate the Son of the Morning” 125 10 That Train’s Long Gone 139 11 The Black Issue of the Holy Ghost 154 12 Ain’t Nothing but Us up the Road 170 13 A Miracle of Coherence and Release 186 14 Postscript 202 Notes 205 Bibliography 216 Index 219