Q & A on James Baldwin


M402 --FIVE AFRICAN AMERICAN WRITERS

For discussion on 8 October 2018

Q & A on James Baldwin



Q1:  Was Baldwin's intent  of the threshing floor scenario to be considered more of a religious experience or a spiritual one or both?



Religion and spirituality are not mutually exclusive; they are interrelated and can't be threshed one from the other as easily as grain can be threshed from chaff.  It is reasonable to believe that Baldwin intended for readers of Go Tell It on the Mountain  to consider that John Grimes'  experiences on the floor in the temple were simultaneously religious and spiritual.  The saints are witnessing John's demonstration of a religious experience in a form that is consonant with their beliefs.  John is having a profoundly spiritual experience, his soul or spirit being acted upon by "the lash, the fire, and the depthless water."



Although the primary focus is on John's experience, the omniscient narrator compels us to deal with  the threshing that occurs as Florence and Gabriel engage in sibling recrimination which is marked by accusation rather than mercy and forgiveness.  Thus, Baldwin uses the final segment of the novel to confirm (1)  that John is coming through on his spiritual journey toward salvation and (2) that Florence and Gabriel may never reach consensus in terms of their unrelenting beliefs about religion.  For readers, the threshing does not have closure.



Q2:  Though having a major impact on Baldwin's life, would his attitude toward organized religion change in his later writings depicting it more as a means of social control?



Always a preacher or maker of sermons, in his later writings Baldwin does acknowledge that organized religion had been used in history as a means of social control.  Nevertheless, Baldwin was keenly aware that organized religion can be transformed into a tool for resisting oppression even if it is not the very best instrument for achieving liberation or freedom.  He seemed to be convinced that religion was to be used to disturb the peace, to avoid total victimization or becoming complacent about things as they are.

In an interview with Kalamu ya Salaam[The Black Collegian, 10 (1979)], Baldwin said "The essential religion of Black people comes out of something which is not Europe.  When black people talk about true religion, they're 'speaking in tongues' practically.  It would not be understood in Rome."  Baldwin did not lock himself in a box when it came to thinking about the roles of religion in everyday life.



There is no definitive answer to this question.   Major writers do not allow us to delude ourselves with a single answer to any question.  In the case of James Baldwin, we need to read as much of his truth-telling nonfiction as we can ------all the writing  in The Price of the Ticket: Collected Nonfiction 1948-1985 (New York: St. Martin's/Marek, 1985) and The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings, ed. Randall Kenan ( New York: Pantheon Books, 2010).



Jerry W. Ward, Jr.            October 5, 2018

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