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The Gospel According to James Baldwin: What America's Great Prophet Can Teach Us about Life, Love, and Identity
Baldwin’s writing offers critiques of religion, culture, and discrimination, and in the witness of his life he holds up hope and the primacy of love despite all the difficulties of the present moment. In this passionate introduction, Garrett presents the life and work of Baldwin in all his writing genres, on themes of equity, justice, and reconciliation.
185 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 15, 2023
27 people are currently reading
140 people want to read
About the author
Greg Garrett
46 books77 followersGreg Garrett is the Austin, Texas author of two dozen books of fiction, nonfiction, memoir, and translation. Like his literary heroes James Baldwin and Marilynne Robinson, Greg moves fluidly from fiction to nonfiction exploring the big human questions, and in his books, hoping to help his readers discover some answers of their own. Among his latest books are a book of conversation with his friend Rowan Williams, the past Archbishop of Canterbury (In Conversation), a lead trade title from Oxford University Press exploring our post-9/11 obsession with the zombie apocalypse (Living with the Living Dead, Starred Review in Library Journal), the tenth-anniversary edition of his searing yet hopeful memoir of depression and faith (Crossing Myself, featured on FOX News), and a novel retelling one of our great archetypal stories in the modern world of 24/7 news and social media (The Prodigal, Starred Review in Publishers Weekly). Greg's debut novel, Free Bird, was chosen by Publishers Weekly as a First Fiction feature, and the Denver Rocky Mountain News named it one of the best first novels of 2002. His other novels are Cycling and Shame. All have been critically acclaimed.
Greg is perhaps best known for his writing on faith, culture, race, politics, and narrative. BBC Radio has called Greg "one of America's leading voices on religion and culture," and he has written on topics ranging from spirituality and suffering to film and pop culture, written on U2, Harry Potter, American politics, and contemporary faith and practice. Greg's nonfiction work has been covered by The New Yorker, USA Today, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Globe and Mail, FOX News Radio, The Christian Science Monitor, BBC Radio, BBC Scotland, National Public Radio, CBS Radio, msnbc.com, DublinTalk Radio, The New Statesman, The National Review, Commonweal, Christianity Today, Vice, Playboy, Mens Health, and many other broadcast, print, and web media sources. Greg has written for Salon.com, The Washington Post, The Daily Mirror, Patheos, FOX News, The Huffington Post, The Spectator, Reform, The Tablet, and other print and web publications in the US and UK, and has spoken across the US and Europe, including appearances at the Edinburgh Festival of Books, the American Library in Paris, Cambridge University, Kings College London, Villanova University, Amerika Haus in Munich, the Greenbelt Festival in the UK, Google London, South by Southwest, Amerika Days in Stuttgart, and the Washington National Cathedral. Greg's current projects are a literary novel set in Paris against the backdrop of international terrorism, a book on race, film, and reconciliation for Oxford University Press, and a book on the wisdom of James Baldwin.
Greg is an award-winning Professor of English at Baylor University, Theologian in Residence at the American Cathedral in Paris, and an elected member of the Texas Institute of Letters. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife Jeanie and their daughters Lily and Sophia.
Greg is perhaps best known for his writing on faith, culture, race, politics, and narrative. BBC Radio has called Greg "one of America's leading voices on religion and culture," and he has written on topics ranging from spirituality and suffering to film and pop culture, written on U2, Harry Potter, American politics, and contemporary faith and practice. Greg's nonfiction work has been covered by The New Yorker, USA Today, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Globe and Mail, FOX News Radio, The Christian Science Monitor, BBC Radio, BBC Scotland, National Public Radio, CBS Radio, msnbc.com, DublinTalk Radio, The New Statesman, The National Review, Commonweal, Christianity Today, Vice, Playboy, Mens Health, and many other broadcast, print, and web media sources. Greg has written for Salon.com, The Washington Post, The Daily Mirror, Patheos, FOX News, The Huffington Post, The Spectator, Reform, The Tablet, and other print and web publications in the US and UK, and has spoken across the US and Europe, including appearances at the Edinburgh Festival of Books, the American Library in Paris, Cambridge University, Kings College London, Villanova University, Amerika Haus in Munich, the Greenbelt Festival in the UK, Google London, South by Southwest, Amerika Days in Stuttgart, and the Washington National Cathedral. Greg's current projects are a literary novel set in Paris against the backdrop of international terrorism, a book on race, film, and reconciliation for Oxford University Press, and a book on the wisdom of James Baldwin.
Greg is an award-winning Professor of English at Baylor University, Theologian in Residence at the American Cathedral in Paris, and an elected member of the Texas Institute of Letters. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife Jeanie and their daughters Lily and Sophia.
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October 17, 2023
A Prophetic Call to Change from Go Tell It on the Mountain to The Welcome Table
The novelist, essayist and educator Greg Garrett has been teaching the works of James Baldwin for many years in his courses at Baylor—but it took many years before he could finally give birth to this new book-length reflection on the living legacy of James Baldwin.
One milestone that helped him considerably was the 2017 acquisition of "30 linear feet" of Baldwin's papers, manuscripts, notes and artifacts by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at The New York Public Library.
Among other treasures in that collection were drafts and notes on what would have become a full-fledged play, if Baldwin had not died in 1987 at age 63 while he was still revising the manuscript. To Garrett's knowledge, no one has yet secured the rights to produce a version of that nearly finished draft. And, reading Garrett's book, perhaps someone should.
This play, in Garrett's words, "brought together many of his greatest themes" and "would have been a fitting end to a monumental life."
If you have read this far in this review, you probably are familiar with Baldwin in some way. Perhaps you were assigned to read his books in school—as Professor Garrett does each year with at least one Baldwin book for his classes at Baylor. Perhaps you enjoyed Barry Jenkins' Oscar-winning 2018 version of Baldwin's 1974 novel, If Beale Street Could Talk. Perhaps you are old enough that, like me, you followed Baldwin's provocative literary and film criticism as it flowed through major American media during his prime.
So, you may be asking: Do I need another Baldwin book?
I'm arguing: You do. But let's be clear on what Garrett is offering here to both individual readers who want to reflect on faith and race and culture in America—and to small groups who may want to engage in that kind of timely discussion in their communities.
What Garrett is not attempting in this new book is another exhaustive biography of Baldwin. If that's what you are seeking, I can recommend the three volumes of Baldwin's own works collected by Library of America, since Baldwin unfolded his own life and wisdom across his own published works. In effect, he wrote his own autobiography. If you want a substantial biography of Baldwin by a scholar, I can recommend David Leemings' 1994 biography of Baldwin that's more than twice the length of Garrett's book. Or, you might consider Princeton scholar Eddie S. Glaude Jr.'s 2020 Begin Again, which also is a lot longer than Garrett's book.
What Garrett has accomplished is what I would describe as a very compelling "magazine-style overview" of crucial themes that Baldwin was trying to convey across the decades that we had him with us on the planet. In other words, Garrett has given us a book that everyday readers can jump into without a lot of background reading—and glean some very timely insights.
In fact, Garrett has dubbed Baldwin "St. James"—which is especially appropriate, I think, because the Epistle of James is the most practical of all the letters in the Christian New Testament. In fact, as I write this review, I am thinking of James 1:16: "You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls."
That's not a bad scripture to read and remember as you open Garrett's book. If you choose his book for a small-group discussion, especially in a church group, I would urge you to read from that first chapter of James before unleashing the conversation.
What's in the book?
In chapters on Culture, Faith, Race, Justice, Identity and New Beginnings, Garrett takes us through the broad sweep of Baldwin's wisdom about how the world desperately needs to confront our collective, selfish and destructive biases—if we hope to have any chance at reconciliation. And, as Baldwin always emphasized: That sentence contains a huge "if." Baldwin never was certain that we could collectively attain what he yearned was possible.
And that brings us to The Welcome Table, which Garrett explored in the form of unfinished pages in Baldwin's treasure-trove at the Schomberg archives. Garrett argues persuasively that this play does represent a kind of summation of Baldwin's deepest yearnings.
"In most of Baldwin's work ... failures to love sacrificially, failures to love with courage, failures to love in the face of whatever others might say about love, doom characters." Nevertheless, "even in The Welcome Table, where Baldwin was wrestling with his late-life inclinations about the necessity of love and the irrelevance of labels, we find characters trying to live into the importance of love."
Garret writes (shown here in italics):
Baldwin had been taught early in his life in the church that we are called to love everybody. "Whoever else did not believe this," he remembers, "I did." And, thus, to talk about a faith community—about any community—one has to acknowledge the primacy of love, "our endless connection with, and responsibility for, each other."
To the end of his life, Baldwin spoke of the concept of the Welcome Table, a place where this brotherhood and sisterhood, this kind of love, this kind of unity, might be possible. The concept comes from a spiritual that was also sung in the civil rights era. Its first verse proclaims, "I'm going to sit at the Welcome Table one of these days." Perhaps just now, I am alone, hungry, sad, lost. But someday, somewhere, there will be a place where I belong. Where I will be seen and known. Where I will be accepted. Where I will be welcome at the feast alongside all my brothers and sisters. One of these days, I'm going to sit at the Welcome Table.
This was an article of faith for Baldwin. If we did not succumb to fear and hatred, if we did not implode from our own divisions, such a thing was attainable.
And so—
As I post this review in the second half of October 2023, I am well aware that the world does, indeed, seem to be succumbing to fear and hatred nearly every day—and we collectively seem to be on the verge of "imploding" in many places and many ways.
Still, like Baldwin and Garrett, I keep writing about where we just might find renewal, resilience and hope. As the Good Lord knows, Baldwin did not think that would be easy! Still, the arc of his all-too-short life—as charted in Garrett's inspiring new book—turned ultimately toward hope.
So may we, too, in the choices we make each day.
The novelist, essayist and educator Greg Garrett has been teaching the works of James Baldwin for many years in his courses at Baylor—but it took many years before he could finally give birth to this new book-length reflection on the living legacy of James Baldwin.
One milestone that helped him considerably was the 2017 acquisition of "30 linear feet" of Baldwin's papers, manuscripts, notes and artifacts by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at The New York Public Library.
Among other treasures in that collection were drafts and notes on what would have become a full-fledged play, if Baldwin had not died in 1987 at age 63 while he was still revising the manuscript. To Garrett's knowledge, no one has yet secured the rights to produce a version of that nearly finished draft. And, reading Garrett's book, perhaps someone should.
This play, in Garrett's words, "brought together many of his greatest themes" and "would have been a fitting end to a monumental life."
If you have read this far in this review, you probably are familiar with Baldwin in some way. Perhaps you were assigned to read his books in school—as Professor Garrett does each year with at least one Baldwin book for his classes at Baylor. Perhaps you enjoyed Barry Jenkins' Oscar-winning 2018 version of Baldwin's 1974 novel, If Beale Street Could Talk. Perhaps you are old enough that, like me, you followed Baldwin's provocative literary and film criticism as it flowed through major American media during his prime.
So, you may be asking: Do I need another Baldwin book?
I'm arguing: You do. But let's be clear on what Garrett is offering here to both individual readers who want to reflect on faith and race and culture in America—and to small groups who may want to engage in that kind of timely discussion in their communities.
What Garrett is not attempting in this new book is another exhaustive biography of Baldwin. If that's what you are seeking, I can recommend the three volumes of Baldwin's own works collected by Library of America, since Baldwin unfolded his own life and wisdom across his own published works. In effect, he wrote his own autobiography. If you want a substantial biography of Baldwin by a scholar, I can recommend David Leemings' 1994 biography of Baldwin that's more than twice the length of Garrett's book. Or, you might consider Princeton scholar Eddie S. Glaude Jr.'s 2020 Begin Again, which also is a lot longer than Garrett's book.
What Garrett has accomplished is what I would describe as a very compelling "magazine-style overview" of crucial themes that Baldwin was trying to convey across the decades that we had him with us on the planet. In other words, Garrett has given us a book that everyday readers can jump into without a lot of background reading—and glean some very timely insights.
In fact, Garrett has dubbed Baldwin "St. James"—which is especially appropriate, I think, because the Epistle of James is the most practical of all the letters in the Christian New Testament. In fact, as I write this review, I am thinking of James 1:16: "You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls."
That's not a bad scripture to read and remember as you open Garrett's book. If you choose his book for a small-group discussion, especially in a church group, I would urge you to read from that first chapter of James before unleashing the conversation.
What's in the book?
In chapters on Culture, Faith, Race, Justice, Identity and New Beginnings, Garrett takes us through the broad sweep of Baldwin's wisdom about how the world desperately needs to confront our collective, selfish and destructive biases—if we hope to have any chance at reconciliation. And, as Baldwin always emphasized: That sentence contains a huge "if." Baldwin never was certain that we could collectively attain what he yearned was possible.
And that brings us to The Welcome Table, which Garrett explored in the form of unfinished pages in Baldwin's treasure-trove at the Schomberg archives. Garrett argues persuasively that this play does represent a kind of summation of Baldwin's deepest yearnings.
"In most of Baldwin's work ... failures to love sacrificially, failures to love with courage, failures to love in the face of whatever others might say about love, doom characters." Nevertheless, "even in The Welcome Table, where Baldwin was wrestling with his late-life inclinations about the necessity of love and the irrelevance of labels, we find characters trying to live into the importance of love."
Garret writes (shown here in italics):
Baldwin had been taught early in his life in the church that we are called to love everybody. "Whoever else did not believe this," he remembers, "I did." And, thus, to talk about a faith community—about any community—one has to acknowledge the primacy of love, "our endless connection with, and responsibility for, each other."
To the end of his life, Baldwin spoke of the concept of the Welcome Table, a place where this brotherhood and sisterhood, this kind of love, this kind of unity, might be possible. The concept comes from a spiritual that was also sung in the civil rights era. Its first verse proclaims, "I'm going to sit at the Welcome Table one of these days." Perhaps just now, I am alone, hungry, sad, lost. But someday, somewhere, there will be a place where I belong. Where I will be seen and known. Where I will be accepted. Where I will be welcome at the feast alongside all my brothers and sisters. One of these days, I'm going to sit at the Welcome Table.
This was an article of faith for Baldwin. If we did not succumb to fear and hatred, if we did not implode from our own divisions, such a thing was attainable.
And so—
As I post this review in the second half of October 2023, I am well aware that the world does, indeed, seem to be succumbing to fear and hatred nearly every day—and we collectively seem to be on the verge of "imploding" in many places and many ways.
Still, like Baldwin and Garrett, I keep writing about where we just might find renewal, resilience and hope. As the Good Lord knows, Baldwin did not think that would be easy! Still, the arc of his all-too-short life—as charted in Garrett's inspiring new book—turned ultimately toward hope.
So may we, too, in the choices we make each day.
November 4, 2023
There are times when a book emerges that offers a necessary word, times we need reminding that racism is an ever-present problem. The election of Barack Obama did not usher in a post-racial world. Instead, it seems to have ignited a period of racial unrest. Thus, we need to hear the voices and be reintroduced to the voices that have spoken truth to moments like this. Among those of the past who offer gospel truth is James Baldwin, author, and activist.
In "The Gospel According to James Baldwin," Greg Garrett has done just that. Garrett is the Carole McDaniel Hanks Professor of Literature and Culture at Baylor University as well as Canon Theologian at the American Cathedral in Paris. It is in the context of his vocation that Garrett has spent much time studying and teaching the life and literature of James Baldwin.
I have only read, that I have evidence, one book by James Baldwin. That would be The Fire Next Time. I have not, as I know of, read his fiction. However, after reading Garrett's book, I recognize my need to do so. Thus, for me, as a reviewer, Garrett's "The Gospel According to James Baldwin," is in many ways an introduction to Baldwin's life and message. While Baldwin was by no means a traditional Christian his message speaks to the heart of the Gospel, one that calls for justice and mercy.
Garrett begins and ends his book on a pilgrimage to experience the footsteps of James Baldwin. As an author, Garrett is white, straight, and relatively orthodox in his Christian theology. Baldwin was Black, Gay, and not traditional, though he grew up with a stepfather who was a preacher and spent some time as a teen preaching in Black churches. So, he knew the message and in many ways lived it better than most. It's possible that Baldwin could be banned from school libraries for not falling in line with the current trends. However, as Garrett notes, based on teaching Baldwin to his Baylor students, "We experience an enlargement of what it means to be human in Baldwin's presence, gain burgeoning insights into why we might be here, what we are made for, how transcendence feels, what beauty is, how we're meant to live with each other, how are called to love each other and to be responsible for each other" (p. 5). Such is the Gospel according to James Baldwin.
In many ways, Garrett takes us on a pilgrimage, which begins with "The Life of James Baldwin," who was born in Harlem in 1924, the grandson of a slave who never knew his biological father. Garrett points out that Baldwin "knew from an early age that he was Black and that he was smart, and that if he was going to escape the crippling poverty and his family endured, ...it was going to have to be through that intelligence." (p. 11). While he never pursued education beyond high school, he became one of America's great intellectuals, who held his own in a debate with William F. Buckley. His writing talent was recognized early and nurtured by one of his teachers. As he moved into adulthood, he began his writing career, publishing essays in major magazines. Nonetheless, he came to believe that if he stayed in the US he would end up on a path to self-destruction, so he boarded a ship to France, where he lived as an expatriate in Paris. It was there he struggled financially but me the love of his life, a young Swiss artist. It was while living in Switzerland that he finished his novel Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953) that made his name. Garrett takes us from there through Baldwin's life, lifting up his written work and experiences of life, much of which was spent in the south of France. But his spirit still lives and his voice still speaks.
In a chapter titled "Baldwin as Prophet of Humanity," we discover Baldwin's own sense of purpose, as he identified with Jeremiah. In this role, he sought to call the people to account on matters of race and justice, identity and culture. He claimed that it was because of his love of America that he felt called to engage in perpetual criticism, serving to remind white Americans of their delusions of innocence. As a prophet, Baldwin also spoke to matters of culture. Garrett writes that "For Baldwin, art, literature, and culture are central ways we understand ourselves and the world we occupy, and so he held his roles as artist and critic to be sacred" (p. 28). He believed that good art enlarges us while bad art puts us in cages. Thus, he could be highly critical of art and literature that he felt did not enlarge. He was concerned when art, literature, and film glossed over hard truths, wanting them to depict society critically and honestly. That's what he sought to do as he addressed matters of race, faith, and identity.
The title of the book speaks of the Gospel, and so we might expect some words on matters of faith. Garett doesn't disappoint. He offers a chapter titled "Baldwin on Faith." The former teen preacher would leave the church behind as an adult, yet he speaks in his works to matters of faith and used the "language of church, the Bible, and theology" in his works. Among the works I wish was available is an unfinished play titled "Welcome Table," which speaks to matters I'm concerned about. Perhaps we can learn something from his separation from institutionalized Christianity, as he bore witness to the failings of both white and black churches. Garrett points out that "To the end of his life, Baldwin spoke of the concept of the welcome table, a place where this brotherhood and sisterhood, this kind of live, this kind of unity might be possible" (p. 79).
As one might expect, Baldwin devoted much of his life and work, his literature and his activism, to matters of race. He experienced the full impact of racism and addressed it, even as the Civil Rights Movement was fully underway. He reminds us that racism has been with us as a nation from the beginning, and unfortunately, long after his death, it's still with us. But he helps us wrestle with this stain on our society. Baldwin believed, rightly so, that race is a social construct that has been erected by white folks to subjugate Black people and other people of color. This construct has damaged both Black and White. One of the stories present in the book concerns a meeting that Baldwin helped set up with Bobby Kennedy, then Attorney General, in 1963, with a set of influential Black people. What we see here is that Kennedy called the meeting in many ways to let these African Americans know how much he and the administration had done and was taken aback when his conversation partners challenged him. It serves as a reminder of how well-meaning white people fail to truly understand the realities experienced by others. Despite everything he experienced he remained optimistic about the future. Unfortunately, that optimism has experienced a rather hard hit in recent years. Nevertheless, he offers a witness that addresses where we fall short. Related to matters of race, Garrett takes us to a discussion of "Baldwin on Justice." Here we discover that Baldwin spoke not only to race but to other matters of injustice, including poverty and incarceration. He invites us to speak out.
Not only did Baldwin write about faith, race, and justice, but he also addressed identity. Garrett points out that the titles of many of Baldwin's works speak of a lack of knowing and being known. Interestingly, in his interviews, Baldwin tended to resist defining himself. In his mind, Garrett suggests there will come a day "when we reach that New Jerusalem, when we all sit at the Welcome Table, there will be no need for names, labels, distinctions, or identities that divide or group us. Not the ones imposed on us by others, nor the ones we chose to use to define ourselves." (p. 143). Of course, we're not there yet, but the question of identity is one that we wrestle with and Baldwin does so as well in his works. As seen in his works, including that final unfinished play, Baldwin wants us to reject the status quo and "work toward a future where hatred and prejudice will, always, be overwhelmed by love" (p. 160). That is, I believe Gospel.
Garrett closes the book where he begins, on pilgrimage. He takes a journey to the Swiss Alps, to Leukerbad, where he finishes this book, along with a novel he had been working on for six years. He returns to this important place in Baldwin's life to reflect on Baldwin's influence on his life and work. While Baldwin might be an unlikely saint, Garrett believes that is exactly what he is. As he writes: "Saints are not saints because they're picture-perfect. They're saints because they show up and put their hands in the real and get them dirty. And they're saints because they inspire us." (p. 164). That is what Garrett believes St. James Baldwin does in his life and his works.
As I noted at the top, I've not read much of Baldwin's works, but I am inspired to do so. Garrett has done an exemplary job introducing us to this unlikely saint who addresses difficult questions and yet remains hopeful that love will triumph. That is something worth catching hold of.
In "The Gospel According to James Baldwin," Greg Garrett has done just that. Garrett is the Carole McDaniel Hanks Professor of Literature and Culture at Baylor University as well as Canon Theologian at the American Cathedral in Paris. It is in the context of his vocation that Garrett has spent much time studying and teaching the life and literature of James Baldwin.
I have only read, that I have evidence, one book by James Baldwin. That would be The Fire Next Time. I have not, as I know of, read his fiction. However, after reading Garrett's book, I recognize my need to do so. Thus, for me, as a reviewer, Garrett's "The Gospel According to James Baldwin," is in many ways an introduction to Baldwin's life and message. While Baldwin was by no means a traditional Christian his message speaks to the heart of the Gospel, one that calls for justice and mercy.
Garrett begins and ends his book on a pilgrimage to experience the footsteps of James Baldwin. As an author, Garrett is white, straight, and relatively orthodox in his Christian theology. Baldwin was Black, Gay, and not traditional, though he grew up with a stepfather who was a preacher and spent some time as a teen preaching in Black churches. So, he knew the message and in many ways lived it better than most. It's possible that Baldwin could be banned from school libraries for not falling in line with the current trends. However, as Garrett notes, based on teaching Baldwin to his Baylor students, "We experience an enlargement of what it means to be human in Baldwin's presence, gain burgeoning insights into why we might be here, what we are made for, how transcendence feels, what beauty is, how we're meant to live with each other, how are called to love each other and to be responsible for each other" (p. 5). Such is the Gospel according to James Baldwin.
In many ways, Garrett takes us on a pilgrimage, which begins with "The Life of James Baldwin," who was born in Harlem in 1924, the grandson of a slave who never knew his biological father. Garrett points out that Baldwin "knew from an early age that he was Black and that he was smart, and that if he was going to escape the crippling poverty and his family endured, ...it was going to have to be through that intelligence." (p. 11). While he never pursued education beyond high school, he became one of America's great intellectuals, who held his own in a debate with William F. Buckley. His writing talent was recognized early and nurtured by one of his teachers. As he moved into adulthood, he began his writing career, publishing essays in major magazines. Nonetheless, he came to believe that if he stayed in the US he would end up on a path to self-destruction, so he boarded a ship to France, where he lived as an expatriate in Paris. It was there he struggled financially but me the love of his life, a young Swiss artist. It was while living in Switzerland that he finished his novel Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953) that made his name. Garrett takes us from there through Baldwin's life, lifting up his written work and experiences of life, much of which was spent in the south of France. But his spirit still lives and his voice still speaks.
In a chapter titled "Baldwin as Prophet of Humanity," we discover Baldwin's own sense of purpose, as he identified with Jeremiah. In this role, he sought to call the people to account on matters of race and justice, identity and culture. He claimed that it was because of his love of America that he felt called to engage in perpetual criticism, serving to remind white Americans of their delusions of innocence. As a prophet, Baldwin also spoke to matters of culture. Garrett writes that "For Baldwin, art, literature, and culture are central ways we understand ourselves and the world we occupy, and so he held his roles as artist and critic to be sacred" (p. 28). He believed that good art enlarges us while bad art puts us in cages. Thus, he could be highly critical of art and literature that he felt did not enlarge. He was concerned when art, literature, and film glossed over hard truths, wanting them to depict society critically and honestly. That's what he sought to do as he addressed matters of race, faith, and identity.
The title of the book speaks of the Gospel, and so we might expect some words on matters of faith. Garett doesn't disappoint. He offers a chapter titled "Baldwin on Faith." The former teen preacher would leave the church behind as an adult, yet he speaks in his works to matters of faith and used the "language of church, the Bible, and theology" in his works. Among the works I wish was available is an unfinished play titled "Welcome Table," which speaks to matters I'm concerned about. Perhaps we can learn something from his separation from institutionalized Christianity, as he bore witness to the failings of both white and black churches. Garrett points out that "To the end of his life, Baldwin spoke of the concept of the welcome table, a place where this brotherhood and sisterhood, this kind of live, this kind of unity might be possible" (p. 79).
As one might expect, Baldwin devoted much of his life and work, his literature and his activism, to matters of race. He experienced the full impact of racism and addressed it, even as the Civil Rights Movement was fully underway. He reminds us that racism has been with us as a nation from the beginning, and unfortunately, long after his death, it's still with us. But he helps us wrestle with this stain on our society. Baldwin believed, rightly so, that race is a social construct that has been erected by white folks to subjugate Black people and other people of color. This construct has damaged both Black and White. One of the stories present in the book concerns a meeting that Baldwin helped set up with Bobby Kennedy, then Attorney General, in 1963, with a set of influential Black people. What we see here is that Kennedy called the meeting in many ways to let these African Americans know how much he and the administration had done and was taken aback when his conversation partners challenged him. It serves as a reminder of how well-meaning white people fail to truly understand the realities experienced by others. Despite everything he experienced he remained optimistic about the future. Unfortunately, that optimism has experienced a rather hard hit in recent years. Nevertheless, he offers a witness that addresses where we fall short. Related to matters of race, Garrett takes us to a discussion of "Baldwin on Justice." Here we discover that Baldwin spoke not only to race but to other matters of injustice, including poverty and incarceration. He invites us to speak out.
Not only did Baldwin write about faith, race, and justice, but he also addressed identity. Garrett points out that the titles of many of Baldwin's works speak of a lack of knowing and being known. Interestingly, in his interviews, Baldwin tended to resist defining himself. In his mind, Garrett suggests there will come a day "when we reach that New Jerusalem, when we all sit at the Welcome Table, there will be no need for names, labels, distinctions, or identities that divide or group us. Not the ones imposed on us by others, nor the ones we chose to use to define ourselves." (p. 143). Of course, we're not there yet, but the question of identity is one that we wrestle with and Baldwin does so as well in his works. As seen in his works, including that final unfinished play, Baldwin wants us to reject the status quo and "work toward a future where hatred and prejudice will, always, be overwhelmed by love" (p. 160). That is, I believe Gospel.
Garrett closes the book where he begins, on pilgrimage. He takes a journey to the Swiss Alps, to Leukerbad, where he finishes this book, along with a novel he had been working on for six years. He returns to this important place in Baldwin's life to reflect on Baldwin's influence on his life and work. While Baldwin might be an unlikely saint, Garrett believes that is exactly what he is. As he writes: "Saints are not saints because they're picture-perfect. They're saints because they show up and put their hands in the real and get them dirty. And they're saints because they inspire us." (p. 164). That is what Garrett believes St. James Baldwin does in his life and his works.
As I noted at the top, I've not read much of Baldwin's works, but I am inspired to do so. Garrett has done an exemplary job introducing us to this unlikely saint who addresses difficult questions and yet remains hopeful that love will triumph. That is something worth catching hold of.
November 21, 2025
Summary: Reflections on what Baldwin can teach us.
I have been leading a zoom book group for about five years now. It started out of a Be the Bridge group at my church. Most of the people have changed, but we still meet about 35-40 Thursday a year doing about 4 books a year with good breaks between books. The group is mostly reading book by Christians about racial issues. The Gospel According to James Baldwin was our most recent book and honestly one of the best discussion books we have had in the last couple of years. People who didn't often talk much found things to talk about here.
Most of the time, we read books that I have already read. I don't choose every books, but generally I give about 5 suggestions of books I think are worth reading as a group and the group chooses what they are most interested in. I was a bit surprised when the group chose The Gospel According to James Baldwin because that was outside of our normal history, bible study, sociology types of books. (White Flight, The Anti-Greed Gospel by Malcolm Foley, If God Still Breathes, Why Can't I?: Black Lives Matter and Biblical Authority, Brown Faces, White Spaces: Confronting Systemic Racism to Bring Healing and Restoration are some recent books we have read.)
I had not read The Gospel According to James Baldwin yet and if I had, I am not sure I would have recommended it. That isn't because it is a bad book, but I would have thought it was too literary, too dependent on knowing Baldwin and too much of a stretch for the group to see someone who didn't identify as a Christian have something to teach us as Christians. At the first session I found out that none of the group had previously read James Baldwin and only two or three had seen I am Not Your Negro documentary. (I own the documentary, watched it at least four times and read at least eight of Baldwin's books as well as David Leeming's biography and several others books that draw heavily on Baldwin like Coates, Clint Smith, Eddie Glaude and Dante Stewart.) Again, had I known the lack of familiarity I would have overruled the group and not let the book be chosen.
But this was a book that the group loved discussing. The chapters on Faith, Justice and Identity were by far the most engaged. The first two chapters (which we read together) were a background on why Garrett wanted to write about Baldwin personally, and who Baldwin was. From there each chapter was thematic: culture, faith, race, justice, identity, before a conclusion. So we spent 6 weeks on roughly 180 pages.
I don't know if others in the group will pick up Baldwin, although most of the group did watch clips of Baldwin that were referenced in the book, the interview with Dick Cabot, parts of the debate with William Buckley, the interview Kenneth Clark. And I encouraged people to pick up either The Fire Next Time or If Beale Street Could Talk as two different starting places. I am planning on picking up Nicholas Boggs new biography soon.
This is not a long book. And I was overtly challenged over the title the first week because Baldwin did not claim Christian faith, even if he was strongly influenced by Christianity through the black church and the broader culture and Biblical imagery. But I think we can learn from those outside the church about how the church is reflected in society. Baldwin thought that those christians closest to him often did not seem to believe what they said they did. It was not a charge of hypocrisy as much as it was a charge of faithlessness. I didn't like the book much, but Craig Groeschel's book The Christian Atheist gets at the idea that we claim Christ, but life as if we were independent of God.
Much of what we can learn from Baldwin about Christian faith is his devotion to love of enemies and his ability to cross boundaries. I don't think he ever really understood the mystical reality of God, but I think he did understand the call to love as being a rejection of the acquisition of power. And Baldwin did understand the church as Welcoming Table (similar to King's idea of Beloved Community). The problem with understanding faith as only practice is that it lacks the power of the spirit or grace that actually gives the power to engage the practice. But I do think that he is like much of the Christian self help books that devolve Christianity to a version of the prosperity gospel (if you do this, you will get that.) There are limitations from learning from a view of Christianity like that. But we can learn with caution about where to not go wrong while being reminded that the love part does really matter.
This was originally posted in my blog at https://bookwi.se/the-gospel-accordin...
I have been leading a zoom book group for about five years now. It started out of a Be the Bridge group at my church. Most of the people have changed, but we still meet about 35-40 Thursday a year doing about 4 books a year with good breaks between books. The group is mostly reading book by Christians about racial issues. The Gospel According to James Baldwin was our most recent book and honestly one of the best discussion books we have had in the last couple of years. People who didn't often talk much found things to talk about here.
Most of the time, we read books that I have already read. I don't choose every books, but generally I give about 5 suggestions of books I think are worth reading as a group and the group chooses what they are most interested in. I was a bit surprised when the group chose The Gospel According to James Baldwin because that was outside of our normal history, bible study, sociology types of books. (White Flight, The Anti-Greed Gospel by Malcolm Foley, If God Still Breathes, Why Can't I?: Black Lives Matter and Biblical Authority, Brown Faces, White Spaces: Confronting Systemic Racism to Bring Healing and Restoration are some recent books we have read.)
I had not read The Gospel According to James Baldwin yet and if I had, I am not sure I would have recommended it. That isn't because it is a bad book, but I would have thought it was too literary, too dependent on knowing Baldwin and too much of a stretch for the group to see someone who didn't identify as a Christian have something to teach us as Christians. At the first session I found out that none of the group had previously read James Baldwin and only two or three had seen I am Not Your Negro documentary. (I own the documentary, watched it at least four times and read at least eight of Baldwin's books as well as David Leeming's biography and several others books that draw heavily on Baldwin like Coates, Clint Smith, Eddie Glaude and Dante Stewart.) Again, had I known the lack of familiarity I would have overruled the group and not let the book be chosen.
But this was a book that the group loved discussing. The chapters on Faith, Justice and Identity were by far the most engaged. The first two chapters (which we read together) were a background on why Garrett wanted to write about Baldwin personally, and who Baldwin was. From there each chapter was thematic: culture, faith, race, justice, identity, before a conclusion. So we spent 6 weeks on roughly 180 pages.
I don't know if others in the group will pick up Baldwin, although most of the group did watch clips of Baldwin that were referenced in the book, the interview with Dick Cabot, parts of the debate with William Buckley, the interview Kenneth Clark. And I encouraged people to pick up either The Fire Next Time or If Beale Street Could Talk as two different starting places. I am planning on picking up Nicholas Boggs new biography soon.
This is not a long book. And I was overtly challenged over the title the first week because Baldwin did not claim Christian faith, even if he was strongly influenced by Christianity through the black church and the broader culture and Biblical imagery. But I think we can learn from those outside the church about how the church is reflected in society. Baldwin thought that those christians closest to him often did not seem to believe what they said they did. It was not a charge of hypocrisy as much as it was a charge of faithlessness. I didn't like the book much, but Craig Groeschel's book The Christian Atheist gets at the idea that we claim Christ, but life as if we were independent of God.
Much of what we can learn from Baldwin about Christian faith is his devotion to love of enemies and his ability to cross boundaries. I don't think he ever really understood the mystical reality of God, but I think he did understand the call to love as being a rejection of the acquisition of power. And Baldwin did understand the church as Welcoming Table (similar to King's idea of Beloved Community). The problem with understanding faith as only practice is that it lacks the power of the spirit or grace that actually gives the power to engage the practice. But I do think that he is like much of the Christian self help books that devolve Christianity to a version of the prosperity gospel (if you do this, you will get that.) There are limitations from learning from a view of Christianity like that. But we can learn with caution about where to not go wrong while being reminded that the love part does really matter.
This was originally posted in my blog at https://bookwi.se/the-gospel-accordin...
November 22, 2023
Can you see the cat? The phrase has historical roots and is a contemporary meme for artificial intelligence and image recognition algorithms. That is, for our purpose, can a white person see racism hidden in plain sight? The irony is that once the metaphorical "cat" is seen, it cannot be unseen.
Greg Garrett's extensive research and a multi-decade career spent analyzing James Baldwin's writings reveals "The Cat," in this case, the racism embedded in the culture of white Christian identity and the repressed history of the relationship between Christianity and white supremacy.
We see it every day: born in the early years of slavery, white Christian churches separate from black Christian churches, and continuing to this day. The irony of the suffering of Christ being used to hold suffering people in check, of Christianity being used as a mechanism of control and anesthesia. Two spiritually equal churches were seen by former slave Frederick Douglas, who became one the nation's leading abolitionists, one black spiritual and holy, the other white, political, and controlling repressive governance, zoning, finance, and education.
Baldwin envisioned and worked toward "The Welcome Table," where we all could be seen without the metaphorical lenses of labels, categories, and stereotypes.
Sadly, Baldwin's writings are prophetic for our times of rising White Christian Nationalism embedded in one of our major political parties, as they were decades ago.
Greg Garrett's extensive research and a multi-decade career spent analyzing James Baldwin's writings reveals "The Cat," in this case, the racism embedded in the culture of white Christian identity and the repressed history of the relationship between Christianity and white supremacy.
We see it every day: born in the early years of slavery, white Christian churches separate from black Christian churches, and continuing to this day. The irony of the suffering of Christ being used to hold suffering people in check, of Christianity being used as a mechanism of control and anesthesia. Two spiritually equal churches were seen by former slave Frederick Douglas, who became one the nation's leading abolitionists, one black spiritual and holy, the other white, political, and controlling repressive governance, zoning, finance, and education.
Baldwin envisioned and worked toward "The Welcome Table," where we all could be seen without the metaphorical lenses of labels, categories, and stereotypes.
Sadly, Baldwin's writings are prophetic for our times of rising White Christian Nationalism embedded in one of our major political parties, as they were decades ago.
January 13, 2024
Excellent read. It's funny how books come into our lives when we need them the most. That is the power of books of course, to help make ourselves better. There is a lot in this short text but Garrett explores topics such as faith, justice and race in relation to Baldwin's life and writings. My favorite excerpts from the text center around the idea of justice. Garrett does not shy away from the idea that there is so much evil and wrong in the world that one can simply give up on this world. He describes how bad things happen to good people but I thought about it beyond the wrongfully imprisoned individuals described in the book. I also thought about it in relation to how human beings simply wrong their own children, spouses, family members, so called friends and colleagues. There are people that for whatever reason have hate and poison in them. One big take away for me from this text is that love is needed and is the most powerful tool to fight against all forms of oppression, cruelty and harm. Do not fear, for I am with, do not be afraid for I am you God is another important take away for a believer. With love there is no room for fear and when there is no fear, one can tell the truth and work in all aspects for justice. To me this book reminds us to live a life of good no matter what darkness may come to us. I know for myself that to beat darkness must one become light to overcome.
January 23, 2025
James Baldwin was barely a name I was familiar with, so of course I didn’t know who he was in the context of history. When the author Greg Garrett spoke at my church last year along with author Robert P. Jones at an event regarding racism in the church, I picked up copies of both of their books; I’ve adopted the mantra “learn more, be better”, and I knew these books would help me in that regard.
This book is an excellent primer for who Baldwin was and where in his body of work I might explore next. I was grateful to learn that many of the beliefs that I hold dearest were shared by him and was further convicted by many of the included quotes. This felt like an appropriate book to be reading the week of the 2025 US presidential inauguration (and, for that matter, the same week as MLK Day) as elements of politics and religion are crisscrossed and mashed together, perhaps just as they always have been.
But like Baldwin, I believe that we can be - and hopefully will be - better one day. I will continue to strive for that myself and will do my best to bring people alongside me.
Bookstagram - @chelsealikesbooks
This book is an excellent primer for who Baldwin was and where in his body of work I might explore next. I was grateful to learn that many of the beliefs that I hold dearest were shared by him and was further convicted by many of the included quotes. This felt like an appropriate book to be reading the week of the 2025 US presidential inauguration (and, for that matter, the same week as MLK Day) as elements of politics and religion are crisscrossed and mashed together, perhaps just as they always have been.
But like Baldwin, I believe that we can be - and hopefully will be - better one day. I will continue to strive for that myself and will do my best to bring people alongside me.
Bookstagram - @chelsealikesbooks
Want to read
September 15, 2024813 GAR. Read about this book in Christian Century - https://www.christiancentury.org/book... - and our library had a copy of the book. This year would have been 100, born August 2, 2024. In the NY Times (September 12, 2024), there will be two exhibits focusing on James Baldwin: Jimmy! God's Black Revolutionary Mouth, through February 28, 2025 at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Manhattan - nypl.org/locations/Schomburg. And James Baldwin: Mountain to Fire, through winter 2024 at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building in Manhattan: nypl.org/locations/schwarzman.
August 2, 2025
Here's something Baldwin said in 1963 that still startles me sixty years later:
"What white people have to do is try to find out in their heats why it was necessary to have a 'nigger' in the first place. Because I'm not a nigger, I'm a man. But if you think I'm a nigger, that means you need him."
White people and black people. It's hard, but we're going to have to figure this thing out together, says Baldwin. We're going to have to love each other: "We cannot separate. The tragedy of the white people is that they always thought they could."
"What white people have to do is try to find out in their heats why it was necessary to have a 'nigger' in the first place. Because I'm not a nigger, I'm a man. But if you think I'm a nigger, that means you need him."
White people and black people. It's hard, but we're going to have to figure this thing out together, says Baldwin. We're going to have to love each other: "We cannot separate. The tragedy of the white people is that they always thought they could."
March 15, 2024
A very interesting view of Justice, Culture, Identity, etc. from a theologian that I had heard of but never read. This book was on the reading list of a class I am taking and introduced me to new ideas, which I like.
James Baldwin was a black, gay man, born in 1924 in Harlem. I can only imagine the struggles he encountered.
If you are interested in expanding your thinking and world view, it is an interesting read.
James Baldwin was a black, gay man, born in 1924 in Harlem. I can only imagine the struggles he encountered.
If you are interested in expanding your thinking and world view, it is an interesting read.
July 27, 2024
This is a great academic dive into Baldwin and his writings. Our church used it as a book club read, and sadly none of us had read anything Baldwin wrote. Now I'm going to pick up a few of his novels. I just read Fire Next Time and what a timeless short book that is. I'd recommend anyone wishing to reah The Gospel, to read a couple of Baldwin books first and watch his televised interviews.
January 27, 2024
This work has made me fall in love with James Baldwin. As a Christian, I believe Baldwin was a modern day prophet, sage, and a conscience for the soul of the United States, both for oppressed and oppressor. I can’t wait to get into his writings.
September 21, 2025
3.5. I wish I was more familiar with his writings. This was probably a good introduction to those writings, but, I really need to jump into them.
December 10, 2025
A lovely little book and a concise, helpful, and reverent summation of/homage to a singularly titanic figure’s life and work.
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