Takeaway: One of the most effective books for discussion my book group has had.
Last fall the book group I have been leading for about six years read The Gospel According to Baldwin. It was an odd choice for the group because other than myself, no one has ever read James Baldwin and only two had seen I Am Not Your Negro. But we read it and the group really enjoyed that book and was interested in Baldwin.
We tend to take off the Christmas season and so when we got together to come up with our next book, The Fire Next Time seemed like a good choice. It is a short book, just over 100 pages. There are two essays. One is framed as a letter to his nephew on the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.
And then the remaining 80 pages is a long biographical essay, written in three parts. The first part is mostly about Baldwin’s life growing up in Harlem and the way and how race and puberty and poverty impacted him. The second part was mostly about having dinner with Elijah Muhammad in Chicago in 1961 and the attraction that the Nation of Islam had, but ultimately why he could not be a part of the group. Part three is more about the way forward.
I have been reading a biography of Baldwin and the very long section on 1961-65, which overlaps with the writing and publishing and promotion of The Fire Next Time along with Baldwin’s second long trip through the American south, his trip to Israel and Africa and his multiple writing trips to Istanbul and the deaths of Medgar Evans and Malcolm X (both of whom he spent a fair amount of time with before they were killed), highlights that this era Baldwin was using a collective “we” in much of his writing. Baldwin’s third section is imperfect, but part of what he was doing was calling both Black and White readers to something greater.
Part of the discussion of that last section was who it was written to. The group had both Black and White readers who thought it was primarily written to them. And I think that was part of the brilliance of the writing is that Baldwin challenges the reader to their better self, without excusing the bad behavior of others. One of the things I don’t like about some writing about race is that some, particularly Black Christians authors, seems to appeal to Black Christians in a way that I think is attempting to be overheard by White Christians. That appeal is often to not be bitter, or to forgive or love as Christians. Baldwin does all of those things, but not in way that feels like it gives an excuse to White Christians to compare themselves or excuse themselves for not doing more until they see Black Christians “doing their part.”
Baldwin condemns a gospel that doesn’t give up power voluntarily. And at the same time says that power is almost never voluntarily given up. Baldwin does not pretend that the problems of race will be easy to solve. But he also rightly points out that the United States is racially diverse and will not move forward without recognizing that. Neither separatism, whether it be Black nationalism or White racism, nor covering up our history can bring us forward. Instead love and truth are the only way forward.
There is a certain irony that Baldwin left the church and never returned but so clearly understands the centrality of the gospel claims of the church. The Fire Next Time is nearly 65 years old at this point. But in many ways it is still very relevant. That may be the most common refrain of the discussion. We wish it was not relevant. But it is. There are other things that are clearly dated. The immigration changes of 1965 have complicated the racial reality of the US in ways that I don’t think Baldwin predicted. Globalism and the economic changes that came about as a result also were not well predicted. But so much is still very relevant.
The Fire Next Time: Purchase Links: Paperback, Kindle Edition, Audible.com Audiobook