God Is Black: Examine the Uses of Religious Imagery in the Fire Next Time.
‘God is black’ (The Fire Next Time). Examine the uses of religious imagery in The Fire Next Time.
The Fire Next Time includes many religious images concerning race, ethnicity and culture. The first essay, My Dungeon Shook, is a letter from James Baldwin to his nephew, in an attempt to “strengthen [him] against the loveless world.” The second, Down at the Cross, explores the background experiences that shaped his view of the world, and allowed him to give the advice in the previous essay. Throughout Down at the Cross, Baldwin examines the “white God” of his Christian youth, and the “black God” preached by Elijah Mohammed and the Nation of Islam. Although Baldwin acknowledges both groups’ achievements, he is ultimately critical of their ideologies. Baldwin becomes disillusioned with his church; he feels the “slow crumbling of my faith, the pulverisation of my fortress” after practicing as a preacher for 3 years. Similarly, he rejects the Nation of Islam’s ideology that God is solely for the black community, and that “the white man […] is a devil.” Baldwin uses religious imagery to advocate a policy of acceptance, of love between black and white. He argues that by making God colour-conscious, and by belonging exclusively to one race, each group is guilty of legitimising and strengthening the racial hatred and discrimination of the time. Baldwin makes it perfectly clear that he values the church. He describes his childhood, in which it saved him from the sordid drugs, prostitution and gambling on the street. He describes his time in the pulpit as “very exciting,” and confesses that nothing else in his life could “equal the power and the glory” that he felt while leading a congregation. The language he uses to describe the fervor, the experience, of his sermons is remarkably literary. His personal feelings are clearly being recalled here, as he allows himself to be swept up in the “fire and excitement that [would] sometimes, without warning, fill a church, causing
The Fire Next Time includes many religious images concerning race, ethnicity and culture. The first essay, My Dungeon Shook, is a letter from James Baldwin to his nephew, in an attempt to “strengthen [him] against the loveless world.” The second, Down at the Cross, explores the background experiences that shaped his view of the world, and allowed him to give the advice in the previous essay. Throughout Down at the Cross, Baldwin examines the “white God” of his Christian youth, and the “black God” preached by Elijah Mohammed and the Nation of Islam. Although Baldwin acknowledges both groups’ achievements, he is ultimately critical of their ideologies. Baldwin becomes disillusioned with his church; he feels the “slow crumbling of my faith, the pulverisation of my fortress” after practicing as a preacher for 3 years. Similarly, he rejects the Nation of Islam’s ideology that God is solely for the black community, and that “the white man […] is a devil.” Baldwin uses religious imagery to advocate a policy of acceptance, of love between black and white. He argues that by making God colour-conscious, and by belonging exclusively to one race, each group is guilty of legitimising and strengthening the racial hatred and discrimination of the time. Baldwin makes it perfectly clear that he values the church. He describes his childhood, in which it saved him from the sordid drugs, prostitution and gambling on the street. He describes his time in the pulpit as “very exciting,” and confesses that nothing else in his life could “equal the power and the glory” that he felt while leading a congregation. The language he uses to describe the fervor, the experience, of his sermons is remarkably literary. His personal feelings are clearly being recalled here, as he allows himself to be swept up in the “fire and excitement that [would] sometimes, without warning, fill a church, causing