Divine and mortal loves
‘If the concept of God has any validity or any use’, James Baldwin writes in The Fire Next Time, ‘it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of Him.’ This article is a meditation on Baldwin's claim. I begin by presenting Baldwin&#...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Cambridge Univ. Press
2023
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| In: |
Religious studies
Year: 2023, Volume: 59, Issue: 3, Pages: 533-548 |
| Further subjects: | B
faith in God
B James Baldwin B Love B Shame B Howard Thurman |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | ‘If the concept of God has any validity or any use’, James Baldwin writes in The Fire Next Time, ‘it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of Him.’ This article is a meditation on Baldwin's claim. I begin by presenting Baldwin's account of a grave danger that characterizes our social lives - a source of profound estrangement from ourselves and from one another. I draw on the work of the theologian Howard Thurman in order to explain how faith in a loving God can enable us to cope with this danger in a manner that may render us, in some sense, larger, freer, and more loving. Finally, I sketch Baldwin's account of how we might cope with this danger not by relying on God's love, but rather by relying in certain ways on our love for one another. |
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| ISSN: | 1469-901X |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religious studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/S0034412523000057 |