Go Tell It On The Mountain by James Baldwin

The book is Go Tell It On The Mountain by James Baldwin. It was originally published in 1953. I read it in January 2023. 

The title comes from a dream the main character has where he’s on a mountain top trying to stay above the sinful world. The book has a very legalistic view of Christianity. Very works based understanding of salvation and grace.  

“And he dreamed that he was in a cold, high place, like a mountain. He was high, so high… A voice said: “Come higher.” And he began to climb…clouds above him and mist below-and he knew that beyond the wall of mist reigned fire…”Lord, can’t come no higher…”Come on, son. Come higher.” Then he knew that, if he would not fall to death, he must obey the voice.” (p108) 

This novel is on my 100 Essential Novels poster. I’ve been wanting to read Baldwin for some time. I’m glad I did. He’s a great writer, even if his Christian doctrine is way off.  

The story is about family generations and legacy. Family history can be a messy thing. The main character takes a look back at his family history that lead up to him and he’s trying to see some value in it or gain some direction from it.  

The characters find no pleasure, joy, or even hope in their Christianity. It’s a grind that they must endure to get to win eternal life. There’s a sharp contrast between the pleasures of the world and the drudgery of the spiritual life. It shows the misery of legalistic, pharisaical belief. There is an almost gnostic separation of the worldly and the spiritual.  

It was interesting how Baldwins shows the real problem of hypocrisy of church leadership. But he’s consistent about it in that he recognizes the real human pain of that hypocrisy and that it’s everywhere.  

It was confusing who was supposed to be the main character. The narration is told from John’s perspective but then so much of the story takes place before he’s born, in family history for long stretches of the book. It’s gladly no plot-driven.  

Of course, I’d say Baldwin misses the mark in that he has a very narrow view of Christianity. He also seems to equate the oppression of religion with racism.  

“She had only to endure and trust in God. She knew that the big house, the house of pride where the white folks lived, would come down: it was written in the Word of God. They, who walked so proudly now, had not fashioned for themselves or their children so sure a foundation as was hers.” (p65) 

This sounds like Liberation Theology which is the root of Critical Race Theory. It’s a religious movement and Christian heresy and we should treat it as such.  

The tone of this book was very somber. No levity at all. It was all pretty sad and serious.  

For the high caliber of writing, Id’ recommend this to readers and lovers of American literature. But beyond that maybe I’d only recommend it to Christians who have a firm grasp of real biblical doctrine.  

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Notable Quotables 

In the narrow way, the way of the cross, there awaited him only humiliation forever; there awaited him, one day, a house like his father’s house, and a church like his father’s, and a job like his father’s, where he would grow old and black with hunger and toil. The way of the cross had given him a belly filled with wind and had bent his mother’s back; (p28) 

John thought of Hell, of his soul’s redemption, and struggled to find a compromise between the way that led to life everlasting and the way that ended in the pit. But there was none, for he had been raised in the truth. He could not claim, as African savages might be able to claim. that no one had brought him the gospel. (p34) 

She had only to endure and trust in God. She knew that the big house, the house of pride where the white folks lived, would come down: it was written in the Word of God. They, who walked so proudly now, had not fashioned for themselves or their children so sure a foundation as was hers. (p65) 

Fury and anguish filled him, unbearable, unanswerable; his mind was stretched to breaking. For it was time that filled his mind, time that was violent with the mysterious love of God. And his mind could not contain the terrible stretch of time that united twelve men fishing by the shores of Galilee, and black men weeping on their knees tonight, and he, a witness. (p75) 

And he dreamed that he was in a cold, high place, like a mountain. He was high, so high… A voice said: “Come higher.” And he began to climb…clouds above him and mist below-and he knew that beyond the wall of mist reigned fire…”Lord, can’t come no higher…”Come on, son. Come higher.” Then he knew that, if he would not fall to death, he must obey the voice. (p108) 

Deborah turned to look at them, and in that moment Gabriel saw, as though for the first time, how black and how bony, was this wife of his, and how wholly undesirable. Deborah looked at him with a watchful silence in her look; he felt the hand that held his Bible begin to sweat and tremble; he thought of the joyless groaning of their marriage bed; and he hated her. (p115) 

I reckon you don’t want no whore like Esther for your wife. Esther’s just for the night, for the dark, where won’t nobody see you getting your holy self all dirtied up with Esther. Esther’s just good enough to go out and have your bastard somewhere in the goddamn woods. Ain’t that so, Reverend?” 

He did not answer her. He could find no words. There was only silence in him, like the grave. (p131) 

he could not endure, day in, day out, facing the scenes and the people he had known all his life. They seemed suddenly to mock him, to stand in judgment on him; he saw his guilt in everybody’s eyes. (p134) 

“I going to tell you something, Gabriel,” she said. “I know you thinking at the bottom of your heart that if you just make her, her and her bastard boy, pay enough for her sin, your son won’t have to pay for yours. But I ain’t going to let you do that. You done made enough folks pay for sin, it’s time you started paying. 

“What you think,” he asked, “you going to be able to do against me?” 

“Maybe,” she said, “I ain’t long for this world, but got this letter, and I’m sure going to give it to Elizabeth before I go, and if she don’t want it, I’m going to find some way, I don’t know how-to rise up and tell it, tell everybody, about the blood the Lord’s anointed is got on his hands.” (p218)