Black (Ir)religious Fire: The Literary and Moral Imagination of James Baldwin and James Cone shatters the monochromatic understanding of religion in African American literature. By attending to the ways in which criticism, doubt, and skepticism color Black literature, the project unveils what I term “Black (ir)religion” within African American literature. Through analyses of Baldwin’s and Cone’s writings, I argue that there is an (ir)religious vision motivated and sustained by rage – an (ir)religious fire – at work in the literary and moral imagination of Baldwin that redresses Cone’s flattening of said (ir)religious vision in Black literature.

Black (Ir)religious Fire unleashes impassioned ethico-political possibilities from one’s engagement with literature into various public spheres. The project expands upon the remarkable model of Martha Nussbaum’s Poetic Justice, which connects the literary imagination and public life by making the case that literature can make us good citizens. Building upon this foundation, my project offers new political theological resources for thinking about African American literature and the presence of (ir)religion in literature.