En cours de chargement...
Foreword I wrote this essay as an assignment during my university days which was in the late 70s. Go Tell It On The Mountain was the first novel I read by James Baldwin, and I enjoyed it immensely. Religion was very much a part of my life while growing up. My parents were practising Christians, so I had to attend church Sunday morning mass and Sunday school at midday and occasionally participate in evening service.
In early adolescence, I became a choirboy. Then, as a young man and after leaving Guyana for Great Britain, my church attendance became infrequent, and finally, it faded. I'm not sure why I turned my back on the church. Perhaps I might have become disenchanted with indifference or mild hypocrisy that appeared in some churches I attended in London. Or, it might have been my infatuation with atheism.
But memory can be unreliable, owing to its dynamic nature. However, I can honestly say that I have invariably regarded myself as a Christian - if not a practising one, which probably entails regular church attendance. James Baldwin's novel inspired me to choose two themes for the academic essay-namely, religion's role in some folks' lives. The function of religious faith can be twofold: positive and negative, which I try to show in the essay.
Lastly, I have omitted page-number references.