Abstract: James Baldwin (1924–87) and Rabbi Louis Finkelstein (1895–1991) never met, but they shared symbols of critique and redemption, first-century Rome and a New Jerusalem, respectively. Furthermore, they both identified public education as an essential site for achieving a messianic future for the American nation. This essay examines a selection of their writings and speeches to show how Baldwin and Finkelstein mobilized politically and theologically potent symbols of exploitation, materialism, and violence to diagnose the injustices embedded in American society and chart paths for more just and secure futures for their communities. In conversation with Baldwin and Finkelstein, we examine how their theologies can be used to draw out the problematics of and offer correctives to what contemporary scholars have identified as American secularism. By staging an intellectual friendship between two thought leaders who contended with the limitations of American narratives of freedom and equality, we identify not only the problematics of a white Protestant category but also tools emerging from Jewish and Black traditions for forging alternative just futures.
Rock-Singer et al. (Sun,) studied this question.