Greg Garrett takes readers on a guided tour of James Baldwin’s life and work with The Gospel According to James Baldwin

Orbis Books presents Greg Garrett’s The Gospel According to James Baldwin (Trade Paper: ISBN:9781626985391 I September 15, 2023 I 192 pp. I $24). Acclaimed writer, professor, and theologian Greg Garrett interrogates James Baldwin’s writing, speaking, letters, and life for universal lessons on race, faith, justice, art, and identity.

Episcopal writer Greg Garrett published his latest literary work of theological criticism, The Gospel according to James Baldwin, on September 15, 2023. The book is released by Orbis Books, the legendary publisher of Gustavo Gutiérrez, James H. Cone, and Kelly Brown Douglas, and it debuted on Amazon (U.S.) as the top-selling new book release in liberation theology. Anthony Reddie, Professor of Black Theology at the University of Oxford, judges that “In this remarkable book, Greg Garrett has brought James Baldwin from the supporting cast to an upfront starring role as an immense religious thinker in his own right committed to social justice and humanitarian living. This book is a literal ‘must read’.”

Dr. Garrett is the author of thirty books of fiction and nonfiction, including a collection of conversations with Rowan Williams and several lead trade titles on religion, culture, and race for Oxford University Press. His books have been translated into Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, Czech, and German editions. Dr. Garrett is Canon Theologian at the American Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Paris, France, and much of the book was written while in residence in Paris and on side trips from the Cathedral to Leukerbad, Switzerland, where Baldwin went to write on several occasions.

“James Baldwin has been one of the most important voices helping me make sense of life, faith, American culture, and justice,” Garrett says, “and a central influence on my fiction, critical, and theological writing. Given what he’s taught me, my students, and others who read and admire him, I wanted to follow in his footsteps, and to use my skills as reader and teacher to talk about what Baldwin has to teach everyone who reads him.”

Garrett received his M.Div. (2007) from the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest and is a frequent speaker and preacher at universities, seminaries, and in the larger Church. He has appeared at Washington National Cathedral and Trinity Church Wall Street, and has offered diocesan events for the Episcopal Dioceses of Mississippi, Central Gulf Coast, Eastern Tennessee, Oklahoma, Long Island, Colorado, Western Louisiana, and Olympia. Garrett is the Carole McDaniel Hanks Endowed Professor of Literature and Culture at Baylor University, and lives in Austin, Texas with his wife Jeanie and their daughters Lily and Sophia.

ORDER ON AMAZON