The Hideously Difficult Task Before Us

Toward a More Perfect Union—Reading Baldwin with Schürmann 

Tracing a path opened by an enigmatic reference in Reiner Schürmann’s dissertation to the symbol of water in James Baldwin’s Another Country, this essay follows the thinking of Schürmann and Baldwin to the tragic denial that perverts the ideals of the United States from the moment of its founding. Drawing on Schürmann’s imperative hermeneutics, we attend to Baldwin’s essays from the 1960’s as they call white citizens of the United States to take on the “hideously difficult” task of achieving our identity as a nation by facing our history and transforming ourselves as human beings. The symbols of water, fire, and love point us to new ways of existing rooted in practices of love—sensual releasement, ethical candor, and ethical imagination—that just might enable us to create a more perfect union.  

Long, Christopher P. “The Hideously Difficult Task Before Us: Toward a More Perfect Union—Reading Baldwin with Schürmann.” Philosophy Today 68, no. 4 (2024): 879–90. https://doi.org/10.5840/philtoday2024123558.