The C.L.R. James Institute: "On C.L.R. James's 'On the Spiritual'" by Ralph Dumain

The C.L.R. James Institute presents:

On C.L.R. James's "On the Spiritual"

by Ralph Dumain

Note: I wrote this commentary early in 1994, in the process of reviewing and annotating mountains of unpublished manuscripts by C.L.R. James. Not everyone who read this was enamored with my overwrought inspirational prose. In response, I wrote a second, longer commentary, filling in the gaps in this one. (See link below.) Now I would be inclined to elaborate a less ecstatic reaction, further clarifying the underlying logic of my analysis. Still, this piece reflects the height of my enthusiasm in discovering James's intellectual method at work, which remains underanalyzed and misunderstood to this day. James's text, which I paraphrase in the first three paragraphs, is one of a kind.

It took some time and assistance to identify the Spiritual in question: "On Mah Journey Now". I believe there are at least two recorded versions by Paul Robeson. The one I heard lacks the second stanza; whether the discrepancy is due to James, Robeson, or the nature of the oral tradition, I do not know. James omits the refrain sung in between each stanza, which is probably more famous than the individual lyrics, and goes more or less like this: "On mah journey now (Mount Zion), on mah journey now (Mount Zion), wouldn't take nothin' (Mount Zion) for my journey now (Mount Zion)."

While recognizing that the African had worked out a deep philosophy of human existence, James remained adamant in his rejection of religion and the supernatural. Later he learned a lesson from Danton: "Nothing is destroyed until it is replaced." James had no philosophical conception of the world or the place of man in it. He got no help from various idealist philosophers. However, he did listen to Paul Robeson singing, and he was struck by a particular Spiritual. These are the words: "One day, one day / I was walking along / When the elements opened / And the Lord came down // I went into the valley / and didn't go to stay / But my soul got happy and I stayed all day // You can talk about me / Just as much as you please / I will talk about you / When I get on my knees."

Thanks to Robeson's performance, the profound philosophical conception embodied in this Spiritual emerged in James's consciousness. The Spiritual's image of God is vastly superior to the Biblical account of creation. The second stanza expresses the feeling of the beauty and harmony of nature and also the determination not to be deflected from the journey to Zion. The third stanza deals with society and its relation to the individual, recognizing the inherent evil in society, and seeing salvation in talking with God and telling it like it is.

James cannot imagine a more simple or more profound philosophical response to life. Though these ideas are the product of and apply to an agricultural setting, there is no reason why they could not be applied to the most highly developed and complex civilization. Like the cubist Braque who said he wished he knew the artist who had fashioned a particular piece of African sculpture, James wishes he knew the anonymous slave who wrote these verses.

My words can scarcely do justice to the magnificence contained in these three short pages. Study this brief text carefully to catch the subtleties of the modern world and the original contribution of black culture to it. As both a militant atheist and a person who loved many of the Spirituals, for years and years I endeavored to express a view like this, which I worked out for myself -- totally alone -- and carried around in me and occasionally tried to communicate to others. Now I find before me this fragment of James's unpublished autobiography, and I see it all laid out in front of me. My soul trembles; the tears stream down my cheeks. Somebody else understands, and figured it out long before I did! But I must get a grip on myself and get down to some salient observations.

This is a brilliant manifestation of James's Hegelian method, but attaching such a label to it makes it seem dry in a way that it is not, because it is a Hegelianism of perception, of responsiveness, of extraordinary aesthetic sensibility and sensitivity. James sees something African in the American Negro Spiritual, something that comes into Western Christianity from outside. James finds nothing in the writings or conceptions of the world's religions or the great metaphysicians that strikes a chord in him, but he finds something in the Spirituals. Paul Robeson is the one that communicates it to him, testifying to Robeson's electrifying impact on world culture and his self-avowed mission to show the world that the Negro has a message for humanity that contains greatness. James finds something of intrinsic philosophical importance in a Spiritual which comes from life itself and does not depend on any religious or supernatural doctrine, superstition, or ideology; and that something comes from the anonymous masses. James can see this clearly, precisely because he is a product of the modern world--of its education, its science, its demystification, its consciousness of itself.

And this is a manifestation of how James transcended the philosophy he and his group termed "rationalism", the philosophy of the intellectual, administrative class, that sees its own reason but not the totality, a frame of mind that has become utterly sterile, nowhere more so than in the freethought and secular humanist movement. I have been arguing for a Jamesian conception of secular humanism for years in a vacuum, without knowing that James saw what I saw. James interrelates all the factors of modern society -- of history, culture, philosophy, and the self -- in a few paragraphs. Do you not see, can you fail to see, can you afford not to see, how deep, how soul-stirring, how extraordinary this is?!

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Document cited:
James, C.L.R. "Autobiography: 1938-1953 (On the Spiritual)".
Ms. 3 pp. [Record no. 0810; Grimshaw document VII.49]
Ms. courtesy of The C.L.R. James Institute.

Written 1 March 1994, edited 31 May 2001

Postscript on C.L.R. James's "On the Spiritual"

Jim Murray, Director (make inquiries here)
Ralph Dumain, Librarian/Archivist & Webmaster

Uploaded 31 May 2001, revised 13 June 2001