Prophet of Justice, Prophet of Life: Essays on William Stringfellow

Prophet of Justice, Prophet of Life: Essays on William Stringfellow. Edited by Robert Boak Slocum. New York: Church Publishing Incorporated, 1997. xiv + 177 pp. $22.95 (cloth).

This good book, like Stringfellow himself, takes you deep. Nothing mincing about this ("he advocated resistance as the only way to live humanly in the midst of death" [p. 3]). As with any anthology, there is some overlapping material here, but this is no problem. The contributors are interesting, incisive, and frequently moving. Two of them, Bill Wylie-Kellermann and Andrew McThenia, have published entire books-good ones-on Stringfellow.

Slocum, a Wisconsin rector, notes the contrasts between the pseudogospel of institutional maintenance and the risky Gospel of Christ. This sympathetic reviewer desired to know how the sincere and thoughtful author applies his insights to parish ministry, which one believes he does.

Stringfellow's life and work-certainly many of his public presentations-had a quality of severity, which Slocum nicely brings out in describing the lawyer's struggle against death, the formidable power of which resides in social institutions, racism, illness, and (pointedly) the professions, expressly lawyering. Against death, acutely experienced or closely witnessed by Stringfellow, is posed eschatological hope, of which the fallen church is custodian.

Bill Wylie-Kellermann ably traces the life and essential beliefs of the lawyer-theologian, noting that all he was, and we are, is a parable, the Word of God incarnated in us. Stringfellow's credibility is his having lived his commitments, including regular worship and prayer.

James Griffiss puts Stringfellow in the broader Anglican context. The lawyer's complaint against the East Harlem Protestant Parish is clearly described, helping us understand his theology of Christ's living presence. Jeffrey Mackey demonstrates the persuasiveness of Stringfellow's biblically based theology for an evangelical Christian.

A most powerful chapter is by Jacqueline Schmitt. The only woman among the contributors, she does an especially fine job presenting Stringfellow's positions on the unfortunate trial of William Wendt.

Stringfellow's involvement in "the American Racial Crisis" is impressively presented by Gardiner Shattuck. (His scholarship is evident in the endnote record.) Shattuck reports the opinion of the Rev. Moran Weston, Rector of Harlem's St. Philip's Church, that Stringfellow's language was "arrogant," which rings true; the man's style did sometimes undermine his ability to cause his substantive views to receive the consideration they were due. This chapter even-handedly presents some strengths and weaknesses of Stringfellow on the race topic, and it gives a useful description of the origins of the Union of Black Episcopalians.

John Gessell and Andrew McThenia each take up Stringfellow on the law and lawyering. We are today more familiar with the ambiguities of this than many were during Stringfellow's lifetime, but this is sound analysis of the law's and its practitioners' service to privilege, and of its damage to racial and economic justice. Gessell amply quotes his subject's "Open Letter to the Presiding Bishop" in which John Allin's disregard of a subpoena in the Wendt trial was regarded as heinous.

The lived contexts of Stringfellow's work were Harlem and Block Island. Gary Commins demonstrates how these influenced the lawyer's theology. Dorothy Day's loathing of "telescopic philanthropy," which in Commins's words is "suburban charity untainted by the odor of destitution" (p. 129), helps to explain the uncompromising perspective of the man. Commins elaborates the fact that Stringfellow based his theology upon ordinary people and their everyday problems with racism, oppression, poverty, illness-in other words in a style different from abstract theorizing.

The location of the lawyer's theology within the field of dialectical theology is deftly described by Timothy Sedgwick (page 156 contains a terrific theological summary). Bill Coates's concluding essay is a powerful record of the influence upon him of the uncompromising lawyer-theologian.

Stringfellow's work forces response, one way or another, to the God revealed in Christ. The theology still has punch. The man's aloofness, and, yes, arrogance, make it hard to imagine mirthful times with him. But he reminds us of what we have compromised, and of the deeper truth of things, and of the perspectives and experiences of those disadvantaged by the present arrangements. This is well-presented, potent stuff. We need to be engaged by it.

WILLIAM RANKIN

United Religions Initiative

San Francisco, California

Copyright Anglican Theological Review, Inc. Winter 1999
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