William Stringfellow
Encyclopedia
Frank William Stringfellow (April 26, 1928 – March 2, 1985) was an American lay theologian
during the 1960s and 1970s.
, he managed to obtain several scholarships and entered Bates College
in Lewiston, Maine
at the age of fifteen. He later earned a scholarship to the London School of Economics
and served in the U.S. 2nd Armored Division
. Stringfellow then attended Harvard Law School
. After his graduation, he moved to a slum tenement in Harlem
, New York City
to work among poor African-Americans and Hispanics.
His career of activism can be traced to his junior year at Bates when he organized a sit-in at a local Maine restaurant that refused to serve people of color. It was his first foray into social activism, and he never looked back. Just a few short years later, Stringfellow gained a reputation as a strident critic of the social, military and economic policies of the U.S. and as a tireless advocate for racial and social justice
. That justice, he declared, could be realized only if it were pursued according to a serious understanding of the Bible
and the Christian
faith.
As a Christian, he viewed his vocation as a commitment, bestowed upon him in baptism, to a lifelong struggle against the "powers and principalities," as systemic evil is sometimes called in the New Testament
, or "Power of Death." He proclaimed that being a faithful follower of Jesus means to declare oneself free from all spiritual forces of death and destruction and to submit onself single-heartedly to the power of life. In contrast to most younger liberal Protestant theologians of his time, Stringfellow insisted on the primacy of the Bible for Christians as they undertook such precarious and inherently dangerous work. This placed him not within the camp of evangelicalism
, as some critics may suppose, but that of neo-orthodoxy
, particularly the part of that school influenced by the Swiss
-German thinker Karl Barth
, who made a rare compliment to Stringfellow on one of his visits to the U.S. Yet others might classify him as a harbinger of the later liberation theology
during the 1970s and 1980s. During his lifetime, similar ideas to Stringfellow's could be found in the writings of the French critic Jacques Ellul
.
He made pointed criticisms of theological seminaries: those of the liberal Protestant mainline were theologically shallow, their curriculum and ethos a mixture of "poetic recitations...social analysis, gimmicks, solicitations, sentimentalities, and corn." On the other hand, he considered fundamentalist/orthodox institutions to isolate themselves from modern society; he commented, "...if they actually took the Bible seriously they would inevitably love the world more readily...because the Word of God is free and active in the world." These conditions were, he felt, symptomatic of the twin errors of acculturated religious liberalism and authoritarian dogmatism, two options American Christians usually chose from in order to achieve the same goal: domesticating the Gospel and thus blunting its transformative impact on both individuals and the state. Instead of concerning himself with the U.S. academic theological scene, Stringfellow sought an audience of law and business students, especially those who opted to embrace Christian beliefs and all the while fully involved themselves in the world.
A lawyer by profession, Stringfellow's chief legal interests pertained to constitutional law
and due process
. He dealt with both every day in Harlem as he represented victimized tenants, accused persons who would otherwise have inadequate counsel in the courts, and impoverished African-Americans who were largely excluded from public services like hospitals and government offices.
Throughout his student days Stringfellow had involved himself in the World Student Christian Federation
. He later became deeply immersed in the World Council of Churches
, as well as his native denomination, the Episcopal Church (Anglican
). Stringfellow was also involved with the Sojourners community in Washington, D.C.
He also harbored Father Daniel Berrigan
, S.J., who went underground after fleeing from Federal authorities for acts of civil disobedience.
Stringfellow's foremost contribution to theological thought is to see in "images, ideologies, and institutions" the primary contemporary manifestations of the demonic powers and principalities often mentioned in the Bible. This outlook made him categorically suspicious of activities of governments, corporations, and other organizations, including the institutional churches, a viewpoint that placed him at odds with the nearly-ubiquitous "progressive" sentiments of the mid-20th century. In the mid-1960s, he defended Bishop James Pike
against charges of heresy lodged against him by his fellow Episcopal bishops, believing them moved more by politics (i.e., appeasement of the denomination's conservatives such as Southerners and the wealthy) than serious faith.
Recent treatments of his body of work include those by theologian Walter Wink
and Bill Wylie-Kellermann, both United Methodist clergymen.
Stringfellow died of diabetes in 1985.
Lay theologian
A lay theologian is a theologian who is not an ordained clergyman.Among lay theologians are the following:* George Abbot * Thomas J. J. Altizer* Joseph T. Bayly* Edward Musgrave Blaiklock* Nicholas Cabasilas* Chung Hyun Kyung...
during the 1960s and 1970s.
Life and career
Born in Johnston, Rhode IslandJohnston, Rhode Island
Johnston is a town in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 28,769 at the 2010 census. Johnston is the site of the Clemence Irons House a stone-ender museum and the only landfill in Rhode Island...
, he managed to obtain several scholarships and entered Bates College
Bates College
Bates College is a highly selective, private liberal arts college located in Lewiston, Maine, in the United States. and was most recently ranked 21st in the nation in the 2011 US News Best Liberal Arts Colleges rankings. The college was founded in 1855 by abolitionists...
in Lewiston, Maine
Lewiston, Maine
Lewiston is a city in Androscoggin County in Maine, and the second-largest city in the state. The population was 41,592 at the 2010 census. It is one of two principal cities of and included within the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine metropolitan New England city and town area and the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine...
at the age of fifteen. He later earned a scholarship to the London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
and served in the U.S. 2nd Armored Division
U.S. 2nd Armored Division
The 2nd Armored Division was an armored division of the United States Army. The division played an important role during World War II in the invasions of North Africa and Sicily and the liberation of France, Belgium, and Holland and the invasion of Germany...
. Stringfellow then attended Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
. After his graduation, he moved to a slum tenement in Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
to work among poor African-Americans and Hispanics.
His career of activism can be traced to his junior year at Bates when he organized a sit-in at a local Maine restaurant that refused to serve people of color. It was his first foray into social activism, and he never looked back. Just a few short years later, Stringfellow gained a reputation as a strident critic of the social, military and economic policies of the U.S. and as a tireless advocate for racial and social justice
Social justice
Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...
. That justice, he declared, could be realized only if it were pursued according to a serious understanding of the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
and the Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
faith.
As a Christian, he viewed his vocation as a commitment, bestowed upon him in baptism, to a lifelong struggle against the "powers and principalities," as systemic evil is sometimes called in the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
, or "Power of Death." He proclaimed that being a faithful follower of Jesus means to declare oneself free from all spiritual forces of death and destruction and to submit onself single-heartedly to the power of life. In contrast to most younger liberal Protestant theologians of his time, Stringfellow insisted on the primacy of the Bible for Christians as they undertook such precarious and inherently dangerous work. This placed him not within the camp of evangelicalism
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
, as some critics may suppose, but that of neo-orthodoxy
Neo-orthodoxy
Neo-orthodoxy, in Europe also known as theology of crisis and dialectical theology,is an approach to theology in Protestantism that was developed in the aftermath of the First World War...
, particularly the part of that school influenced by the Swiss
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
-German thinker Karl Barth
Karl Barth
Karl Barth was a Swiss Reformed theologian whom critics hold to be among the most important Christian thinkers of the 20th century; Pope Pius XII described him as the most important theologian since Thomas Aquinas...
, who made a rare compliment to Stringfellow on one of his visits to the U.S. Yet others might classify him as a harbinger of the later liberation theology
Liberation theology
Liberation theology is a Christian movement in political theology which interprets the teachings of Jesus Christ in terms of a liberation from unjust economic, political, or social conditions...
during the 1970s and 1980s. During his lifetime, similar ideas to Stringfellow's could be found in the writings of the French critic Jacques Ellul
Jacques Ellul
Jacques Ellul was a French philosopher, law professor, sociologist, lay theologian, and Christian anarchist. He wrote several books about the "technological society" and the interaction between Christianity and politics....
.
He made pointed criticisms of theological seminaries: those of the liberal Protestant mainline were theologically shallow, their curriculum and ethos a mixture of "poetic recitations...social analysis, gimmicks, solicitations, sentimentalities, and corn." On the other hand, he considered fundamentalist/orthodox institutions to isolate themselves from modern society; he commented, "...if they actually took the Bible seriously they would inevitably love the world more readily...because the Word of God is free and active in the world." These conditions were, he felt, symptomatic of the twin errors of acculturated religious liberalism and authoritarian dogmatism, two options American Christians usually chose from in order to achieve the same goal: domesticating the Gospel and thus blunting its transformative impact on both individuals and the state. Instead of concerning himself with the U.S. academic theological scene, Stringfellow sought an audience of law and business students, especially those who opted to embrace Christian beliefs and all the while fully involved themselves in the world.
A lawyer by profession, Stringfellow's chief legal interests pertained to constitutional law
Constitutional law
Constitutional law is the body of law which defines the relationship of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the legislature and the judiciary....
and due process
Due process
Due process is the legal code that the state must venerate all of the legal rights that are owed to a person under the principle. Due process balances the power of the state law of the land and thus protects individual persons from it...
. He dealt with both every day in Harlem as he represented victimized tenants, accused persons who would otherwise have inadequate counsel in the courts, and impoverished African-Americans who were largely excluded from public services like hospitals and government offices.
Throughout his student days Stringfellow had involved himself in the World Student Christian Federation
World Student Christian Federation
The World Student Christian Federation is a federation of autonomous national Student Christian Movements forming the youth and student arm of the global ecumenical movement...
. He later became deeply immersed in the World Council of Churches
World Council of Churches
The World Council of Churches is a worldwide fellowship of 349 global, regional and sub-regional, national and local churches seeking unity, a common witness and Christian service. It is a Christian ecumenical organization that is based in the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland...
, as well as his native denomination, the Episcopal Church (Anglican
Anglicanism
Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...
). Stringfellow was also involved with the Sojourners community in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
He also harbored Father Daniel Berrigan
Daniel Berrigan
Daniel Berrigan, SJ is an American Catholic priest, peace activist, and poet. Daniel and his brother Philip were for a time on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list for their involvement in antiwar protests during the Vietnam war....
, S.J., who went underground after fleeing from Federal authorities for acts of civil disobedience.
Stringfellow's foremost contribution to theological thought is to see in "images, ideologies, and institutions" the primary contemporary manifestations of the demonic powers and principalities often mentioned in the Bible. This outlook made him categorically suspicious of activities of governments, corporations, and other organizations, including the institutional churches, a viewpoint that placed him at odds with the nearly-ubiquitous "progressive" sentiments of the mid-20th century. In the mid-1960s, he defended Bishop James Pike
James Pike
James Albert Pike was an American Episcopal bishop, prolific writer, and one of the first mainline religious figures to appear regularly on television....
against charges of heresy lodged against him by his fellow Episcopal bishops, believing them moved more by politics (i.e., appeasement of the denomination's conservatives such as Southerners and the wealthy) than serious faith.
Recent treatments of his body of work include those by theologian Walter Wink
Walter Wink
Walter Wink is a professor emeritus at Auburn Theological Seminary in New York City. His faculty discipline is Biblical interpretation. Wink earned his 1959 Master of Divinity and his 1963 Ph.D. from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Ordained a Methodist minister in 1961, he served as...
and Bill Wylie-Kellermann, both United Methodist clergymen.
Stringfellow died of diabetes in 1985.
William Stringfellow Award
This is an award given by Bates College to recognize one student and one local community member for their work pursuing peace and justice in Maine. Bates has been awarding this honor since the year 2000.Books
- A Public and Private Faith, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1962.
- Instead of Death, New York, NY: Seabury Press, 1963.
- My People Is the Enemy, New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964.
- Free in Obedience, New York, NY: Seabury Press, 1964.
- Dissenter in a Great Society, New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1966.
- (with Anthony Towne) The Bishop Pike Affair, New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1967.
- Count It All Joy, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1967.
- Imposters of God: Inquiries into Favorite Idols, Washington, DC: Witness Books, 1969.
- A Second Birthday, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1970.
- (with Anthony Towne) Suspect Tenderness: The Ethics of the Berrigan Witness, New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971.
- An Ethic for Christians and Other Aliens in a Strange Land, Waco, TX: Word, 1973.
- (with Anthony Towne) The Death and Life of Bishop Pike, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1976.
- Instead of Death, 2nd Edition, New York, NY: Seabury Press, 1976.
- Conscience and Obedience, Waco, TX: Word, 1977.
- A Simplicity of Faith: My Experience in Mourning, Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1982.
- The Politics of Spirituality, Philadelphia, PA: Westminster Press, 1984.
- The Life of Worship and the Legal Profession, New York; New York National Council, 1955 (available in reprint).
- Foreword to Melvin E. Schoonover, Making All Things Human: A Church in East Harlem, New York; Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1969.
External links
- Victorshepherd.on.ca – Bio of William Stringfellow (from a conservative perspective)
- William Stringfellow Award – Bates College
- Stringfellow Icon – Explanation of Imagery
- William Stringfellow: Towards a Culture of Caring. Work and Education (from a liberationist perspective)
- 1999 article by Bill Wylie-Kellermann in Anglican Theological Review about Stringfellow (12 pages total)
- "The Biblical Circus of William Stringfellow" in Religion Dispatches
- Johnston, Marshall Ron. "Bombast, Blasphemy, and the Bastard Gospel: William Stringfellow and American Exceptionalism" (PDF). Ph.D. dissertation, Graduate School of Baylor University, 2007.