This collection of the writings of William Stringfellow (1928-1985), a radical lay theologian, human rights advocate, peace activist, and social critic, is the latest addition to the Modern Spiritual Masters Series from Orbis Books. The selections were chosen and introduced by Bill Wylie-Kellerman, a United Methodist pastor who served city parishes in Detroit and is the editor of A Keeper of the Word: Selected Writings of William Stringfellow.
Stringfellow entered college at the age of 15 and was active working for racial justice. He graduated from Harvard Law School, lived in a slum tenement, and worked for the poor. Stringfellow was convinced that racism was a demonic power. He would eventually write a lot about the principalities and powers that Christians must struggle with in their public and private lives.
In 1967, he moved to Block Island just off the coast of Rhode Island with his lover Anthony Towne. Stringfellow suffered excruciating pain from an ailment which would trouble him for the rest of his life. In 1970, he and Towne were indicted for harboring Daniel Berrigan, the radical priest and peace activist who was arrested in their home by the FBI.
Wylie-Kellerman has arranged the writings of this Protestant nay-sayer into sections on:
• The Essentials of Biblical Theology (Word, Jesus, Spirit, Sacrament and Sacramental Ethics, and Church)
• In an Age of Empire and Death
• Live Humanly.
An added value is the Stringfellonian Lexicon at the end of the book with definitions of key terms in his Christian perspective. There is also a homiletic afterword by Daniel Berrigan.
