Recently Wipf & Stock Publishers reissued three books by the late Episcopalian lay theologian William Stringfellow: An Ethic for Christians and Other Aliens in a Strange Land, Conscience and Obedience, and Instead of Death. Bill Wylie-Kellermann reflects on the significance of these books for our day.
William Stringfellow was from da y one a contributing editor (and theological mentor) to Sojourners and its earlier incarnation, The Post-American. Hence, the publication of these volumes, the first in a reviving series of his remarkable corpus, should be most welcome to readers of this magazine. And they couldnt come at a more welcome moment. This, not only because their appearance roughly marks the 20th anniversary of Stringfellows death, March 2, 1985, but because their clear-eyed prescience will serve Christians and others in the current historical moment. These were important books when they were written and may actually prove even more so now. As Karl Barth, the great German theologian, once quipped to an audience regarding Stringfellow, "You should listen to this man!" It is not too late to heed him.
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