Dissenter In A Great Society

Stringfellow, in Dissenter in a Great Society, is not concerned with partisan politics but applies the standards of biblical prophetism to current attitudes to poverty and property, the continuing war between the races, protest movements, and the search for commitment. As Nat Hentoff said in The Nation, Stringfellow is no liberal. He is a radically relevant Christian - an extremely rare species. He argues that to be a Christian is to be truly human - radically involved in the conflicts and controversies of society. He advocates no naive social gospel, but dares to speak of the liturgy as a political event, and exposes the pietists, pharisees, and do-gooders who betray the idea of Christian involvement. Mary McCarthy has written, Stringfellow has been prompted by a spirit that is like the ghost of Simone Weil.

Dissenters are often portrayed as selfish and disloyal, but Sunstein shows that those who reject pressures imposed by others perform valuable social functions, often at their own expense.

The story of an American hero who stood against all the forces of Gilded Age America to help enshrine our civil rights and economic freedoms. Dissent. No one wielded this power more aggressively than John Marshall Harlan, a young union veteran from Kentucky who served on the US Supreme Court from the end of the Civil War through the Gilded Age. In the long test of time, this lone dissenter was proven right in case after case. They say history is written by the victors, but that is not Harlan's legacy: his views--not those of his fellow justices--ulitmately ended segregation and helped give us our civil rights and our economic freedoms. Derided by many as a loner and loser, he ended up being acclaimed as the nation's most courageous jurist, a man who saw the truth and justice that eluded his contemporaries. "Our Constitution is color blind and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens," he wrote in his famous dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson, one of many cases in which he lambasted his colleagues for denying the rights of African Americans. When the court struck down antitrust laws, Harlan called out the majority for favoring its own economic class. He did the same when the justices robbed states of their power to regulate the hours of workers and shielded the rich from the income tax. When other justices said the court was powerless to prevent racial violence, he took matters into his own hands: he made sure the Chattanooga officials who enabled a shocking lynching on a bridge over the Tennessee River were brought to justice. In this monumental biography, prize-winning journalist and bestselling author Peter S. Canellos chronicles the often tortuous and inspiring process through which Supreme Courts can make and remake the law across generations. But he also shows how the courage and outlook of one man can make all the difference. Why did Harlan see things differently? Because his life was different, He grew up alongside Robert Harlan, whom many believed to be his half brother. Born enslaved, Robert Harlan bought his freedom and became a horseracing pioneer and a force in the Republican Party. It was Robert who helped put John on the Supreme Court. At a time when many justices journey from the classroom to the bench with few stops in real life, the career of John Marshall Harlan is an illustration of the importance of personal experience in the law. And Harlan's story is also a testament to the vital necessity of dissent--and of how a flame lit in one era can light the world in another. --

An inquiry into dissent and how it might save the world.

The variety and depth of Anglican theology is best engaged through personal encounter with its many sources - the theologians and theological witnesses themselves. Anglican theology is often worked out in personal terms that provide a synthesis between reflection on the truths of faith and the particular contexts of culture and life. This book presents modern Anglican theology through a unique ’gallery’. This theological gallery includes a portrait or sketch of ten Anglican writers - DuBose, Farrer, Stringfellow, Brooks, Kemper, DeKoven, McCord Adams, Polkinghorne, Gore and Macquarrie. Theological description, interpretation and application are included for each, with the presentations differing as widely as the theologians and theological witnesses themselves. Drawing together understandings and experiences of faith, this will be an invaluable resource for students of Anglican theology and anyone who seeks to understand the distinctive perspectives and contributions of Anglicanism relative to living faith and daily life.

A gripping intellectual history reveals how Oliver Wendell Holmes became a free-speech advocate and established the modern understanding of the First Amendment No right seems more fundamental to American life than freedom of speech. Yet well into the twentieth century that freedom was still an unfulfilled promise, with Americans regularly imprisoned merely for speaking out against government policies. Indeed, free speech as we know it comes less from the First Amendment than from a most unexpected source: Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. A lifelong skeptic, he disdained all individual rights, including the right to express one's political views. But in 1919, it was Holmes who wrote a dissenting opinion that would become the canonical affirmation of free speech in the United States. Why did Holmes change his mind? That question has puzzled historians for almost a century. Now, with the aid of newly discovered letters and confidential memos, Thomas Healy reconstructs in vivid detail Holmes's journey from free-speech opponent to First Amendment hero. It is the story of a remarkable behind-the-scenes campaign by a group of progressives to bring a legal icon around to their way of thinking—and a deeply touching human narrative of an old man saved from loneliness and despair by a few unlikely young friends. Beautifully written and exhaustively researched, The Great Dissent is intellectual history at its best, revealing how free debate can alter the life of a man and the legal landscape of an entire nation.

Bodies of Peace argues that Christian nonviolence is both formed by and forms ecclesial life, creating an inextricable relationship between church commitment and resistance to war. In this volume, Myles Werntz examines the work of John Howard Yoder, Dorothy Day, William Stringfellow, and Robert McAfee Brown, demonstrating how each thinker's advocacy for nonviolent resistance depends deeply upon the ecclesiology out of which it comes. The volume argues that any account of an ecclesially-informed resistance to war must be open to a multitude of approaches, not as pragmatic concessions, but as a foretaste of ecumenical unity.

How do we transform American Culture through our religious convictions? Discover here the compelling stories of thirteen pioneers for social justice who engaged in peaceful protest and gave voice to the marginalized, working courageously out of their religious convictions to transform American culture. Their prophetic witness still speaks today. Comprising a variety of voices—Catholic and Protestant, gay and straight, men and women of different racial backgrounds—these activist witnesses represent the best of the church’s peacemakers, community builders, and inside agitators. Written by select authors, Can I Get a Witness? showcases vibrant storytelling and research-enriched narrative to bring these significant “peculiar people” to life. CONTRIBUTORS & SUBJECTS: Daniel P. Rhodes on Cesar Chavez Donyelle McCray on Howard Thurman Grace Y. Kao on Yuri Kochiyama Peter Slade on Howard Kester Nichole M. Flores on Ella Baker Carlene Bauer on Dorothy Day Heather A. Warren on John A. Ryan Becca Stevens on William Stringfellow W. Ralph Eubanks on Mahalia Jackson Susan M. Glisson and Charles H. Tucker on Lucy Randolph Mason Soong-Chan Rah on Richard Twiss David Dark on Daniel Berrigan M. Therese Lysaught on Mary Stella Simpson