tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post5779449810116474983..comments2024-03-25T13:40:30.747-04:00Comments on Faith and Theology: William Stringfellow: career vs. vocationBen Myershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03800127501735910966noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-28033057991228137302010-10-06T04:03:46.226-04:002010-10-06T04:03:46.226-04:00I so desire to meet others who are drawn to string...I so desire to meet others who are drawn to stringfellow..How?Nancy Bowkernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-53416440610890380782009-02-08T14:43:00.000-05:002009-02-08T14:43:00.000-05:00Thank you for remembering William Stringfellow. I ...Thank you for remembering William Stringfellow. I graduated from Drew Theological School and had the privilege of hearing him speak at my undergrad university, Lehigh, in 1979 (I believe). For all the great theologians I've read, he is the far and away the best - and far too obscure. His books seem to be perpetually out of print. Alas, unfortunately the invasion of Iraq seems to have reversed that situation, at least for a bit. God bless.<BR/><BR/>Bill Bekkenhuis<BR/>Bethlehem, PABill Bekkenhuishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03370572809970195666noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-16142942810435484702008-12-07T10:00:00.000-05:002008-12-07T10:00:00.000-05:00Kim quoted Williams..."So in the most basic sense ...Kim quoted Williams...<BR/>"So in the most basic sense of all, God's call is the call to be: the vocation of creatures is to exist. And, secondly, the vocation of creatures is to exist as themselves, to be bearers of their name, answerable to the word which gives each its distinctive identity...."<BR/><BR/>Or as a paraphrased old saying from the rabbinic tradition says. When you meet God face to face, He will not ask you- Why were you not Moses? but instead Why were you not yourself?<BR/><BR/>This is why living out one's true vocation is learning to 'let your life speak'.<BR/><BR/>An interesting writer some of you might want to take a peek at is Parker Palmer, a Quaker teacher, and a theologian on the sly.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-41909421794092571222008-12-07T09:30:00.000-05:002008-12-07T09:30:00.000-05:00I was emailing with Anthony Dancer (fellow Kiwi) a...I was emailing with Anthony Dancer (fellow Kiwi) about Stringfellow this week. Glad to see you promoting his work--he's way underread.myleswerntzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03612042513717026642noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-86412489174437630702008-12-05T17:59:00.000-05:002008-12-05T17:59:00.000-05:00Here is Rowan Williams on "vocation":"So in the mo...Here is Rowan Williams on "vocation":<BR/><BR/>"So in the most basic sense of all, God's call is the call to <I>be</I>: the <I>vocation</I> of creatures is to exist. And, secondly, the vocation of creatures is to exist <I>as themselves</I>, to be bearers of their name, answerable to the word which gives each its distinctive identity....<BR/><BR/>"So with the human world; God does not create human cyphers, a pool of cheap labour to whom jobs can be assigned at will. Each human being called into existence by him exists as a distinct part of a great net. To be <I>is</I> to be where you are, who you are, and what you are ....<BR/><BR/>"... vocation doesn't happen, once and for all ... It happens from birth to death; and what we usually call vocation is only a name for the moment of crisis within the unbroken processs.<BR/><BR/>"... Vocation is, you could say, what's left when all the games have stopped."<BR/><BR/>From the "Vocation (1)" in Rowan Williams, <I>Open to Judgement</I> (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1994), pp. 173ff.<BR/><BR/>Williams, I understand, knows and likes his Stringfellow.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-30801084562306850212008-12-05T12:39:00.000-05:002008-12-05T12:39:00.000-05:00"career as principality" is sermon waiting to happ..."career as principality" is sermon waiting to happen. We've been painfully aware of the demands of living in our world and the degree to which we're sold out to success lately, and it's discomfiting in the midst of the financial crisis.Erinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13301222412563398458noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-56595103648470494812008-12-05T08:00:00.000-05:002008-12-05T08:00:00.000-05:00Good stuff. Thanks for filling me in. I'm glad I...Good stuff. Thanks for filling me in. I'm glad I asked.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17045950595392790139noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-70071885475204916062008-12-05T04:16:00.000-05:002008-12-05T04:16:00.000-05:00Given recent discussions here on the "principaliti...Given recent discussions here on the "principalities and powers", observe (as Bill Wylie Kellermann, the editor of <I>A Keeper of the Word</I>, points out in the introduction) that Stringfellow actually considered "career" itself to be a principality. In his conversion, ipso facto, he said he had "died to career".Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-65671582294060163042008-12-05T03:02:00.000-05:002008-12-05T03:02:00.000-05:00Fantastic quote Ben. Perfect ending to my sermon o...Fantastic quote Ben. Perfect ending to my sermon on living in apocalyptic hope... like John the 'wild-man' Baptist and Jesus the 'poor-man' Christ on the margin of so-called 'civilisation'.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-41583539917623356742008-12-05T00:06:00.000-05:002008-12-05T00:06:00.000-05:00Yes, Ben, thank you for this--it reads like a grea...Yes, Ben, thank you for this--it reads like a great daily meditation.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-63427793572741649162008-12-04T23:33:00.000-05:002008-12-04T23:33:00.000-05:00I'm liking this Stringfellow the more you quote hi...I'm liking this Stringfellow the more you quote him! Keep it up! This one is particularly practical as I am trying to figure out what to do after seminary ends in May. Thanks!Chris TerryNelsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03160910808665941467noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-13748433483594135332008-12-04T19:24:00.000-05:002008-12-04T19:24:00.000-05:00I think the quote Anonymous is referring to is the...I think the quote Anonymous is referring to is the section beginning _My People Is The Enemy_ (1964):<BR/><BR/><I>The stairway smelled of piss.<BR/> The smells inside the tenement -- number 18, 342 East 100th Street, Manhattan -- were somewhat more ambiguous. They were a suffocating mixture of rotting food, rancid mattresses, dead rodents, dirt, and the stale odors of human life.<BR/> This was to be home. It had been home before: for a family of eight -- five kids, three adults. Some of their belongings had been left behind. Some of their life had, too.<BR/> The place, altogether, was about 25 x 12 feet, with a wall separating the kitchen section from the rest. In the kitchen was a bathtub, a tiny, rusty sink, a refrigerator that didn't work, and an ancient gas range. In one corner was a toilet with a bowl without a seat. Water dripped perpetually from the box above the bowl. The other room was filled with beds: two double-decker military cots, and a big ugly convertible sofa. There wasn't room for anything else. The walls and ceilings were mostly holes and patches and peeling paint, sheltering legions of cockroaches.<BR/> This was to be my home.<BR/> I wondered, for a moment, why.<BR/> Then I remembered that this is the sort of place in which most people live, in most of the world, for most of the time. This or something worse.<BR/> Then I was home.</I>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-29215188946087776892008-12-04T16:00:00.000-05:002008-12-04T16:00:00.000-05:00Yes, he moved to Harlem to practice law (i.e. help...Yes, he moved to Harlem to practice law (i.e. help poor people) after graduating from Harvard Law School. One quote is something to the affect, "I resented living in a one room apartment infested with cockroaches until I realized that most of the people in most of the world live in one room apartments infested with cockroaches."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-24802439908452295382008-12-04T15:13:00.000-05:002008-12-04T15:13:00.000-05:00Was Willy ever poor?Was Willy ever poor?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17045950595392790139noreply@blogger.com