Dissenter in a Great Society Author:William Stringfellow William Stringfellow's widely acclaimed "My People Is the Enemy" was a passionate description of his experience as a lawyer in East Harlem. Dissenter in a Great Society speaks with equal power, but has a wider target; it is a frontal attack on the complacency of the American consensus. — Stringfellow is not concerned with partisan politics but a... more »pplies the standards of biblical prophetism to current attitudes to poverty and property, the contining war between the races, protest movements, and the search for commitment. The realities of which he speaks are as familiar as today's headlines, but he sees them in a new way. As Nat Hentoff said in "The Nation," "Stringfellow is no liberal. He is a radically relevant Christian- an extremely rare species."
Stringfellow argues that to be 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."« less