A Simplicity of Faith: My Experience in Mourning

by William Stringfellow

In 1980, lawyer/theologian William Stringfellow experienced the loss of his close friend and companion, poet Anthony Towne. Totally unexpected, Towne's death brought Stringfellow face-to-face with his most personal encounter with grief. These pages eloquently record his year of mourning, thus becoming both a tribute to Towne and a way of celebrating life-past and future. Five of Towne's poems appear here, brilliantly capturing the mood and tone of Stringfellow's text. Through the course of Stringfellow's dialogue with grief, he teaches us that bereavement can be a special source of inner peace. We discover that to know life in its fullest is to know and face death. 'A Simplicity of Faith' is a spiritual odyssey of rare intensity. It is a convincing argument that biography, reflected upon, becomes theology. Though in many aspects focused on death, it is a powerful statement of what it means to be totally alive.

150 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2005

About the author

Frank William Stringfellow (April 26, 1928 – March 2, 1985) was an American lay theologian. He was active mostly during the 1960s and 1970s.

Reviews

[Kolby · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have really enjoyed some of William Strinfellow's work, namely Free in Obedience and An Ethics for Christians and Other Aliens in a Strange Land, and am interested in the relationship between Stringfellow and Anthony Towne. I was hoping this book would discuss more about their relationship; however, for the most part, this was not so. It describes episodes in Stringfellow's life from the time Anthony dies to about a year afterwards along with theological reflections the author feels connected with these episodes (although the connections are not obvious to me). Like another reviewer said, it did seem a little all over the place. You're left with several interesting points of theological reflection but are unable to form it into a coherent narrative or argument to remember.

All that being said, I really appreciate Stringfellow's approach to vocation and the power of the Word of God in the world (although I can't be more detailed as I am writing this review a few months after reading the book). Additionally, I think his commentary on Psalms 22 is something I should reread and consider. I also would like to know what he thinks about the resurrection of the dead and the Second Coming. He believes in resurrection here and now, which I find lovely, but I still wonder about his nonchalant attitude towards the resurrection of the dead (though it must be said that this nonchalant attitude is rooted in his trust of God's goodness and the power of resurrection he has witnessed here and now).

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hello to my mainly non Christian followers. Here’s the thing: WILLIAM STRINGFELLOW IS MY BOY. Gay Episcopalian anti-imperial Leftist non-priest (this is significant) theologian. Ever heard the phrase “principalities and powers” in ur power analysis? That was this guy (via Paul). His theology has hugely shaped my own.

AND this one was weird. I thought it was going to be about his grief about the death of his life partner, and he barely touches on it. Instead it feels a little bit all over the place. Personal narrative, mixed with his musings about theology. I saw it as a middle-aged man, product of his time- suffering immensely from grief and loss, but not able to talk about it publicly cuz he was gay. It’s almost like he saying something by how much he’s not saying. Oof.

[J. Michael Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

William Stringfellow’s A Simplicity of Faith: My Experience in Mourning is a brief memoir of the death of his companion, Anthony Towne. Stringfellow identifies himself as a Christian and sees that as his primary identity in life. The world knew him as a lawyer, lay theologian in the Episcopal Church, and advocate for justice. Towne was a poet and satirist. The two met in in New York City and became companions in 1967, never identifying themselves as gay, but they certainly were a couple. They moved to Block Island, Rhode Island, where they settled into an old house and piece of property they called Eschaton.

Towne died, suddenly, on January 28, 1980. Stringfellow, who himself suffered from numerous ailments, wrote this book as a reflection on Towne’s death, their life together, and his grief and mourning. The book is vintage Stringfellow: honest, bold, spirited, sometimes losing the reader in abstract wanderings, sometimes strikingly clear.

Reading this book bolstered my own faith and help me think through some issues that I am facing myself when it comes to leadership in the church. Stringfellow says his vocation in life is to be a human being, nothing more and nothing less. As a Christian, his role is to be an exemplary human being. “And to be a Christian categorically does not mean being religious.” (p. 126)

He muses near the end of the book (p. 133) that he may have to give up being a lawyer, “the better to be an advocate” for people being destroyed by systems, powers, and principalities.

He is frustrated with the systems, (government, church, justice, health care, etc.) and sees them as demonic plagued. But his concept of the demonic is imaginative, not make-believe. He wonders (pg. 104) if God hasn’t abandoned the church, since the church is so caught up with its own institutional survival that it can no longer engage in the primary enterprise of being human and proclaiming a gospel that frees others to be human.

The book deals a great deal with death and resurrection, and Stringfellow sees that we bow before death, idolize it, and thus destroy our lives with that idolatry.

There is a brief explanation of the circus (pp. 86 ff.) where he sees the circus as the pattern for being the church.

I was at the Kirkridge, Pennsylvania, retreat center in 1981 when Stringfellow presented portions of this book to a group of us and then took questions. Therefore, it was a great experience for me personally to remember him and to hear again his courageous and wise voice through this work. Reading the book was reviving to my own soul.