[Dialogue] FW: what's really going on

[Harry Wainwright]

This is originally from Marshall.  

 

Peace,

Harry

 

  _____  

From: W. J. [mailto:synergi at yahoo.com] 
Sent: Monday, October 08, 2007 9:41 PM
To: Doug Rossinow
Subject: Re: what's really going on

 

Hi, Doug,

 

I'm actually the "M." in the email forwarded to you by John Cock--and he
edited/augmented my words to be more intelligible to you.

 

The private email list is for people who were members of the faculty and
staff Joe and Lyn Mathews and six other families attracted at the Ecumenical
Institute in Chicago following the 'split' in the CF&LC. 

 

Today happens to be Joe's 96th birthday, and he died October 16 thirty years
ago. Retired United Methodist Bishop James K. Mathews, Joe''s younger
brother, completed an intimate biography titled Brother Joe two years ago
before a stroke limited his powers. But he's still alive at 94, and talked
on the phone with me last week. His wife Eunice is the daughter of a famous
Methodist evangelist, E. Stanley Jones, who was a friend and confidante of
Gandhi.

 

As a theologically trained 'insider' I was pleased by how well you took on
Tillich and Bonhoeffer in an attempt to integrate contextual elements that
were highly influential in the theological studies our group offered to high
school and college students, clergy, and laymen in the 50's, 60's, and 70's.


 

BTW, Hillary took our courses as a high school student in the 60's, and you
might note that she's fond of quoting from Tillich's sermon 'You Are
Accepted,' one of the key papers in our introductory course. It got her
through the Monica episode.

 

Another key paper, which you seemed to have missed, is 'The Church as Social
Pioneer' by H. Richard Niebuhr (actually a small section of an obscure 1943
essay titled 'The Responsibility of the Church for Society'). It is a key
concept to understand the 'bridge' between Bonhoeffer's faith-based personal
ethic and what would otherwise appear as secular social activism. 

 

That's the whole point your book is trying to make, but you didn't exactly
have your finger on Niebuhr's concept of 'church' as pioneering social
awareness leading to revolutionary group action on behalf of society. So you
quoted Lingo and Meg Godbold accurately, but may have missed some of the
depth, resonance, and revolutionary outcomes of 'operationalizing' this
concept.

 

The CF&LC was a teaching/learning and residential community life experiment
with college students, laymen, and clergy in Texas, with enormous influence
but limited scope. 

 

But with their move to Chicago's West Side, the staff of the Ecumenical
Institute shifted our research emphasis to a much more activist mode of
working intensively and comprehensively in an economically and culturally
devastated neighborhood of black immigrants from the rural South, as well as
expanding our teaching nationally and internationally.

 

The historical impact of this work would be the subject of another book!

 

If you are interested, there is a group of my colleagues in the Minneapolis
area who, I'm sure, would love to talk with you about some of these outcomes
beyond the focus of your book. 

 

John Cock just returned from Denver where he offered a 21th century
adaptation of our introductory course, so this stuff is still around. He
offered it last spring in Minneapolis.

 

And I'm working on a DVD that will preserve some of the early film and video
documents from the 60's, 70's, and 80's. There's a 1965 CBS News program on
E.I., and two films I shot that Oprah narrated (1983) and Ben Kingsley
introduced (1977). These focus on the Institute's work in a Chicago inner
city neighborhood and in rural villages in the third world, respectively.

 

I'm curious about how you managed to focus on Austin and Joe Mathews'
personal impact on students in attempting to understand the wave of civil
rights student activism in the 1960's. Starting as a historian knowing
almost nothing about it, what or who led you there? And how did you reach a
lively sense of who these people were in their social, economic, and
cultural context? Whom were you unable to interview, and what sources did
you not know about at the time of your research? How did you hit upon Lingo?
Did you talk with Slicker? Or Buss? Or others that you didn't specifically
list?

 

And finally, I'm curious about whether doing this research and writing
engaged you, challenged you, or changed you as a person. Did it stick with
you or mean something to you personally, or was it more like writing about,
say, Genghis Khan?

 

We're all intrigued to know more.

 

Wayne Marshall Jones



Doug Rossinow <Doug.Rossinow at metrostate.edu> wrote:

Dear Wayne,

How fascinating! One doesn't usually get (or expect) such close
attention to one's work. It's very flattering.

By coincidence, a student at Troy University in Alabama just contacted
me to ask about my book. You don't have contact with a group there, do
you? May I ask you what the nature of the list is?

The book (and, more important, the research that went into it) was a
pretty long time ago. And it's clear already that many in your group
know a lot more about this topic than I do. For me, it was one piece of
a bigger project, and not a piece for which I came prepared with any
training at all in Christian theology. But you can see that yourself.

Having said all that, naturally I would be glad to answer any questions
you or other list members might have, if I'm able. Thanks for being in
touch. 

Kind regards,

Doug


>>> "W. J." 10/08/07 2:10 PM >>>
Dear Dr. Rossinow,

I'm one of the aging cadre of people who worked with Joe Mathews until
his death thirty years ago, some of whom, like Al Lingo, Fred Buss,
David McCleskey, Gene Marshall, Bob Fischel, Joe Slicker, David Scott,
and Charles Hahn, go back to the days of the Christian Faith-and-Life
Community.

Thought I never made it to Austin, I was a college freshman at Duke in
1958 when I first experienced the impact of this cultural phenomenon on
"student ministry."

I was very appreciative of your published doctoral dissertation, and I
would jump at the chance to explore with you some of your themes and
perspectives.

So, failing that, I suggested that those of us who are on an email
list read and comment on your chapter two. Thus your email from my
colleague John Cock.

Cordially yours,

Wayne Marshall Jones




 

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