ABSTRACT
William Stringfellow was a theologian, an advocate for social reform, and an Episcopal layman. Stringfellow was one of the most important American theologians of the twentieth century. Stringfellow would not be intimidated, silenced, or deterred from the Christian ethic of witness against death in all its forms. James E. Griffis's notes Stringfellow shared the radical and prophetic tradition of Episcopalians such as James O. S. Huntington, William Dwight Porter Bliss, and Vida Dutton Scudder. After the surgery, Stringfellow returned to live and recuperate on Block Island. Stringfellow found the idolatry of death to be pervasive in American society. For his part, Stringfellow is clear the common denominator of all demonic claims against human life is dehumanization. However, Stringfellow also realizes the advocates against social evil are not immune from the power and deceptions of death. Death is occupied in the civil rights movement luring some to behold integration as an idol.
