Out in front: the radical witness of Bill Coffin

Christian Century, June 29, 2004 by Harvey Gallagher Cox

Goldstein's last chapter, "Flunking Retirement," nicely sums up Coffin's current situation. Two small strokes and a heart attack have slowed him down, but just a bit. He lives in Stafford, Vermont, in a rambling frame house next door to the village church. He is extremely happily married to Wilson, a warm and charming but no-nonsense Vermont Yankee. He walks with a cane. Due to his persevering efforts with a speech therapist, only a slight slur colors his inimitable New York accent. He speaks in public less frequently now, but follows the news carefully and counsels a range of young church leaders who still look to him for wisdom. He can always produce just the right aphorism or one-liner for any occasion.

And he is as swift on the pick-up as ever. Two years ago I bought some books at a local kiosk near my home. When I went to pay with my Visa card, the young sales clerk looked at my name and said. "It's such an honor to meet you. I've admire you for years--when you were the chaplain at Yale and were leading the civil rights and antiwar movement. Not wanting to embarrass him, I thanked him and left. But later my conscience bothered me. Chagrined, I phoned Coffin and told him what had happened. "Don't worry about it, Harvey," he shot back, "I'd do the same for you."

He might, though I doubt that the occasion will ever arise. There is only one Bill Coffin. This biography comes very close to taking his measure, but it does not fully succeed Coffin has too many dimensions for anyone to get them all right. Life is still larger than art--especially when it is fully lived within the action an passion of the time.

Harvey Cox is Victor S. Thomas Professor of Divinity at Harvard University.