William Stringfellow - "The Wisdom of Being Foolish" Baccalaureate for Advanced Degree Candidates (May 10, 1975)

Download
- Rights
- No Re-Use
  In Copyright
  More Rights Info
- Files (2)
- MP3 Part 1
- MP3 Part 2
- Please be patient with media downloads. They are often large files.
Share

Embed Code
<iframe src='//idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4gf0rx60?embed=true' height='125px' width='100%' frameborder='0' marginwidth='0' marginheight='0' scrolling='no' allowfullscreen></iframe>
Permalink

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4gf0rx60
Skip to Item Info

Loading the media player...

Files for this Item

Transcript

Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.

	(gentle piano music)	0:11
	(choir music)	4:31
	(gentle piano music)	5:53
-	As we become aware of the presence of God	10:25
	in this special holy hour of worship,	10:29
	we are reminded of God's grace and of our need	10:36
	of God's perfection and our imperfection,	10:40
	of God's holiness and our sinfulness.	10:44
	As Isaiah in the temple, we see the Lord high and lifted up.	10:49
	Let us therefore confess our sins before God	10:56
	and with one another.	11:02
	Let us pray.	11:04
	O God, in whose mystery we abide	11:07
	and by whose mercy we are redeemed,	11:10
	we confess our sin against one another and against you,	11:13
	all our transgressions, hidden and open,	11:18
	the evil done and the goodness left undone.	11:22
	We have deceived ourselves about ourselves and worn masks	11:25
	and not trusted in love.	11:31
	We confess that we have been careful with things,	11:33
	careless with persons, adept in taking, awkward in giving,	11:37
	in love with our fears and in fear of our loves.	11:43
	Forgive us for the times of our anger	11:48
	and the occasions of our stupidity,	11:50
	for the times of our characters,	11:53
	and the places of our hesitation	11:56
	for every time we do not love the goodness of persons	11:59
	nor praise the glory of God.	12:03
	Forgive us, lift us up, and heal us this day	12:06
	through Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen.	12:11
	In silence now, let us offer to God our personal prayers.	12:17
	And now may the almighty and merciful God	12:40
	grant unto us all pardon and forgiveness of all our sins.	12:45
	Time for the redirecting of our lives	12:53
	and the grace and guidance of the Holy Spirit, amen.	12:57
	(soft piano music)	13:06
	(choir music)	13:23
-	From 1 Corinthians, the wisdom of being foolish.	16:51
	For the word of the cross is folly	16:57
	to those who are perishing,	16:59
	but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.	17:01
	For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise	17:06
	and the cleverness of the clever, I will court.	17:10
	Where is the wise man?	17:15
	Where is the scribe?	17:18
	Where is the debater of this age?	17:19
	Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?	17:23
	For sense in the wisdom of God,	17:27
	the world did not know God through wisdom,	17:29
	it pleased God through the folly	17:33
	of what we preach to save those who believe.	17:35
	But Jews demand signs and Greek seek wisdom	17:39
	but we preach Christ crucified,	17:42
	a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,	17:45
	but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks,	17:49
	Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God.	17:52
	For the foolishness of God is wiser than men	17:56
	and the weakness of God is stronger than men.	18:00
	For consider your called, brethren,	18:05
	not many of you were wise according to worldly standards,	18:08
	not many were powerful, not many were noble birth,	18:13
	but God chose what is foolish in the world	18:19
	to shame the wise.	18:22
	God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.	18:24
	God chose what is low and despised in the world,	18:28
	even things that are not to bring to nothing things that are	18:32
	so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.	18:38
	He is a source of your life in Jesus Christ,	18:42
	whom God made our wisdom,	18:46
	our righteousness, and sanctification and redemption.	18:47
	Therefore, as it is written,	18:51
	let him who boast, boast of the Lord.	18:54
	(soft piano music)	19:01
	(choir music)	19:12
-	Will you join with me	19:50
	as we say together the affirmation of faith?	19:52
	We are not alone.	19:56
	We live in God's world.	19:59
	We believe in God who has created and is creating,	20:01
	who has come in the true man, Jesus,	20:06
	to reconcile and make new,	20:10
	who works in us and others by His spirit.	20:13
	We trust Him.	20:17
	He calls us to be in His church to celebrate His presence,	20:18
	to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil,	20:24
	to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,	20:30
	our judge and our hope.	20:34
	In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us.	20:37
	We are not alone.	20:44
	Thanks be to God.	20:46
	The Lord be with you.	20:49
-	And with your spirit.	20:51
-	Let us pray.	20:53
	O God, we gather here	21:06
	in this awesomely, beautiful chapel this day	21:10
	to rejoice, to celebrate, to touch and be touched,	21:14
	to give thanks, to hope,	21:21
	and to dedicate our gifts and whatever goodness we are.	21:24
	O God, within us now and always,	21:31
	there are three prayers which know no words,	21:33
	joys that have come unexpected,	21:40
	bringing new life to our worried souls	21:43
	and lifting them beyond their strength to moments eternal.	21:45
	Sorrows that stand forever in silence before your face,	21:51
	humbled by a mystery in which light	21:57
	and darkness are mingled deeper than our sight.	22:00
	Remembrances that lay their hallowing hands on all our hours	22:07
	with a benediction sweeter than peace.	22:14
	Joys, sorrows, remembrances,	22:18
	these are ours in this moment, O God, as we give thanks.	22:23
	For each woman and man who receives tomorrow,	22:29
	a degree marking advanced levels of achievement and learning	22:33
	for their long hours of study in library, in private room,	22:38
	in laboratory, classroom, at the drawing board,	22:42
	in the hospital, or at churches where they serve,	22:45
	for faculty and staff and fellow students	22:51
	who have shared the knowledge and have learned with them.	22:54
	Especially, O God, we give thanks for mothers and fathers,	22:59
	brothers and sisters, husbands and wives and children	23:03
	who have sacrificed and struggled for and with them	23:08
	through the long months and years.	23:12
	May these years truly and always be years of joy,	23:16
	sorrow, and remembrance,	23:23
	And now, O God, send these graduates	23:28
	and indeed all of us out into life,	23:32
	not for cheap things and not even for self,	23:34
	but to serve you and to serve our neighbor	23:37
	in high purposes for we have not gained knowledge and skills	23:40
	to live on beds of ease.	23:46
	At times, O God, lead us even	23:49
	to where the struggles are the hardest.	23:51
	We ask not for easier tasks	23:55
	but for grace and strength equal to the tasks,	23:57
	which are ours.	24:00
	Make real to each of us, O God,	24:03
	the nobility of loving service,	24:06
	that we may accept its disciplines	24:10
	as the price that leads us in the end	24:12
	to the joy which you have for each of us.	24:16
	May we as your children dedicate our lives	24:20
	to that simplicity, equality, and peace,	24:25
	which can unite us all in your love	24:32
	through Jesus Christ who taught us to pray	24:36
	as we join together now in the prayer,	24:41
	which our Lord taught His disciples, saying,	24:43
	our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.	24:47
	Thy kingdom come.	24:53
	Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.	24:55
	Give us this day our daily bread	25:00
	and forgive us our trespasses	25:03
	as we forgive those trespass against us.	25:05
	And lead us not in the temptation but deliver us from evil.	25:09
	For Thine is the kingdom	25:15
	and the power and the glory forever, amen.	25:16
	For the word of the cross is folly	25:48
	to those who are perishing.	25:54
	In these last years,	26:02
	the profound organic decadence	26:05
	of the American university has become visible.	26:11
	My remark is not quantitative.	26:19
	I do not consider that the condition of death	26:24
	in institutions in this society has suddenly	26:30
	or lately increased by so much as an iota.	26:37
	The university, for example,	26:45
	is no more fallen today than yesterday	26:49
	or than 10 or 40 or 100 years ago.	26:54
	But human perception	27:02
	of demonic reality varies significantly	27:05
	from time to time,	27:12
	and it may be said to be currently more lucid	27:15
	or at least less deluded	27:23
	than it seems to have been, say a generation or two ago.	27:28
	It is in this connection that the curious presence	27:36
	of some Christians in the university has been relevant.	27:43
	The thought and word and action occasioned by them	27:51
	has been important in exposing the wretched condition	27:59
	of the American university	28:06
	and in nurturing some human beings, faculty and students,	28:09
	trustees and administrators,	28:15
	chaplains and campus ministers	28:19
	to cope with the demonic	28:22
	incarnate and militant,	28:26
	in the authority, tradition, ideology,	28:30
	and institution of the university.	28:35
	Now we reach a moment	28:39
	when daily events in our common history	28:43
	refute, ban, and romantic and fraudulent ideas	28:48
	about the university,	28:54
	and when political naivete can no longer conceal	28:57
	and academic sophistication	29:03
	can no longer rationalize the rudimentary status	29:07
	of the university as a principality,	29:12
	a fallen domain,	29:17
	similar to any of the other great institutional powers	29:20
	in which death thrives like the Central Intelligence Agency	29:27
	or the conglomerates or the Pentagon	29:34
	or the political technocracy.	29:39
	And the aggressive purpose	29:45
	against human life of the university,	29:47
	as well as the other principalities	29:53
	is no longer reserved or disguised in American society,	29:56
	but has become blunt and notorious.	30:03
	Analytically, there are various rubrics available	30:09
	by which to attempt comprehension	30:16
	of the present state of the American university.	30:20
	I name some, not to thereby exhaust the matter	30:26
	and not to thus treat them as alternatives.	30:32
	These views are not distinct.	30:38
	They overlap, they are congested.	30:42
	Moreover, the discernment of any of us	30:47
	is partial and tentative.	30:51
	We suffer our own frailty.	30:54
	We glimpse by the fragments of awesome reality.	30:57
	If any of these rubrics	31:03
	convenience our understanding of demonic existence	31:06
	in this world,	31:11
	we must nevertheless heed a caution	31:13
	that they oversimplify the activity	31:17
	of the principalities and powers.	31:21
	Yet for all of that,	31:25
	I try now to speak about the power of death,	31:27
	manifest in the university, truthfully,	31:34
	which is to say confessionally.	31:39
	Theologically, the elementary subject	31:44
	is the saga of the fall.	31:49
	Analytically, it is the actuality of chaos	31:53
	in the present age.	32:00
	It is increasingly acknowledged today	32:04
	that the university in its identity as a principality	32:08
	has an ideological aspect.	32:14
	This is a tardy and begrudged recognition.	32:18
	The inherited view of the university has maintained	32:24
	that the university was ideologically neuter	32:31
	and further that this attribute	32:36
	rendered the university an open forum	32:40
	in which assorted and disparate claims of ideology	32:45
	or of philosophy or of morality	32:50
	or sometimes of religion could contend	32:54
	while human beings, variously persuaded,	32:58
	were left to exercise choices	33:03
	and make commitments.	33:07
	Though the university sponsored this dynamic encounter,	33:10
	the institution itself was conceived to be beyond ideology,	33:16
	aloof, nonpartisan, objective,	33:24
	devoted purely to search and research.	33:29
	This quaint inherited ideal of the university	33:36
	has been in fact often contradicted in practice,	33:40
	for example, by the exclusion	33:46
	from the pluralistic marketplace,	33:49
	which the university was supposed to be	33:52
	of those religions contemporaneously prevalent	33:55
	in American society.	34:00
	There could be courses on Marxism or Platonism	34:03
	or positivism or archaic religion,	34:08
	but none for a long time on Christianity or Judaism,	34:12
	at least in their modern expressions.	34:18
	Paradoxically, this historic closure was rationalized	34:22
	as an accommodation to American pluralism.	34:30
	Besides, there was such a plethora of churches,	34:35
	denominations, and sex,	34:39
	each with its own doctrines and versions	34:42
	that it would overtax the facility of the university	34:45
	to cope with them all	34:50
	while to deal with some would imply bias or preference	34:52
	or even risk proselytizing.	34:58
	No wonder when this idea was militant,	35:03
	that a premise of some Christians in the university	35:09
	regarded the university as alien and hostile,	35:14
	a mission field, as they sometimes referred to it.	35:19
	Bishop Pike of comforting memory to me	35:24
	and I think to many suffered his earliest notoriety	35:30
	because he complained about the prohibitions	35:36
	against the teaching of Christianity in the colleges,	35:40
	a discrimination he thought betrayed their propagation	35:44
	of an alternative faith in scientism.	35:48
	Others thought grandly of the idea	35:54
	of a Christian university.	35:59
	There have been some on these premises	36:01
	that have entertained such thoughts.	36:04
	Meanwhile, let it be admitted.	36:07
	Church-related colleges were proliferating,	36:11
	which were frequently narrow-minded,	36:14
	both religiously and educationally.	36:18
	Gradually, as some of our predecessors	36:24
	in the faith foreknew,	36:27
	this famed objective ethics ethos of the university	36:30
	has been exposed as a defacto ideological stance.	36:37
	If as an ideology,	36:45
	it be not as elaborated and self-conscious	36:48
	as classical ideologies,	36:53
	it has been no more subtle and no less self-serving.	36:56
	The American academic ideology emerged	37:02
	from the imperious status according to science,	37:08
	coincident with the industrialization of this society,	37:14
	and from the efficacy imputed to scientific methodology	37:19
	in the technological mutations of society,	37:27
	especially as that has affected human behavior.	37:32
	The exaltation of scientism	37:38
	and the imposition of the regime of science	37:41
	upon the whole university enterprise	37:46
	was accompanied in the American experience	37:50
	with the popularization of an inflated,	37:54
	virtually superstitious belief in education	37:58
	as the veritable secret of salvation.	38:04
	When the mentality of scientism began more and more	38:09
	to determine and restrict the conception of education,	38:15
	that fatal optimism concerning education	38:23
	became attached to the methodology of science.	38:28
	Within these past several years,	38:34
	we have beheld a degeneration	38:38
	of this grandiose schemata of salvation,	38:42
	it's degeneration into most pernicious doctrines.	38:48
	So heavy has been the concentration upon the specific	38:55
	as if that were unrelated to anything else	39:01
	upon the substitution of technical capability	39:06
	for moral discretion upon treatment of human beings as data	39:11
	upon determinism, upon quantification,	39:18
	upon specialization, upon fabrication, upon mechanization,	39:22
	upon compartmentalization, upon prediction,	39:28
	upon manipulation, upon automation, upon technics,	39:31
	that questions of ethics of belief and conduct,	39:37
	of commitment and decision, of correlation and consequences,	39:44
	of relationship and impingement,	39:51
	of integrity and wholeness have seemed abolished.	39:54
	The only ethical issues remaining	40:01
	have been radically privatized,	40:05
	disconnected from everything else,	40:08
	narrowed to matters of proficiency	40:12
	and competence within one's own niche	40:15
	and of loyalty and uncritical obedience	40:20
	at each respective echelon of organization.	40:24
	Far from being innocuous or neutral,	40:30
	this ideology in the university	40:35
	and throughout American society	40:38
	has had human point of view, appalling significance.	40:41
	Thus, the user patient of human accountability	40:50
	and the displacement of constitutional government	40:55
	by technical capability	40:59
	occasioned the most radically genocidal war	41:02
	in the history of the world in Southeast Asia.	41:08
	Thus, a similar moral priority	41:15
	surrendered to technics gluts the market of this society	41:19
	with redundant products, which literally waste creation,	41:27
	jeopardize life, deceive intelligence,	41:33
	and program people as compulsive consumers.	41:37
	Thus, the ethical rejoinder in Watergate	41:44
	to the most calculated and insidious threat	41:49
	to the rule of law in American history	41:53
	was reduced to the plea of dutiful obedience	41:57
	to political superiors.	42:02
	Thus too, the American opulence of such myopic ethics	42:06
	summoned most notably at Nuremberg has proven insufficient	42:13
	to forbid or prevent Milai,	42:21
	while the Nazi war criminals have found vindication	42:25
	in American ideology	42:31
	when Lieutenant Kelly was rendered the scapegoat	42:34
	for higher authority and corporate criminality.	42:38
	And thus, in the American University,	42:43
	a fragmentation and isolation has occurred,	42:47
	which is both antisocial and antisocietal in principle,	42:53
	which implies an elemental incoherence in knowledge,	43:01
	and which incidentally spreads a pervasive illiteracy	43:07
	among members of the university organized and confined	43:13
	in their respective factions and segments.	43:17
	I find no need to multiply this news,	43:25
	though it is necessary to notice	43:30
	that the predatory character	43:32
	of the ideology fostered in scientism	43:35
	within the university is quite definite.	43:39
	That is to say,	43:43
	what is involved is a relentless assault upon the mind.	43:45
	What is threatened by demonic aggression	43:53
	is the retention of sanity and the use of conscience.	43:56
	What is at stake is the preemption, in other words,	44:03
	of those very faculties,	44:09
	which distinguish human life as such.	44:12
	It is a fearful.	44:18
	It is also a truly apocalyptic happening	44:20
	that the university in America furnishes such hospitality	44:27
	to the purpose of death in this world.	44:33
	All that has been now suggested	44:38
	about the bestial reality of the ideology	44:41
	incubated in the university is subject to the note	44:46
	that as America moves into an ultimate technocracy,	44:52
	change is accelerating geometrically.	44:58
	The chaotic impact of such change proliferates fantastically	45:03
	and human beings become demoralized and bewildered,	45:11
	and sometimes dissipated	45:17
	in their efforts to comprehend the chaos.	45:20
	Technocracy signifies a most sophisticated totalitarianism	45:25
	and people are delivered into its bondage	45:33
	as much by their own pathetic private attempts	45:37
	to shield themselves or to somewhere somehow escape	45:42
	as by either captivation or surrender.	45:48
	The matter of ubiquitous omniscient surveillance aside,	45:55
	the futility of these poignant illusory human retreats	46:03
	is demonstrated in the terms of mere survival	46:10
	dictated in an advanced technocratic society	46:16
	activated by the necessities of redundant warfare	46:21
	and indefinite consumption.	46:26
	Survival in the American technocratic state	46:30
	means indoctrination in operations and skills	46:34
	integral to the technical process.	46:40
	The totalitarianism is so pervasive	46:45
	that there is no place to survive	46:50
	outside the scope of the technocracy.	46:53
	There is no way to exist unimplicated in technocracy.	46:58
	Even those discarded by or cast out of this society,	47:05
	those classified as recalcitrant or useless or unemployable,	47:12
	the blacks and the Indians or elder citizens	47:18
	or emancipated women or prisoners	47:23
	or the ill and disabled or unconformed youth	47:27
	remain basically dependent	47:31
	upon gratuitous official dispensations,	47:34
	food stamps, welfare, rent subsidies, Medicare,	47:39
	social security, and the life.	47:44
	When it comes to college students,	47:48
	the possibility of survival becomes translated	47:50
	into obsessive anxiety	47:55
	about admissions, examinations, grades,	47:57
	the acquisition of marketable know-how placement.	48:02
	And these in turn are very quickly converted	48:07
	into solemn conformity to the status quo.	48:14
	Paradoxically and even more pathetically,	48:20
	technocracy now brings a crisis in America	48:25
	in which should either or both	48:30
	of this society's basic policies,	48:35
	that is warfare and consumption be further implemented,	48:39
	the predictable outcome is national suicide.	48:48
	Hiroshima taught that gruesomely about thermonuclear war.	48:53
	Vietnam has truthfully shown the same	49:02
	to be the fact about any other warfare.	49:08
	Meanwhile, Americans have already pursued	49:12
	the consumption ethic far enough and fast enough	49:16
	to foresee that it can only end	49:21
	in the consumption of everything.	49:25
	Beyond any capability of replenishment,	49:29
	it can only the end in self-consumption.	49:34
	If this be truth, conformity in this society is insanity.	49:39
	This points to how under the ages of scientism	49:50
	within the ideology most prevalent in the university,	49:55
	obedded by the extraordinary momentum	49:59
	of technologically induced change,	50:03
	the disciplines and the arts indigenous to the university	50:06
	have been demeaned and subverted by commercialization.	50:11
	They become commodities, and those who are trained	50:17
	to practice the professions and the arts	50:22
	are consigned a correspondingly humiliated status.	50:25
	Nowhere is this more sufficiently documented	50:31
	than in the law, the field I know at first hand.	50:36
	When scientism is formulated as jurisprudence,	50:42
	it is known as positivism and it is no happenstance	50:47
	that there is a historic association	50:53
	between totalitarianism and legal positivism.	50:57
	In it, the role of lawyer is not as protagonist for justice,	51:03
	nor as champion of equity,	51:09
	nor even as advocate of the rule of law,	51:11
	but the public responsibility	51:15
	and function of the lawyer is abolished	51:17
	in favor of the lawyer as hired technician	51:21
	obliged only to serve the best in interests of a client	51:25
	or the cause of the regime.	51:30
	In America, that has come practically speaking	51:34
	to mean the nae exclusive commitment	51:38
	to the advantage of the great corporate powers	51:43
	and principalities to an extent	51:46
	to which the rights, causes, and complaints	51:49
	of ordinary human beings are virtually obviated,	51:53
	and thus the realities of human need	51:58
	were not utterly disallowed are deemed parasitical	52:01
	while any meeting of those needs becomes super erogatory.	52:07
	I have on occasion remarked that my only comfort morally	52:15
	in being a lawyer is that I am not a doctor.	52:22
	It is not a facetious remark.	52:28
	Although I can here only speak as victim	52:31
	and not as practitioner,	52:35
	I observe a corruption in the medical profession	52:38
	parallel to that in law	52:41
	where matters of research priorities, costs,	52:44
	distribution of services,	52:48
	response to human need is concerned.	52:50
	And there are grounds to a say in a similar way,	52:56
	the other professions and the arts.	53:01
	The language is debased and perverted into doctrine,	53:04
	propaganda, code, and other bubble.	53:09
	Literature is regarded as obsolete	53:13
	and literally threatened with extinction.	53:17
	The performing arts becomes stereotyped and fact-simulated.	53:21
	Any creativity is controversial	53:27
	and is opposed by the powers that be.	53:30
	The situation is quite explicable.	53:34
	Technocracy cannot tolerate human creativity	53:38
	because that cannot be quantified, programmed, and forecast.	53:45
	So it must be suppressed, destroyed, or displaced.	53:50
	As often as not, it is substitution which happens.	53:56
	And then the nomenclature of the art is misappropriated	54:03
	and applied to the anti arch	54:08
	so as after a generation or two	54:13
	to even deprive human memory of the art.	54:17
	Meanwhile, it barely requires footnote	54:23
	a ridiculous parody of this whole process	54:29
	in technocratic totalitarianism	54:34
	by which the disciplines are corrupted and dehumanized	54:38
	is rendered in the realm of sports,	54:42
	both in the university and in society, generally,	54:46
	especially in the political use	54:51
	assigned to commercialize sports to fill up the time,	54:55
	to supply distraction or vicarious involvement,	55:01
	to habituate persons as spectators,	55:06
	or otherwise, to nurture public passivity	55:10
	and enforce ignorance	55:15
	Lest anyone mishear my remarks	55:20
	as a complaint or diallage against science,	55:24
	let me make plain that I behold the sciences in the same way	55:28
	that I have cited the professions and the arts.	55:33
	I denounce only the abuse of science,	55:37
	the exaggeration of scientific methodology,	55:41
	the idolatry, which is scientism,	55:45
	the overwhelming commercial orientation	55:48
	or disorientation of the sciences,	55:52
	and the abdication or other absence	55:56
	of human dominion over science,	55:59
	respecting all the disciplines of the university	56:03
	and their potential for human life in society,	56:07
	human originality, or creativity like conscience,	56:12
	which is its next of kin	56:17
	means resistance to the regime of technocracy.	56:19
	The use of the mind,	56:26
	the exercise of the definitively human faculties	56:29
	signals that resistance and risks violent reprisal.	56:35
	What I am saying analytically is that violence is inherent	56:44
	in the technocratic state in America,	56:51
	and that in as much as the American university	56:55
	has been captivated by the ideology of scientism	56:59
	and has been determined by a technocratic model,	57:03
	it is governed by violence.	57:08
	Theologically of course,	57:12
	the straightforward meaning of the fall	57:15
	is that violence takes the place of relationship	57:18
	throughout the whole of creation.	57:25
	And in that sense, violence reigns	57:28
	in the particular fallen domain of the university,	57:32
	yet that does not spare us from trying to understand	57:38
	and cope with the immediacy of violence	57:43
	in the contemporary university scene.	57:48
	I am not now recollecting the turbulence	57:52
	of student protests in the 60s,	57:57
	as much as reminding that as soon as those protests	58:00
	exceeded the outbursts of late adolescents	58:07
	and indicated a more mature rebellion,	58:12
	the student movement was routed ruthlessly	58:17
	and devastated by the official violence	58:22
	of political and university authorities.	58:26
	The defeat and repression of the student unrest	58:31
	was at the time,	58:37
	the most predictable outcome given the precedent,	58:40
	but a few years earlier	58:45
	of how the American black revolt had been stopped	58:48
	by a similar deployment of paramilitary police	58:52
	and the federal army.	58:58
	Violence is diverse and often subtle	59:01
	and verbal, psychological, economic, and political sanctions	59:06
	had been enforced prior to the military resort	59:13
	against the students.	59:18
	That serves mainly to disclose that the forms of violence,	59:21
	which are not literally physical	59:26
	secrete the threat of physical coercion	59:29
	and ultimately, the prospect of death.	59:33
	All this, as you already know,	59:40
	was enacted in the infanticide at Kent State.	59:44
	It was then and there that the message was notarized	59:50
	that if the offspring of the white bourgeoisie	59:56
	would not conform to the function consigned to them	1:00:00
	in technocratic society, they would die quickly	1:00:06
	after the massacre, economic reprisals,	1:00:13
	the cutbacks in scholarships in student loans,	1:00:17
	subsidies for student jobs, research grants, and so on	1:00:21
	reiterated that same message.	1:00:26
	And so defeated, intimidated by the threat of death,	1:00:30
	immobilized, scared, the students conformed.	1:00:38
	They remain so.	1:00:44
	Quietism is the pervasive political mood	1:00:47
	on American campuses today.	1:00:51
	Resistance is now rare	1:00:54
	and is reduced mainly to mock protest	1:00:58
	like indulgence in neo-Marxist talk.	1:01:02
	Appropriately for technocracy,	1:01:08
	the university more and more has taken on the facade	1:01:12
	of a fortress and the ambience of a factory	1:01:17
	and the internal surveillance of a medium security prison.	1:01:23
	It is said that the students study more.	1:01:28
	But that comfort is small if what there is to learn	1:01:32
	is radically diminished and dehumanized.	1:01:37
	What in fact we behold in the university	1:01:42
	is a principality be left of autonomy and integrity,	1:01:45
	and instead consigned to a vasal status,	1:01:50
	subservient to other powers,	1:01:55
	the political, commercial, military,	1:01:58
	and intelligence institutions	1:02:02
	being prominent, most prominent among them.	1:02:04
	On such a scene in such a day,	1:02:10
	what can be said of the task	1:02:14
	and witness of the Christians in the university?	1:02:17
	For that, I commend to you the word foolish	1:02:22
	in the midst of demonic reality	1:02:30
	while the power of death in this world is most awesome.	1:02:32
	In as St. Paul says the prayer present age,	1:02:37
	the Christian is called to be foolish,	1:02:41
	to be an agitating, patient, and resilient presence	1:02:46
	in the university,	1:02:51
	confessing the power of the word of God	1:02:53
	to renew the mind and indeed replenish our humanity.	1:02:57
	(soft piano music)	1:03:30
	(choir music)	1:04:42
-	And now let us join together	1:11:18
	with the responsive prayer of thanksgiving and commitment.	1:11:21
	O God, we rejoice now	1:11:28
	that not only have we learned and worshiped together,	1:11:30
	we also bring before you the reality, the symbols,	1:11:35
	and the reality of our very lives.	1:11:38
	(congregation praying indistinctly)	1:11:42
-	And let us receive and celebrate the gifts of our lives.	1:11:53
-	We give thanks for the universe.	1:11:57
	(indistinct)	1:12:01
	For the earth.	1:12:02
	(indistinct)	1:12:04
	For communities and neighborhoods.	1:12:07
	(indistinct)	1:12:10
	For the revolutions, which shape our world.	1:12:14
	(indistinct)	1:12:18
	For the power of our learning.	1:12:21
	(indistinct)	1:12:24
	For the perplexities, which confront us.	1:12:26
	(indistinct)	1:12:29
	For our heritage.	1:12:32
	(indistinct)	1:12:35
	For the visions of this university's students,	1:12:38
	staff, and faculty.	1:12:41
	(indistinct)	1:12:44
	We are given the eyes of the spirit.	1:12:47
	(indistinct)	1:12:51
	The promise is to each of us,	1:12:56
	we may see, we may receive, we may love.	1:12:59
	(indistinct)	1:13:05
	Now from our very lives, amen and amen.	1:13:21
	(gentle piano music)	1:13:28

	(slow music playing)	0:06
-	The grace of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ.	3:19
	The love of God, the father,	3:23
	the communion and fellowship of the holy spirit	3:26
	be with you and those whom you love	3:30
	now and forever.	3:35
	(slow music playing)	3:39
	(upbeat music playing)	5:09

Item Info

Title:

William Stringfellow - "The Wisdom of Being Foolish" Baccalaureate for Advanced Degree Candidates (May 10, 1975)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4gf0rx60

Date:

May 10, 1975

Speaker:

Stringfellow, William

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0769
ref6738_z8u
uachapelsermaud
duke:628029
dcrau002737
ark:/87924/r4gf0rx60
f2a63aa3-9849-415c-a1ce-4d166e38f8d1

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings

Related Resources:

See below

Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

Format:

Provenance:

The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

Rights:

No Re-Use

In Copyright

Rights Note:

This material is made available for research, scholarship, and private study. Copyright in this material has not been transferred to Duke University. For reuses of this material beyond those permitted by fair use or otherwise allowed under the Copyright Act, please see our page on copyright and citations: https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

Sponsor:

Sponsor this Digital Collection

William Stringfellow - "The Wisdom of Being Foolish" Baccalaureate for Advanced Degree Candidates (May 10, 1975)

Transcript

Item Info

Related Item

Duke University Archives