Letters to a Young Doubter [Hardcover]

William Sloane Coffin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 20, 2005

In Letters to a Young Poet, the poet Rainer Maria Rilke advises to "be patient towards all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves," for gradually, "you will live into the answers." These words have long struck renowned preacher and activist William Sloane Coffin as a wise way to view a growing and evolving life. Thus inspired, Coffin, former university chaplain at Yale, imagined a similar volume of letters.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Modeled after Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, Coffin's year-long correspondence with an imagined college student, Tom, offers insights from the fund of wisdom Coffin has collected over the years. Former senior minister at Riverside Church, chaplain at Yale during the turbulent 1960s, civil rights Freedom Rider, and president emeritus of the anti-nuclear weapons movement SANE/FREEZE, Coffin has made a career of asking hard questions of the Christian faith while courageously bringing the demands of social justice to the center of it. Over the course of the academic year, Coffin counsels Tom on matters of sexuality, grades, grief, narcissism and humility, war and the draft, and prayer. In almost every letter, Coffin finds a moment to quote a passage from writers such as Dostoevsky, Auden, Shaw or Melville. It's always unfortunate in collections of this sort that we only get one side of the correspondence, for Tom is little more than a mouthpiece for Coffin's own concerns. In that sense, the letters offer little that is fresh from Coffin. Despite the book's artificial form, however, there is no finer mind on these matters than Coffin's. His letters demonstrate that doubt plays an integral role in a strong and flourishing faith.
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Review

"Humorous, eloquent, righteously indignant, and ruefully wise, this book is suffused with Coffin's special tone: a mix of high moral expectation and love of humanity in all its incompletions and imperfections. It's excellent that he, who inspired so many of the young in the Civil Rights Movement and related causes in the last century, should begin a new century with a new address to the young." - Richard H. Brodhead, President, Duke University "Not only a fiery preacher and a social prophet, Bill Coffin is also a wise observer of life, and as he has grown older his wisdom and counsel - like a fine wine - have become ever more valuable. These letters can and should be placed in the hands of anyone - young or old - who has ever entertained doubts. And that means all of us." - Harvey Cox, author of When Jesus Came to Harvard"

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press; First Edition edition (June 20, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0664229298
• ISBN-13: 978-0664229290
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #132,593 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Man's Last Book, May 16, 2006

By 

Dr. John Laughlin (Glenn Dale, MD) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Letters to a Young Doubter (Hardcover)

On April 12th of this year we lost a great man, Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Jr. Of all his writings I want to recommend for your reading edification a small but wise volume, written shortly before the author's death at 82, Letters to a Young Doubter. The work was inspired by Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, who in his July 16, 1903 letter wrote these famous and wise words of encouragement to the young aspiring poet, Franz Xavier Kappus:

"... have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves . . . Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them . . . Live the questions now . . . , someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answers."

Coffin was also encouraged by Tolstoy who believed that certain questions are put to humanity "not so much that we should answer them, but that we should spend a lifetime wrestling with them." For he believed that faith is no substitute for thinking, but faith makes good thinking possible.

In several ways Rev. Coffin shares the company of people like Dietrich Bonhoefer, Francis of Assisi and those who came from wealthy, comfortable and established families only to find their calling in leaving a life of ease to enter the service of Christ. Impossible to pigeon hole, this sagacious man went from being a CIA Agent to Chaplin of Yale University, to President of SANE/Freeze (now Peace Action), and to Senior Minister at Riverside Church, NYC, where he hosted notables like Martin Luther King, Jr, Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela. If you have never heard of him, surely you have heard one of his most famous aphorism, "Remember young people even if you win the rat race, you are still a rat."

In this light but thought-provoking short work, Coffin, author of the Theological Booksellers' 2004 Book of the Year Credo, exchanges an academic year-long series of letters with a fictional young college student named Tom (after the Bible's Doubting Thomas?) who struggles with issues of his faith, complexities of the modern world, sin, problems with his personal life, values, God's love and God's Power.

It is an easy read offering small delicacies that you need to savor slowly. The book is full of wit and witticism that will make you stop to think and perhaps wish Coffin went deeper into each topic. But we are left with that task to ponder and even struggle with applying his words to our life, as when he writes to Tom and says: "There are two ways of getting rich. One is to have lots of money, the other is to have few needs" and "If you are religious, remember that doctrines are only signposts; love alone is the hitching post.".

If you are like most and have doubts, I recommend this book. Coffin's sense of humor and affection allow him to keep the gravest considerations in perspective. How else can one believe that doubt moves us forward not backward, that guilt is "the last stronghold of pride," that Jesus was "both a mirror to humanity and a window to divinity."

During an interview for one of his books, when he was asked why such a cosmopolitan and world famous figure would banish himself to rural Vermont, he replied "Nature gets more interesting as you're about to join it."

30 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Passionate Preacher shares simple --yet profound wisdom, August 13, 2005

By 

Fred W Hood "barbara377" (Fayetteville, GA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Letters to a Young Doubter (Hardcover)

From experiences as Chaplain-Relig Prof at YALE; Freedom-Rider marching with MLK Jr; distinguished service in 1980's as Pastor of Riverside Church in NYC; president of SANE/FREEZE; Speaker on issues as, World Hunger, Minority Rights; Justice and Peace or Freedom. Who other than William Sloane Coffin has gained enough expertise sufficient to quell Doubters of any Age?

While serving as Pastoral Chaplain in Georgia Diagnostic Center, alongside Drug-Alcohol Rehab groups and in Worship Services, I discovered in reading his sermons, his dramatic passionate plus a truthful direct approach, addressed needs of prison inmates.

I soaked-up Coffin's first writing in "The Courage To Love, also in A PASSION FOR THE POSSIBLE. They guided me two ways: to meet complex needs of addicted inmates, but also to give me wee bites of material in carving out personal growth to write and deliver sermons based upon Homosexuality, To Face both Suffering and Death, Being Open to Change, Seeking Justice for Minorities! The same issues are addressed in "Letters To A YOUNG DOUBTER. W. S. Coffin's simple language yet profound, relaxed, laid-back style is also reasonable, thoughtful, keenly passionate, even at times humorously questioning the young Tom.

Upon hearing W S Coffin preach sermons at the Montreat Services in mid-1980's I was personally impressed by his singing Bass in Elaine Brown's Choir, seated next to me! From deeper personal reflection, I found his love and respect for beauty in music alongside personality, when he questioned me about "that young lady who was singing Soprano part in the Vivaldi Duet." My only anwer could be, "She happens to be my Wife!"

That gave new perspective in hearing his mellifluous bass voice, both in singing and prophetic preaching. I admit never feeling comfortable as others, in calling him "Bill" Coffin! In speaking with Davis Perkins, his Publisher: "I never interviewed another Author with his many interests or keen imagination. Others whom he had published were Walter Brueggemann and Elie Wesel!

Added to the simple beauty & profound truths illuminated in this brief treasure, I am blessed by his Easter Sermon from Riverside Church, "Like Him We Rise!" I commend him, adding my prayers for his continued endurance to not "being the victim" from his heart problems in California.
Respectfully...Chaplain Fred W Hood

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Letters To A Young Doubter, October 9, 2005

By 

M.C.D. - See all my reviews

This review is from: Letters to a Young Doubter (Hardcover)

Definitely not just for a young doubter, this book addresses several challanges to the spiritual journey. I find William Sloan Coffin's writing straight-forward and well thought out. This book is very "readable." Approaching it a letter at a time gives one a chance to digest the thoughts and ponder the topic.