Over from Union Road
My Christian-Left-Intellectual Life
By Gary Dorrien
Baylor University Press, 320 pages, $49.99
Gary Dorrien, author of more than 20 books and more than 300 articles, is known for his wide-ranging contributions to social ethics, theology, and philosophy of religion, and has taught at many institutions, among them Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University. Although an Episcopal priest since 1982, he is not as well-recognized in Anglican circles as he deserves to be. His new autobiography may help to resolve this shortcoming.
Like some other Anglican scholars, Dorrien is not a narrow specialist. Here is how he describes his journey: “I am a jock who began as a solidarity activist, became an Episcopal cleric at thirty, became an academic at thirty-five, and never quite settled on a field, so now I explore the intersections of too many fields.”
His roots as an intellectual run deep, even as a baseball player in high school: “I lugged a copy of G.W.F. Hegel’s Phenomenology of Mind to a tournament in Manistee, Michigan, having read too many references to Hegel not to be curious. The book was totally incomprehensible. Yet I persisted through the lengthy preface, the introduction, and the chapter on consciousness, figuring that if this book was so famous and influential, any time spent with it would be rewarded. Whatever it was about would seep into me sooner or later.”
What led young Gary Darrien, raised a Roman Catholic, to join the Episcopal Church? He cites William Temple, the 98th Archbishop of Canterbury: “I became an Anglican almost entirely on the strength of his intellectual and spiritual influence on me. He was a neo-Hegelian and a democratic socialist with a catholic spiritual bent just like me, though he grew up in English castles. He was eloquent, gifted, and spiritually deep, a social justice stalwart, and buoyant, a light to many.”
Yet Dorrien refused to whitewash Anglicanism by ignoring the Church of England’s long history of absolutism, racism, and imperialism. It was a relief for him to discover strong anti-imperialists who rejected cultural superiority. This group included Anglo-Catholic socialists such as Charles Gore, Scott Holland, Charles Marson, and Conrad Noel. Dorrien became familiar with both the flaws and the strengths of historical Anglicanism.
This autobiography is intellectually demanding, but even more so, it is humane. Complexities of thought and practice are presented without obscurity. Liberal theology, Democratic Socialism, and the Black Social Gospel are major themes Dorrien has promoted over the years that depend above all on hope in order to breathe. Each of them is discussed here from an accessible perspective that may lead the reader to seek deeper knowledge of them in the author’s other books and elsewhere.
The cast of characters that populate Dorrien’s life story includes many prominent thinkers who found their way to Alma College during the years when he oversaw the chapel lectureship program there. Indeed, reading this book resembles attending a huge reception and in rapid succession being introduced to a series of interesting people in fields you recognize as important.
Dorrien is especially memorable when he writes about those closest to him, including his late wife, Brenda, and his current partner, Eris McClure.
A theologian, a philosopher of religion, a social ethicist—all such scholars should demonstrate competence through the spoken or written word, and by how they live. Gary Dorrien has already benefited large audiences through his speaking, writing, and lifestyle. That he will continue to do so in a fresh way through this autobiography will be for many a cause for celebration.
The Rev. Charles Hoffacker is an Episcopal priest who lives in Greenbelt, Maryland.
