Front cover image for William Sloane Coffin, Jr. : a holy impatience

William Sloane Coffin, Jr. : a holy impatience

"A magnet for controversy, the media, and followers, the Rev. William Sloane Coffin Jr. was the premier voice of northern religious liberalism for more than a quarter century, and a worthy heir to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. From his pulpits at Yale University and, later, New York City's Riverside Church, Coffin focused national attention on civil rights, the anti-Vietnam War movement, disarmament, and gay rights. This revealing biography - based on unparalleled access to family papers and candid interviews with Coffin, his colleagues, family, friends, lovers, and wives - tells for the first time the remarkable story of Coffin's life." "An army and CIA veteran before assuming the post of Yale University chaplain at the youthful age of 33, Coffin gained notoriety as leader of a dangerous Freedom Ride in 1961, as a defendant in the "Boston Five" trial of draft resisters in 1969, and as the preeminent voice of liberal religious dissent into the 1980s. This book encompasses Coffin's turbulent private life as well as his flamboyant, joyful public career, while dramatically illuminating the larger social movements that consumed his days and defined his times."--Jacket
Print Book, English, ©2004
Yale University Press, New Haven, ©2004
collective biographies
xiii, 379 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
9780300102215, 9780300111545, 0300102216, 0300111541
53059611
The great war, Greenwich Village, and the Upper East Side
Early years
Europe : music and war
Russians, White and Red
The education of a warrior-priest
From education to vocation
"Bus-riding chaplain"
Preaching the word : Coffin in demand
Wading into the big muddy
Moments of truth : civil disobedience and the draft
Marriage and family life
Activist episodes
Interregnum
Down by the riverside
"Flunking retirement"
A holy impatience