106 - Grace Notes and Other Fragments

Grace Notes and Other Fragments
By Joseph A. Sittler
Philadelphia, Fortress, 1981. 126 pp. $5.50.

Here are some 46 collected pieces from four decades of the phenomenally gifted work of a "constructive theologian." As he says, "It is my job to probe at the edges of things as responsibly as I can" (p. 27). The essays vary in length from three lines ("Pleasure and Piety") to eleven pages ("Maceration of the Minister").

The sheer profundity and delight of the readings is suggested in some of the titles: "Marriage and Snow on the Mountain," " Feet Firmly Planted in Midair," "Preaching to a Cliche," and "Polish Sausage, St. Augustine, and the Moral Life."

Those of us familiar with Sittler know that he speaks and writes with rare command of language, with humor always in the wings if not on stage, and with penetrating criticism and wisdom, beautiful in candor and devoid of condescension.

Davie Napier
Yale University
New Haven, Conn.