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404
Book Reviews
Gregory C. EllisonII,Fearless Dialogues: A New Movement for Justice(Louisville,
Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2017). 160 pp. $17.00 paperback.
The starting place for fearless dialogues is when its participants are willing to occupy a space outside their comfort zone.
Gregory C. Ellison II makes a daring attempt to gather people from differ- ent locations, spaces, ethnicities, and genders into a single space to hear each other’s life stories. He considers the possibility of getting a criminal into the same room as a judge where the criminal is not on trial and the judge is not about to pass sentence. Ellison’s idea is that they hear each other’s story in the hope that there will be a deeper level of respect, understanding, and each becoming co-creators in making their community more habitable. This “space” in Ellison’s conceptualization, whether church, community center or class- rooms, he calls the Laboratory of Discovery because it is here, in somewhat of controlled environment where learning, whether intentional or unexpected, can occur.
A crucial aspect of life which Ellison challenges is that from our early lives we are taught to fear the stranger and view them with scepticism and suspicion. This fear for many, remains a lifelong companion and is seldom challenged in a way that brings new meaning. Quite often in life the only time many assump- tions are challenged is in a crisis, but Ellison stresses that one does not have to wait for a crisis, but one can intentionally confront one’s stereotypes and prej- udices to learn something new from them.
In reading Fearless Dialogues, one might be led to think that this is not an academic book as it is written in a way that lucid, vivid, easy on the eyes, beautiful and poetic, but the style captures the essence of storytelling on lis- tening to one’s personal narrative. Ellison draws from the rich reservoir of his African American heritage through his aunty and grandmother’s wisdom. Fur- thermore, he draws from the biblical text and Greek philosophy. He samples work from Howard Thurman, Henri Nouwen, Parker Palmer, D.W. Winnicott, Robert C. Dykstra, and others to interweave and develop his notion of fearless dialogues and getting a firm grip on the complexity and beauty of humanity. Writing about the beauty of all humanity he does not fail to address the oft lived experience of some ignored people groups. Citing the work of psycholo- gist, Williams James, who coined the deathly term, “Cut us dead,” referring to people who are met and treated as though they did not exist. Such behaviour has dire consequences on the ignored existential wellbeing.
Not only is he attempting to get people to know each other in a personal way, he also makes the bold and accurate claim that as human beings we do not know ourselves in a personal and intimate way either. He writes “The city
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streets of our hearts bustle with endless foot traffic” (p. 57). As he develops his argument he emphasizes that “we must befriend the stranger within, lest the unexamined and the unchecked traffic of the heart breed anxiety toward the stranger and bleed hostility towards our neighbour” (p. 57). In the development of his fearless dialogues he is not reticent in talking about his own struggles, weaknesses and experiences of anger as well as his journey from potential sci- entist to lecturer, teacher and pastoral carer.
In this brilliant publication I struggled to find areas I considered weak, how- ever, I was at times a little lost with the role of the fearless dialogue animators. I struggled in imagining how they functioned in initiating and developing the conversations and was unsure if they remained for the rest of the session or they vacated the conversation space. However, later in the publication he states that one of the functions of the animators is to “scratch the unconscious of unlikely partners, so they may consider how to interrupt the Big Three on a daily basis” as they interacted with the world (p. 150). The Big Three referred to by Ellison, are “despair, apathy and shame, significant threats to hope” (p. 134).
There is much in this book that is rich and life-giving. For example, Ellison asks a question rehearsed by many young people, as well as others who desire to make a significant difference in the world. As an eight-year-old boy he asked his Aunt Dotty how he might change the world. Unsure how to respond, she said she knew how to change the “three feet around her” (p. 11). That comment left a major and transformative impression on his young life. While Fearless Dia- logues begins as conversations with unlikely strangers to gain a deeper, richer and fuller understanding and respect of the other, it really is a lifelong inward journey which manifests itself in how individuals change the three-foot space around them.
Ellison’s publication moved me deeply in two ways. First, I was alarmed how it has affected my work as a psychotherapist. Second, I found his method of knowing oneself through the other as being interesting. After twenty-five years of being a therapist I am now left with two profound questions, as the client sits opposite me in the counseling room. Who is this person in front of me and who is this person meant to be with all their potentials and gifts outside of all the labels and diagnoses that presently identify them? Additionally, I was deeply moved with his big five questions he challenges those who would enter into fearless dialogues with themselves. These questions are: who am I, why am I here, what is my gift, how does it feel to be a problem, and what must I do to die a good death?
Finally, in an increasingly digitized, materialistic, disposable, and secular age, Ellison’s work gives a loud, clear, and resounding call that despite the var- ious labels of class, ethnicity, crime, gender and a varied multiplicity of life
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experiences, each human being is unique, created in the image of God, com- plex, interesting, mysterious, and has greater significance on the earth that the nameless passwords orPINs which identify many of us would imply.
Delroy Wesley Hall
University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom delroy.hall@shu.ac.uk
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