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November 8, 2004

Coffin documentary to air on PBS

Video follows up best seller “Credo”

by Jerry L. Van Marter

LOUISVILLE — “William Sloane Coffin: An American Prophet” — an hour-long documentary on the life and times of one of 20^th-century America’s most compelling social and religious critics — is airing on PBS television stations this month.

      Videotape and DVD versions of the documentary are available from the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation (PPC). The program was produced for PPC by Old Dog Documentaries.

      For half a century Coffin — who was ordained as a Presbyterian minister — has been one of the foremost progressive religious voices in this country. From the civil rights movement of the ‘60s to the anti–Vietnam War protests of the ‘70s to nuclear disarmament organizing in the ‘80s, Coffin has consistently held up American social and political policies to the light of Christian faith.

      During his career Coffin served as chaplain at Williams College and Yale University and as pastor of The Riverside Church in New York City.

      With the publication of Credo last October by PPC’s Westminster John Knox Press, Coffin became a best-selling author for the second time, following his 1993 A Passion for the Possible. A paperback edition of Credo is due out next spring.

      “William Sloane Coffin: An American Prophet” is being touted by PBS as “both a tribute to his remarkable life and a prophetic call to the nation … containing the wisdom of a man facing the end of his courageous life who has carried on a lover’s quarrel with America.”

      Coffin is currently at work on another book to be published by PPC, Letters to a Young Doubter. In the vein of the best seller Tuesdays with Morrie, Coffin offers life lessons through letters to a college freshman. The new book is scheduled to come out in the fall of 2005.

      To order “William Sloane Coffin: An American Prophet” and Coffin’s books, contact PPC by phone at 800-227-2872 or visit the Web site www.ppcpub.com. Check the PBS television listings for the date and time of the documentary telecast in your area.