A tribute to Edward Friedman and his role in shaping leaders in the Episcopal Church

Edwin H. Friedman is saving my life. Not in the way Jesus does, but gosh sometimes Friedman's stuff is just what the doctor ordered. Who's Freidman? Edwin H. Friedman is a deceased rabbi who was a practicing family therapist. He wrote several books, and before his death in 1996, he was all the rage on the speaker circuit with religious institutions and therapy training centers. He was funny, wicked smart, and right-on. A lot of us grew up with Generation to Generation and in the past several years any number of judicatories (of nearly every denominational stripe) have focused on his first posthumous book, compiled by his widow and a former student, Failure of Nerve. There are two other books published posthumously: The Myth of Shiksa (which I have not read), and What are you going to do with your life? Unpublished Writings and Diaries (2009 Seabury Books). The latter has been my reading-food the past month. The book is largely autobiographical because Friedman discusses his understanding of why he wanted to be a rabbi, as well as his questions about the decline in his health. In some ways typical Friedman material. But what makes this book stand out, I think, are all the sermons. I don't think any other book of his--published before his death (1996) or afterwards--gives us a picture of how he himself pastored.

I'll leave you with one nugget. I think asking questions of God is essential to a grown-up faith. My best "mountain tops" have been when God and I have been intensely engaged, not necessarily arguing, but marked with strong questions on my part, and in those moments I've often felt closer to God than any other time of prayer or worship.

In Friedman's book, What are you going to do with your life?" there is an address he gave at a high school's  commencement service. Here's what he wrote:

As one rabbi friend said, who was also speaking to a graduating class, 'if you don't have answers do not feel too badly. But if you do not have questions, you better feel your pulse.'

Hope your pulse is strong today!
Faithfully,
Thomas