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Vincent Carver Gilliam - Dr. Gilliam began his professional academic career as a member of the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, as a President’s Fellow in the History Department. He describes himself as a poet, philosopher and a polyglot. He received all of his academic degrees, A.B., M.A. and a double Ph.D., from Stanford University. In recognition of his accomplishments, he is a biographee in the Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in Religion, Who’s Who in Education, and in the International Dictionary of Biography from Cambridge, England. |
In his own words, Dr. Gilliam describes himself in the following manner. I am a creative writer and thinker with an extensive academic and professional background in literary scholarship and mystical traditions. My book of lyrical and mystical poetry (Optics), contains an essay on prosody, and is available at this website. Optics is introduced by a prefatory letter to me regarding my work by James Baldwin, who wanted to write a formal introduction to my book. I include it to honor his generous offer and the memory of our warm friendship. I believe that the noblest form of writing is poetry, and that the purest form of expression is spiritual. While we should begin as writers with the highest of aspirations, we must still find with our descent into time, the niche we can make our own. Hence, I believe writers should begin with the ambition of being a poet by writing poetry, and that we should charge our work with our most inspired themes. In the end, we will find either that we are indeed a poet, or that we have become a much better writer. I found that God and the Muses shined favor upon me, and that I am indeed a poet. |
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I studied in depth the languages, literatures and religious traditions of several cultures. I have also engaged in extensive comparative research in literature, religion, and literary critical theory. I learned as much about poetry from studying and playing music as I did from Shakespeare, and I learned much about the English language from studying other languages and literatures. Yet what has moved me most have been words of learning or love addressed to or from the One most worthy of love. I believe words should sing, that a song should intone unity and not be inchoate, and that great expressiveness is available to and for all peoples. |
| During my years in academia, I studied with many imminent scholars, namely, Mircea Eliade, who initiated the scholarship in the History of Religions which in turn provided Joseph Campbell and others the foundation to study comparative religions, Paul Ricoeur, the noted French philosopher and phenomenologist from the Sorbonne and the University of Chicago, and Peter Brown, the Oxford scholar and MacArthur Fellow from Berkeley and Princeton, who has written extensively on Augustine and the influence of Greek mystical and philosophical traditions on early Christian thought. |  |
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In addition to my academic background, I received seminary training at the School of Theology at Claremont, which led to my receiving a Rel.M. degree. Although I was ordained by the Congregational Church (UCC), I have walked trenchantly on other paths as well, and consider myself more of a contemplative and an educator than a “parish priest.” Thus, my focus has centered on the comparative study of the languages, histories, and mystical literatures of several traditions, in order to provide me with the foundation requisite to inform my life and mission. My poetry emanates from that mission. |
