Harry Emerson Fosdick

Wikipedia:

Harry Emerson Fosdick (May 24, 1878 – October 5, 1969) was an American pastor. Fosdick became a central figure in the fundamentalist–modernist controversy within American Protestantism in the 1920s and 1930s and was one of the most prominent liberal ministers of the early 20th century. Although a Baptist, he was called to serve as pastor, in New York City, at First Presbyterian Church in Manhattan’s West Village, and then at the historic, inter-denominational Riverside Church in Morningside Heights, Manhattan.

. . .Fosdick outspokenly opposed racism and injustice. Ruby Bates credited him with persuading her to testify for the defense in the 1933 retrial of the infamous and racially charged legal case of the Scottsboro Boys, which tried nine black youths before all-white juries for allegedly raping white women (Bates and her companion, Victoria Price) in Alabama.

Fosdick’s sermons won him wide recognition. His 1933 anti-war sermon, “The Unknown Soldier”, inspired the British priest Dick Sheppard to write a letter that ultimately led to the founding of the Peace Pledge Union. His Riverside Sermons was printed in 1958, and he published numerous other books. His radio addresses were nationally broadcast by the BBC; he also wrote the hymn “God of Grace and God of Glory”.

Fosdick’s book A Guide to Understanding the Bible traces the beliefs of the people who wrote the Bible, from the ancient beliefs of the Hebrews (which he regarded as practically pagan) to the faith and hopes of the New Testament writers.

Fosdick was an advocate of theistic evolution. He defended the teaching of evolution in schools and rejected creationism. He was involved in a dispute with the creationist William Jennings Bryan.

Fosdick reviewed the first edition of the book Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than One Hundred Men Have Recovered from Alcoholism in 1939, giving it his approval. Members of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) point to this review as significant in the development of the AA movement.

Fosdick was an active member of the American Friends of the Middle East, a founder of the Committee for Justice and Peace in the Holy Land, and an active “anti-Zionist”.

He was a major influence on Martin Luther King Jr. who said that Fosdick was “the greatest preacher of this century.” King drew on Fosdick’s writings and sermons for some of his own sermons.

An excerpt from, “The Unknown Soldier” By Harry Emerson Fosdick, Bluz4Levantium:

This sermon was Dr. Fosdick’s Armistice Day (now Veterans Day) sermon in 1933. After recalling his support for the First World War, Fosdick renounces war and pledges that never again will he support or sanction another, a pledge he kept during World War II.

A few years ago my father told me about it, about how powerful it was, and about some brief correspondence he shared with Dr. Fosdick 60 years ago. The Riverside Church graciously sent me a transcript of the sermon and I have tried to faithfully transcribe it here. I daresay such heresy is now nowhere to be found near the bleached, sanitized, fundamentalized environs of 2000 Broadus, Fort Worth, Texas. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary is poorer for it.

Two weeks ago, my father called to tell me he had found the long-lost letter! He flew here and brought it with him. I have today scanned the letter and its envelope and added them to this introduction.

Monsieur Jacques d’Nalgar, Vendredi 6 septembre 2019 de l’ère commune

Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick

Preached at The Riverside Church, NYC

November 12, 1933

IT WAS AN interesting idea to deposit the body of an unrecognized soldier in the national memorial of the Great War, and yet, when one stops to think of it, how strange it is! Yesterday, in Rome, Paris, London, Washington, and how many capitals beside, the most stirring military pageantry, decked with flags and exultant with music, centered about the bodies of unknown soldiers. That is strange. So this is the outcome of Western civilization, which for nearly two thousand years has worshiped Christ, and in which democracy and science have had their widest opportunity — the whole nation pauses, its acclamations rise, its colorful pageantry centers, its patriotic oratory flourishes, around the unrecognizable body of a soldier blown to bits on the battlefield. That is strange.

It was the warlords themselves who picked him out as the symbol of war. So be it! As a symbol of war we accept him from their hands.

You may say that I, being a Christian minister, did not know him. I knew him well. From the north of Scotland, where they planted the sea with mines, to the trenches of France, I lived with him and his fellows — British, Australian, New Zealander, French, American. The places where he fought, from Ypres through the Somme battlefield to the southern trenches, I saw while he still was there. I lived with him in his dugouts in the trenches, and on destroyers searching for submarines off the shores of France. Short of actual battle, from training camp to hospital, from the fleet to no-man’s-land, I, a Christian minister, saw the war. Moreover I, a Christian minister, participated in it. I, too, was persuaded that it was a war to end war. I, too, was a gullible fool and thought that modern war could somehow make the world safe for democracy. They sent men like me to explain to the army the high meanings of war and, by every argument we could command, to strengthen their morale. I wonder if I ever spoke to the Unknown Soldier.

Video Title: ”American Boyhood” with Rev. Harry Fosdick (1/2) | Omnibus With Alistair Cooke. Source: Omnibus With Alistair Cooke. Date Published: February 6, 2021. Description:

Date aired – December 4, 1955 – Rev. Harry Fosdick