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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/78238-0.txt b/78238-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9bb61f3 --- /dev/null +++ b/78238-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4172 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78238 *** + + _Leaves + from the Notebook of a + Tamed Cynic_ + + + REINHOLD NIEBUHR + + + Willett, Clark & Colby + Chicago: 440 South Dearborn Street + New York: 200 Fifth Avenue + 1929 + + + Copyright 1929 by + REINHOLD NIEBUHR + + Manufactured in The U. S. A. by The Plimpton Press + Norwood, Mass.--LaPorte, Ind. + + + _To + my friends + and former coworkers + in + Bethel Evangelical Church + Detroit, Michigan_ + + + + +_Publishers’ Note_ + + +The author’s reluctance to have this book published is all the more +reason for the publishers’ desire to have it see the light of day. The +author felt that the book would be regarded as presumptuous criticism. +It is natural that he would feel that way, for he is one of those rare +men who see more error in themselves than they see around them. + +But what is presumptuous criticism? In “Human Nature and Its Remaking,” +W. E. Hocking writes: + + “Is it not true that the entire interpretation of instinct as + will to power and of the will to power as a will to save souls, + or to recreate, or reform, or educate mankind, has in it more + than a trace of presumption? What it amounts to seems to be this, + that if the complete salvation of an individual will requires the + transformation of all its instincts into the will to save others, + we must be saved by saving; and it is very doubtful whether in our + unsaved condition we have any right to suppose ourselves competent + to save.... Historically speaking, the crux of Christianity is its + element of presumption.” + +This book is both an illustration of and an effort to escape the note +of presumption of which Professor Hocking speaks. Perhaps the book can +be better understood in the light of Dr. Lynn Harold Hough’s dedication +of his book “Imperishable Dreams.” The dedication is: “To my friend +Reinhold Niebuhr, in whose words and writings the younger generation +has achieved an almost disconcerting sincerity and a penetrating power +of analysis which searches the conscience and refuses the comfort of +even the most delicate and gracious spiritual self-deception.” + +This is sufficient comment to lead into the book itself. Supremely +human and simple in form, this is a book which _touches life as it +is_. A questioning and open-minded young minister reports what he +sees--what he hears--what he thinks. The reader watches. Page by page +the cynic--the same cynic that is in us all--is tamed--not broken, +not forced into compromises, but tamed by the release of impulses of +sympathy, of maturer observation, of sincere analysis. + +There is fine poise of judgment and delicate balancing of values +throughout these _Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic_. This +book is not abstract religious and secular philosophy. It is a report +upon life and experience--upon America in the making. It is a book +without pretense. Authority and dogma are absent. The book reveals an +honest, unhampered and penetrating mind actually at work upon the vital +problems of American civilization in their Christian import. + + Willett, Clark & Colby + + + + +_Preface and Apology_ + + +Most of the reflections recorded in these pages were prompted by +experiences of a local Christian pastorate. Some are derived from wider +contacts with the churches and colleges of the country. For the sake +of giving a better clue to the meaning of a few of them, it may be +necessary to say that they have as their background a pastorate in an +industrial community in which the natural growth of the city made the +expansion of a small church into a congregation of considerable size, +in a period of thirteen years, inevitable. By the time these lines +reach the reader the author will have exchanged his pastoral activities +for academic pursuits. + +It must be confessed in all candor that some of the notes, particularly +the later ones, were written after it seemed fairly certain that +they would reach the eye of the public in some form or other. It was +therefore psychologically difficult to maintain the type of honesty +which characterizes the self-revelations of a private diary. The +reader must consequently be warned (though such a warning may be +superfluous) to discount the unconscious insincerities which no amount +of self-discipline can eliminate from words which are meant for the +public. + +The notes which have been chosen for publication have been picked to +illustrate the typical problems of a modern minister in an industrial +and urban community and what seem to be more or less typical reactions +of a young minister to such problems. Nothing new or startling was +attempted in the pastorate out of which these reflections grew. If +there is any justification for their publication, it must lie in +the light they may throw upon the problems of the modern church and +ministry rather than upon any possible solutions of these problems. + +The book is published with an uneasy conscience, the author half hoping +that the publishers would make short shrift of his indiscretions by +throttling the book. Some of the notes are really too inane to deserve +inclusion in any published work, and they can be justified only as a +background for those notes which deal critically with the problems of +the modern ministry. The latter are unfortunately, in many instances, +too impertinent to be in good taste, and I lacked the grace to rob them +of their impertinence without destroying whatever critical value they +might possess. I can only emphasize in extenuation of the spirit which +prompted them, what is confessed in some of the criticisms, namely, +that the author is not unconscious of what the critical reader will +himself divine, a tendency to be most critical of that in other men to +which he is most tempted himself. + +The modern ministry is in no easy position; for it is committed to +the espousal of ideals (professionally, at that) which are in direct +conflict with the dominant interests and prejudices of contemporary +civilization. This conflict is nowhere more apparent than in America, +where neither ancient sanctities nor new social insights tend to +qualify, as they do in Europe, the heedless economic forces of an +industrial era. + +Inevitably a compromise must be made, or is made, between the rigor +of the ideal and the necessities of the day. That has always been +the case, but the resulting compromises are more obvious to an +astute observer in our own day than in other generations. We are a +world-conscious generation, and we have the means at our disposal +to see and to analyze the brutalities which characterize men’s +larger social relationships and to note the dehumanizing effects +of a civilization which unites men mechanically and isolates them +spiritually. + +Our knowledge may ultimately be the means of our redemption, but for +the moment it seems to rob us of self-respect and respect for one +another. Every conscientious minister is easily tempted to a sense of +futility because we live our lives microscopically while we are able +to view the scene in which we labor telescopically. But the higher +perspective has its advantages as well as its dangers. It saves us from +too much self-deception. Men who are engaged in the espousal of ideals +easily fall into sentimentality. From the outside and the disinterested +perspective this sentimentality may seem like hypocrisy. If it is +only sentimentality and self-deception, viewed at closer range, it +may degenerate into real hypocrisy if no determined effort is made to +reduce it to a minimum. + +It is no easy task to deal realistically with the moral confusion of +our day, either in the pulpit or the pew, and avoid the appearance, +and possibly the actual peril, of cynicism. An age which obscures the +essentially unethical nature of its dominant interests by an undue +preoccupation with the application of Christian principles in limited +areas, may, as a matter of fact, deserve and profit by ruthless satire. +Yet the pedagogical merits of satire are dubious, and in any event its +weapons will be foresworn by an inside critic for both selfish and +social reasons. For reasons of self-defense he will be very gentle in +dealing with limitations which his own life illustrates. + +But he will be generous in judgment for another reason. His intimate +view of the facts will help him to see that what an outside critic +may call hypocrisy may really be honest, because unconscious, +sentimentality and self-deception. When virtues are used to hide moral +limitations the critic ought not to be too sure that the virtues are +bogus. Sometimes they are. But sometimes they merely represent the +effort of honest but short-sighted men to preserve the excellencies +of another day long after these have ceased to have relevancy for the +problems of our own day; or sometimes they spring from efforts to apply +the Christian ideal to limited and immediate areas of conduct where +application is fairly easy. In such cases no one can be absolutely sure +whether it is want of perspective or want of courage which hinders the +Christian idealist from applying his ideals and principles to the more +remote and the more difficult relationships. + +That the ministry is particularly tempted to the self-deceptions +which afflict the moral life of Christians today is obvious. If it is +dangerous to entertain great moral ideals without attempting to realize +them in life, it is even more perilous to proclaim them in abstract +terms without bringing them into juxtaposition with the specific social +and moral issues of the day. The minister’s premature satisfaction +in the presentation of moral ideals is accentuated by the fact that +he is a leader in a community in which appreciative attitudes are on +the whole more prevalent than critical ones. The minister is therefore +easily fooled by extravagant conceptions of his own moral stature, +held by admiring parishioners. If he could realize how much of this +appreciation represents transferred religious emotion he could be more +realistic in analyzing himself. And if he could persuade himself to +speak of moral ideals in terms of specific issues and contemporary +situations, he would probably prompt currents of critical thought which +would destroy the aura which invests his person with premature sanctity. + +If a minister wants to be a man among men he need only to stop +creating devotion to abstract ideals which every one accepts in theory +and denies in practice, and to agonize about their validity and +practicability in the social issues which he and others face in our +present civilization. That immediately gives his ministry a touch of +reality and potency and robs it of an artificial prestige which it can +afford to dispense with, and is bound to be stripped of, the kind of +prestige which is the prerogative of priests and professional holy men. + +The number of ministers who are perfectly realistic about their +tasks and who are sincerely anxious to help the modern generation +find itself, not only in the intricate problems of the personal life +but in the moral and social complexities of an industrial society, is +much larger than the critics outside of the church are able to know +and willing to concede. If I have any regrets, it is that these pages, +preoccupied with criticism, deal inadequately with such men and fail +to discharge my debt of gratitude to them. It is comparatively easy +for professors, secretaries and even bishops to criticise the man in +a local situation from the perspective and the safety (relative, of +course,) which an irresponsible itinerancy supplies. + +No amount of pressure from an itinerant “prophet” can change the fact +that a minister is bound to be a statesman as much as a prophet, +dealing with situations as well as principles. In specific situations, +actions must be judged not only in terms of absolute standards but in +consideration of available resources in the lives of those whom the +minister leads. + +It may be well for the statesman to know that statesmanship easily +degenerates into opportunism and that opportunism cannot be sharply +distinguished from dishonesty. But the prophet ought to realize that +his higher perspective and the uncompromising nature of his judgments +always has a note of irresponsibility in it. Francis of Assisi may +have been a better Christian than Pope Innocent III. But it may be +questioned whether his moral superiority over the latter was as +absolute as it seemed. Nor is there any reason to believe that Abraham +Lincoln, the statesman and opportunist, was morally inferior to William +Lloyd Garrison, the prophet. The moral achievement of statesmen must be +judged in terms which take account of the limitations of human society +which the statesman must, and the prophet need not, consider. + +Having both entered and left the parish ministry against my +inclinations, I pay my tribute to the calling, firm in the conviction +that it offers greater opportunities for both moral adventure and +social usefulness than any other calling if it is entered with open +eyes and a consciousness of the hazards to virtue which lurk in it. I +make no apology for being critical of what I love. No one wants a love +which is based upon illusions, and there is no reason why we should not +love a profession and yet be critical of it. + + Reinhold Niebuhr + + + + + _Leaves + from the Notebook of a + Tamed Cynic_ + + + + +_1915_ + + +There is something ludicrous about a callow young fool like myself +standing up to preach a sermon to these good folks. I talk wisely +about life and know little about life’s problems. I tell them of the +need of sacrifice, although most of them could tell me something about +what that really means. I preached a sermon the other day on “The +Involuntary Cross,” using the text of Simon the Cyrene bearing the +cross of Jesus. A good woman, a little bolder than the rest, asked me +in going out whether I had borne many crosses. I think I know a little +more about that than I would be willing to confess to her or to the +congregation, but her question was justified. + +Many of the people insist that they can’t understand how a man so +young as I could possibly be a preacher. Since I am twenty-three their +reaction to my youth simply means that they find something incompatible +even between the ripe age of twenty-three and the kind of seasoned +wisdom which they expect from the pulpit. “Let no one despise thy +youth,” said Paul to Timothy; but I doubt whether that advice stopped +any of the old saints from wagging their heads. I found it hard the +first few months to wear a pulpit gown. Now I am getting accustomed +to it. At first I felt too much like a priest in it, and I abhor +priestliness. I have become reconciled to it partly as a simple matter +of habit, but I imagine that I am also beginning to like the gown as a +kind of symbol of authority. It gives me the feeling that I am speaking +not altogether in my own name and out of my own experience but by the +authority of the experience of many Christian centuries. + +Difficult as the pulpit job is, it is easier than the work in the +organizations of the congregation. Where did anyone ever learn in a +seminary how to conduct or help with a Ladies Aid meeting? I am glad +that mother has come to live with me and will take care of that part +of the job. It is easier to speak sagely from the pulpit than to act +wisely in the detailed tasks of the parish. A young preacher would do +well to be heard more than he is seen. + + + + +_1915_ + + +I am glad there are only eighteen families in this church. I have +been visiting the members for six weeks and haven’t seen all of them +yet. Usually I walk past a house two or three times before I summon +the courage to go in. I am always very courteously received, so I +don’t know exactly why I should not be able to overcome this curious +timidity. I don’t know that very much comes of my visits except that I +really get acquainted with the people. + +Usually after I have made a call I find some good excuse to quit for +the afternoon. I used to do that in the days gone by when I was a book +agent. But there was reason for it then. I needed the afternoon to +regain my self-respect. Now it seems to be pure laziness and fear. The +people are a little discouraged. Some of them seem to doubt whether the +church will survive. But there are a few who are the salt of the earth, +and if I make a go of this they will be more responsible than they will +ever know. + + + + +_1915_ + + +Now that I have preached about a dozen sermons I find I am repeating +myself. A different text simply means a different pretext for saying +the same thing over again. The few ideas that I had worked into sermons +at the seminary have all been used, and now what? I suppose that as +the years go by life and experience will prompt some new ideas and I +will find some in the Bible that I have missed so far. They say a young +preacher must catch his second wind before he can really preach. I’d +better catch it pretty soon or the weekly sermon will become a terrible +chore. + +You are supposed to stand before a congregation, brimming over with +a great message. Here I am trying to find a new little message each +Sunday. If I really had great convictions I suppose they would struggle +for birth each week. As the matter stands, I struggle to find an idea +worth presenting and I almost dread the approach of a new sabbath. I +don’t know whether I can ever accustom myself to the task of bringing +light and inspiration in regular weekly installments. + +How in the world can you reconcile the inevitability of Sunday and +its task with the moods and caprices of the soul? The prophet speaks +only when he is inspired. The parish preacher must speak whether he +is inspired or not. I wonder whether it is possible to live on a high +enough plane to do that without sinning against the Holy Spirit. + + + + +_1916_ + + +Visited old Mrs. G. today and gave her communion. This was my first +experience with communion at the sick bed. I think there is a good deal +of superstition connected with the rite. It isn’t very much different +in some of its aspects from the Catholic rite of extreme unction. Yet +I will not be too critical. If the rite suggests and expresses the +emotion of honest contrition it is more than superstition. But that +is the difficulty of acting as priest. It is not in your power to +determine the use of a symbol. Whether it is a blessing or a bit of +superstition rests altogether with the recipient. + +I must admit that I am losing some of the aversion to the sacraments +cultivated in my seminary days. There is something very beautiful about +parents bringing their child to the altar with a prayer of thanksgiving +and as an act of dedication. The trouble is that the old ritual in the +book of forms does not express this idea clearly. I have to put the +whole meaning of the sacrament as I see it into the prayer. Perhaps I +can use my own form later on, if I get the confidence of the people. + +Incidentally Mrs. G. gave me a shock this afternoon. After the service +was completed she fished around under her pillow and brought forth a +five dollar bill. That was to pay me for my trouble. I never knew this +fee business still existed in such a form in Protestantism. I knew they +were still paying for baptism in some denominations, ours included. +But this is a new one. The old lady was a little hurt, I think, by my +refusal. I think she imagined that pity prompted my diffidence. She +insisted that she was quite able to pay. I’d better get started on +this whole fee question and make an announcement that I won’t accept +any fees for anything. I think I’ll except weddings however. Every +one takes fees for them. It will just make a scene when the groom or +best man slyly crosses your palm with a bill and you make a righteous +refusal. They never will understand. Marriage is not a sacrament +anyway. Then, too, it’s fun getting a little extra money once in a +while. But isn’t marriage a sacrament? + + + + +_1916_ + + +Doesn’t this denominational business wear on one’s nerves? If I were +a doctor people would consult me according to the skill I had and the +reputation I could acquire. But being a minister I can appeal only to +people who are labeled as I am. Yesterday that professor I met asked me +what denomination I belonged to. Being told, he promptly pigeonholed +me into my proper place and with a superior air assumed that my mind +was as definitely set by my denominational background as is that of an +African Hottentot by his peculiar environment. + +Perhaps if I belonged to a larger denomination this wouldn’t irk me +so much. I suffer from an inferiority complex because of the very +numerical weakness of my denomination. If I belonged to a large one I +might strut about and claim its glory for myself. If I give myself to +religion as a profession I must find some interdenominational outlet +for my activities. But what? Secretaries and Y.M.C.A. workers are too +inarticulate. They deal too much with machinery and too little with +ideas. I don’t want to be a chauffeur. Does that mean that I am a +minister merely because I am a fairly glib talker? Who knows? + +But let us not be too cynical and too morbidly introspective. I may +find something worth saying in time and escape the fate of being a mere +talker. At any rate I swear that I will never aspire to be a preacher +of pretty sermons. I’ll keep them rough just to escape the temptation +of degenerating into an elocutionist. Maybe I had better stop quoting +so much poetry. But that is hardly the point. Plenty of sermons lack +both beauty and meaning. + + + + +_1916_ + + +The young fellows I am trying to teach in Sunday school don’t listen +to me attentively. I don’t think I am getting very close to where they +live. Or perhaps I just haven’t learned how to put my message across. +I am constantly interrupted in my talk by the necessity of calling +someone to order. It is a good thing that I have a class like that. +I’ll venture that my sermons aren’t getting any nearer to the people, +but the little group of adults I am speaking to in the morning service +are naturally more patient or at least more polite than these honest +youngsters, and so I have less chance to find out from them how futile +I am. But that doesn’t solve the problem of how to reach those fellows. + + + + +_1916_ + + +I had a letter from Professor L---- today suggesting that I return to +college and prepare myself for the teaching profession. A year ago I +was certain that I would do that. Now I am not so sure. Nevertheless +the academic life has its allurements. It is really simpler than +the ministry. As a teacher your only task is to discover the truth. +As a preacher you must conserve other interests besides the truth. +It is your business to deal circumspectly with the whole religious +inheritance lest the virtues which are involved in the older traditions +perish through your iconoclasm. That is a formidable task and a +harassing one; for one can never be quite sure where pedagogical +caution ends and dishonesty begins. + +What is particularly disquieting to a young man in the ministry is the +fact that some of his fine old colleagues make such a virtue of their +ignorance. They are sure that there is no Second Isaiah and have never +heard that Deuteronomy represents a later development in the law. I +can’t blame them for not having all the bright new knowledge of a +recent seminarian (not quite as new as the seminarian imagines); but +the ministry is the only profession in which you can make a virtue of +ignorance. If you have read nothing but commentaries for twenty years, +that is supposed to invest you with an aura of sanctity and piety. +Every profession has its traditions and its traditionalists. But the +traditionalists in the pulpit are much more certain than the others +that the Lord is on their side. + + + + +_1917_ + + +Next week we are going to hold our first every member canvass. They +expect me to preach a sermon which will prepare the good people to give +generously. I don’t mind that. Most people give little enough for the +church or for anything else not connected with their own pleasures. +But I don’t see how you can preach a sermon adequate to the needs of +the moment without identifying the church with the kingdom of God too +unqualifiedly. And meanwhile you are drawing your salary from the +church and remembering that if the canvass is a success there may be +an increase in salary next year. It isn’t easy to mix the business +of preaching with the business of making a living and maintain your +honesty and self-respect. + +Of course every laborer is worthy of his hire. But you notice that +Paul, who insisted on that point, nevertheless prided himself on his +independence. He wanted “not yours but you.” But let us not be too +squeamish. There is old J.Q. It would do his soul good if he loosened +up a bit. One might say to him, “I want yours so that I can get you.” + + + + +_1918_ + +(After a trip through the war training camps.) + + +I hardly know how to bring order out of confusion in my mind in regard +to this war. I think that if Wilson’s aims are realized the war will +serve a good purpose. When I talk to the boys I make much of the +Wilsonian program as against the kind of diplomacy which brought on the +war. But it is easier to talk about the aims of the war than to justify +its methods. + +Out at Funston I watched a bayonet practice. It was enough to make +me feel like a brazen hypocrite for being in this thing, even in a +rather indirect way. Yet I cannot bring myself to associate with the +pacifists. Perhaps if I were not of German blood I could. That may be +cowardly, but I do think that a new nation has a right to be pretty +sensitive about its unity. + +Some of the good old Germans have a hard time hiding a sentiment which +borders very closely on hatred for this nation. Anyone who dissociates +himself from the cause of his nation in such a time as this ought +to do it only on the basis of an unmistakably higher loyalty. If I +dissociated myself only slightly I would inevitably be forced into +the camp of those who romanticize about the Kaiser. And the Kaiser +is certainly nothing to me. If we must have war I’ll certainly feel +better on the side of Wilson than on the side of the Kaiser. + +What makes me angry is the way I kowtow to the chaplains as I visit +the various camps. Here are ministers of the gospel just as I am. Just +as I they are also, for the moment, priests of the great god Mars. +As ministers of the Christian religion I have no particular respect +for them. Yet I am overcome by a terrible inferiority complex when I +deal with them. Such is the power of a uniform. Like myself, they have +mixed the worship of the God of love and the God of battles. But unlike +myself, they have adequate symbols of this double devotion. The little +cross on the shoulder is the symbol of their Christian faith. The +uniform itself is the symbol of their devotion to the God of battles. +It is the uniform and not the cross which impresses me and others. I am +impressed even when I know that I ought not be. + +What I dislike about most of the chaplains is that they assume a very +officious and also a very masculine attitude. Ministers are not used +to authority and revel in it when acquired. The rather too obvious +masculinity which they try to suggest by word and action is meant +to remove any possible taint which their Christian faith might be +suspected to have left upon them in the minds of the he-men in the +army. H---- is right. He tells me that he wants to go into the army as +a private and not as a chaplain. He believes that the war is inevitable +but he is not inclined to reconcile its necessities with the Christian +ethic. He will merely forget about this difficulty during the war. That +is much more honest than what I am doing. + + + + +_1918_ + + +I can see one element in this strange fascination of war which men +have not adequately noted. It reduces life to simple terms. The +modern man lives in such a complex world that one wonders how his +sanity is maintained as well as it is. Every moral venture, every +social situation and every practical problem involves a whole series +of conflicting loyalties, and a man may never be quite sure that he +is right in giving himself to the one as against the other. Shall he +be just and sacrifice love? Shall he strive for beauty and do it by +gaining the social privileges which destroy his sense of fellowship +with the underprivileged? Shall he serve his family and neglect the +state? Or be patriotic to the detriment of the great family of mankind? +Shall he be diligent at the expense of his health? Or keep healthy at +the expense of the great cause in which he is interested? Shall he +be truthful and therefore cruel? Or shall he be kind and therefore a +little soft? Shall he strive for the amenities of life and make life +less robust in the process? Or shall he make courage the ultimate +virtue and brush aside the virtues which a stable and therefore soft +society has cultivated? + +Out of this mesh of conflicting claims, interests, loyalties, +ideals, values and communities he is rescued by the psychology of war +which gives the state at least a momentary priority over all other +communities and which makes courage the supreme virtue. I talked to a +young captain at camp last week who told me how happy he was in the +army because he had “found himself” in military service. Our further +conversation led me to suspect that it was this simplification of life +which had really brought him happiness; that and his love of authority. + +Unfortunately, all these momentary simplifications of the complexities +of life cannot be finally satisfying, because they do violence to life. +The imperiled community may for a moment claim a kind of unqualified +loyalty which no community or cause has the right or ability to +secure in normal times. But judgment returns to sobriety as events +become less disjointed and the world is once more revealed in all its +confusion of good in evil and evil in good. The imperiled community was +threatened because of its vice as much as because of its virtue, and +the diabolical foe reassumes the lineaments of our common humanity. +Physical courage is proved unequal to the task of ennobling man without +the aid of other virtues, and the same men who have been raised to +great heights by the self-forgetfulness of war have been sunk into new +depths of hatred. There is only momentary peace in an all-consuming +passion, except it be a passion for what is indubitably the best. And +what is the best? + + + + +_1919_ + + +We had a great Easter service today. Mother made the little chapel look +very pretty, working with a committee of young women. It takes real +work to decorate such a little place, and make it really inviting. We +received our largest class of new members into the church thus far, +twenty-one in all. Most of them had no letters from other churches and +yet had been reared in some church. We received them on reaffirmation +of faith. + +This matter of recruiting a membership for the church is a real +problem. Even the churches which once believed a very definite +conversion to be the sine qua non of entrance into the fellowship of +the church are going in for “decision days” as they lose confidence in +the traditional assumption that one can become a Christian only through +a crisis experience. But if one does not insist on that kind of an +experience it is not so easy to set up tests of membership. Most of +these “personal evangelism” campaigns mean little more than an ordinary +recruiting effort with church membership rather than the Christian +life as the real objective. They do not differ greatly from efforts of +various clubs as they seek to expand their membership. + +Of course we make “acceptance of Jesus as your savior” the real door +into the fellowship of the church. But the trouble is that this may +mean everything or nothing. I see no way of making the Christian +fellowship unique by any series of tests which precede admission. +The only possibility lies in a winnowing process through the +instrumentality of the preaching and teaching function of the church. +Let them come in without great difficulty, but make it difficult for +them to stay in. The trouble with this plan is that it is always easy +to load up your membership with very immature Christians who will +finally set the standard and make it impossible to preach and to teach +the gospel in its full implications. + + + + +_1919_ + + +What a picture that is of Wilson, Lloyd George and Clemenceau settling +the fate of the world in Paris! Wilson is evidently losing his battle. +He would have done better to stay at home and throw bolts from Olympus. +If you have honest and important differences of opinion with others, it +is better to write letters than to put your feet under the same table +with them. Compromises are always more inevitable in personal contact +than in long distance negotiation. + +What seems to be happening at Paris is that they will let Wilson label +the transaction if the others can determine its true import. Thus +realities are exchanged for words. There will be “no indemnities” but +of course there will be reparations; and, since the damage was great, +the reparations may be made larger than any so-called indemnity of the +past. There will be “no annexations” but there will be mandates. + +Wilson is a typical son of the manse. He believes too much in words. +The sly Clemenceau sneaks new meanings into these nice words, in +which task he is probably ably helped by Mr. Lloyd George, who is +an admirable go-between, being as worldly wise as M. Clemenceau and +as evangelical as Mr. Wilson. Yet who knows? Time may yet give Mr. +Wilson the victory. Words have certain meanings of which it is hard to +rob them, and ideas may create reality in time. The league of nations +may be, for the time being, merely a league of victors but it will be +difficult to destroy the redemptive idea at the heart of it completely. +Realities are always defeating ideals, but ideals have a way of taking +vengeance upon the facts which momentarily imprison them. + +On the other hand, it is always possible that diabolical facts will +so discredit the idea which they ostensibly incarnate that they will +necessitate the projection of a new idea before progress can be made. + + + + +_1919_ + + +Visited Miss Z. at the hospital. I like to go now since she told me +that it helps her to have me pray with her. I asked the doctor about +her and he says her case is hopeless. Here faith seems really to be +functioning in lifting the soul above physical circumstance. I have +been so afraid of quackery that I have leaned over backwards trying to +avoid the encouragement of false hopes. Sometimes when I compare myself +with these efficient doctors and nurses hustling about I feel like an +ancient medicine man dumped into the twentieth century. I think they +have about the same feeling toward me that I have about myself. + +It must be very satisfying to deal as an exact scientist with known +data upon which to base your conclusions. I have to work in the +twilight zone where superstition is inextricably mixed up with +something that is--well, not superstition. I do believe that Jesus +healed people. I can’t help but note, however, that a large proportion +of his cures were among the demented. If people ask me, I tell them +that religion has more therapeutic value in functional than in organic +diseases. But I don’t know whether I am altogether honest about this at +the bedside. I am still praying for health with Miss Z. But of course +I don’t leave it at that. I am trying to prepare her for the inevitable +and I think I have helped her a little in that respect. + + + + +_1919_ + + +This sickness of Miss Z.’s is getting on my nerves. I can’t think of +anything for the rest of the day after coming from that bed of pain. +If I had more patients I suppose I would get a little more hardened. +Talk about professionalism! I suppose men get professional to save +their emotional resources. Here I make one visit in an afternoon and +get all done up. Meanwhile the doctor is making a dozen. He is less +sentimental, but probably does more good. + + + + +_1920_ + + +I am really beginning to like the ministry. I think since I have +stopped worrying so much about the intellectual problems of religion +and have begun to explore some of its ethical problems there is more of +a thrill in preaching. The real meaning of the gospel is in conflict +with most of the customs and attitudes of our day at so many places +that there is adventure in the Christian message, even if you only play +around with its ideas in a conventional world. I can’t say that I have +done anything in my life to dramatize the conflict between the gospel +and the world. But I find it increasingly interesting to set the two in +juxtaposition at least in my mind and in the minds of others. And of +course ideas may finally lead to action. + +A young woman came to me the other day in ---- and told me that my +talk on forgiveness in the C---- Church of that town several months +ago has brought about a reconciliation between her mother and sister +after the two had been in a feud for five years. I accepted the news +with more outward than inward composure. There is redemptive power in +the message! I could go on the new courage that came out of that little +victory for many a month. + +I think I am beginning to like the ministry also because it gives +you a splendid opportunity to have all kinds of contacts with people +in relationships in which they are at their best. You do get tired of +human pettiness at times. But there is nevertheless something quite +glorious about folks. That is particularly true when you find them +bearing sorrow with real patience. Think of Mrs. ---- putting up with +that drunkard of a husband for the sake of her children--and having +such nice children. One can learn more from her quiet courage than from +many a book. + + + + +_1920_ + + +Good old Gordon came to me today to advise me that so-and-so might +join the church but that he had been told that I talked considerably +on political issues and he did not like politics in church. I told my +friend that I did not like political lectures in a worship service +myself, but that every religious problem had ethical implications +and every ethical problem had some political and economic aspect. We +had quite a nice chat about it, though my explanation did not seem +altogether satisfactory. Gordon suggested that I seemed unable to get +as many “prominent” people into the church as I ought. I told him +that we had some very nice people in our church, but that I had no +particular desire or ability to cater to “prominent” people, especially +since there are plenty of churches who seem to serve this class quite +well. + +This is as close as I have come to having the freedom of the pulpit +challenged, except of course by the tacit challenge of an occasional +defection from the ranks. The problem of the freedom of the pulpit is a +real one. But I am convinced that the simplest way to get liberty is to +take it. The liberty to speak on all vital questions of the day without +qualifying the message in a half dozen ways adds sufficient interest +to the otherwise stodgy sermon to attract two listeners for every +one who is lost by having some pet prejudice disarranged. But that +generalization is hardly justified by my meager experience. + + + + +_1920_ + + +I had a great discussion in my young men’s class this morning. +Gradually I am beginning to discover that my failure with the class +was due to my talking too much. Now I let them talk and the thing is +becoming interesting. Of course it isn’t so easy to keep the discussion +steered on any track. Sometimes we talk in circles. But the fellows +are at least getting at some of the vital problems of life and I am +learning something from them. Disciplinary problems have disappeared. +The only one left is the fellow who is always trying to say something +foolish or smart in the discussion. + + + + +_1920_ + + +I went to the funeral of Mrs. T. at St. Cecilia’s church. It must be +a grateful task to deal as a priest with the definite symbols which +the Catholic church uses and to dispense the absolute certainties with +which she assures the faithful. Of course the requiem mass contains +nothing that would be of obvious comfort to the sorrowing heart. But +the implication of the whole transaction is that the soul is now taken +up in another world in which the heartaches of this life are overcome. + +I don’t think the mass is so satisfying as a well conducted Protestant +funeral service in which some cognizance is taken of the peculiar +circumstances of a great sorrow and of the unique characteristics of +the deceased. But it is certainly immeasurably superior to the average +Protestant service with its banalities and sentimentalities. Religion +is poetry. The truth in the poetry is vivified by adequate poetic +symbols and is therefore more convincing than the poor prose with which +the average preacher must attempt to grasp the ineffable. + +Yet one must not forget that the truth is not only vivified but also +corrupted by the poetic symbol, for it is only one step from a vivid +symbol to the touch of magic. The priest does, after all, deal with +magic. When religion renounces magic it finds itself in the poor +workaday world trying to discover the glimpses of the eternal in the +common scene. That is not an easy task, but it is not an impossible +one. Wherefore let us envy the priest, but pity him too, meanwhile. He +has been betrayed by his magic. He has gained too easy a victory over +life’s difficulties and he helps his people to find a premature peace. +The rivers of life in Protestant religion are easily lost in the sand, +but if they really run they carry more life than holy water. + + + + +_1921_ + + +I spoke to the ---- club today and was introduced by the chairman as a +pastor who had recently built a new church at “the impressive cost of +$170,000.” While the figure was not quite correct it gave me somewhat +of a start to find how much emphasis was placed upon what was regarded +as a great business achievement. Here was a group of business men, and +the chairman knew of no way to recommend me to them but by suggesting +that I was myself a business man of no mean ability. That would have +given the good men of my church council a laugh. Knowing how little I +had to do with the raising of the money for the new church and how I +have always failed to put on the kind of “pressure” they desired when +we were raising money, they would certainly have smiled wryly at this +eulogy. + +But it is all natural enough. America worships success and so does the +world in general. And the only kind of success the average man can +understand is obvious success. There must be + + “Things done that took the eye, that had the price; + O’er which from level stand, + The low world laid its hand, + Found straightway to its mind, could value in a trice.” + +After all the real work of a minister is not easily gauged and the +world may not be entirely wrong in using external progress as an +outward sign of an inward grace. Even those who value the real work of +the ministry sometimes express their appreciation in rather superficial +phrases. I remember when dear old ---- celebrated his twenty-fifth +anniversary the good toastmaster pathetically described his pastor’s +successful ministry by explaining that under his leadership the +congregation had “doubled its membership, installed a new organ, +built a parsonage, decorated the church and wiped out its debt.” Not +a word about the words of comfort the good pastor had spoken or the +inspiration he had given to thirsting souls. + +Perhaps it is foolish to be too sensitive about these inevitable +secularizations of religious values. Let us be thankful that there +is no quarterly meeting in our denomination and no need of giving +a district superintendent a bunch of statistics to prove that our +ministry is successful. + + + + +_1921_ + + +I visited Mrs. S. today. She is suffering from cancer and will not +live long. Her young grandson E. came home from high school just as +I was leaving. He had a question for me. The Jewish boys at school +told him Jesus was a bastard and Joseph was not his father. He also +reported that they accused him of having two Gods instead of one. +That dissolution of the Trinity into a dualism by high school boys +interested me. Even boys seem to sense that if orthodox trinitarianism +makes for polytheism it really suggests two gods rather than three. +I chided E. for remembering so poorly what he had learned in the +preparatory class and for being so irregular in church school where +these problems are discussed. I went over some of the ideas on the +humanity and the uniqueness of Jesus which we had discussed in the +class. + +Meanwhile I wished that I could talk to him alone without interference +from grandma, who naïvely added her own theological mustard to the +dish. It is no easy task to build up the faith of one generation and +not destroy the supports of the religion of the other. But fortunately +the old lady didn’t get what I was driving at and so didn’t interfere +very seriously. She was thankful to me for straightening the young man +out on his theology and seemed to think that I had settled all his +difficulties by my few words. “Ich habe ihm gesagt, wart bis der Pastor +kommt. Der wird dir alles erklaeren.” It isn’t a bad idea to find +someone who has such confidence in you. + + + + +_1922_ + + +When I sit in my study and meditate upon men and events I am critical +and circumspect. Why is it that when I arise in the pulpit I try to +be imaginative and am sometimes possessed by a kind of madness which +makes my utterances extravagant and dogmatic? Perhaps this change of +technique is due to my desire to move the audience. Audiences are not +easily moved from their lethargy by cool and critical analyses. An +appeal to the emotions is necessary and emotions are not aroused by a +careful analysis of facts but by a presentation of ideal values. I do +not mean that I disavow the critical method entirely in the pulpit. +Indeed many of my friendly critics think I am too critical to be a +good preacher. Nor am I ever very emotional. Nevertheless there is a +distinct difference between my temper in the study and my spirit in the +pulpit. + +Perhaps this is as it should be. Let the study serve to reveal the +relativity of all things so that pulpit utterances do not become too +extravagant, and let the pulpit save the student from sinking in the +sea of relativities. However qualified every truth may be there is +nevertheless a portion in every truth and value which is essentially +absolute and which is therefore worth proclaiming. “All oratory,” +declares a Greek scholar, “is based on half truths.” That is why one +ought naturally to distrust and to discount the orator. On the other +hand, oratory may be the result of the kind of poetic gift which sees a +truth dissociated, for a moment at least, from all relativities of time +and circumstance and lifted into the light of the absolute. + +I notice that the tendency of extravagance in the pulpit and on the +platform increases with the size of the crowd. As my congregation +increases in size I become more unguarded in my statements. Wherefore +may the good Lord deliver me from ever being a popular preacher. “Why +is it,” asked one of my elders the other day, “that your Sunday evening +sermons are more pessimistic than your morning sermons?” I think what +he really meant is that they were more critical in analyzing life’s +problems. I told him that I tried to give inspiration in the morning +and education in the evening. + +But the fact is that circumstance probably affects the quality of +the message as much as purpose. A full church gives me the sense of +fighting with a victorious host in the battles of the Lord. A half +empty church immediately symbolizes the fact that Christianity is +very much of a minority movement in a pagan world and that it can be +victorious only by snatching victory out of defeat. + + + + +_1922_ + + +Just received a pitiful letter from a young pastor who is losing his +church because he has been “too liberal.” I suppose there are churches +which will crucify a leader who tries to lead them into the modern +world of thought and life. Yet here I have been all these years in a +conservative communion and have never had a squabble about theology. I +suppose that is partly due to the fact that there were so few people +here when I came that no one had to listen to me if he didn’t like +my approach. Those who have come have associated themselves with us +because they were in general agreement with “our gospel.” They have +come, however, from conservative communions and churches. But of course +they have been mostly young people. + +If preachers get into trouble in pursuance of their task of +reinterpreting religious affirmations in the light of modern knowledge +I think it must be partly because they beat their drums too loudly when +they make their retreats from untenable positions of ancient orthodoxy. +The correct strategy is to advance at the center with beating drums and +let your retreats at the wings follow as a matter of course and in the +interest of the central strategy. You must be honest, of course, but +you might just as well straighten and shorten your lines without mock +heroics and a fanfare of trumpets. + +The beauty of this strategy is that there is enough power at the +center for a real advance and enough opposition for a real conflict. +If you set the message of a gospel of love against a society enmeshed +in hatreds and bigotries and engulfed in greed, you have a real but +not necessarily a futile conflict on your hands. There is enough +natural grace in the human heart to respond to the challenge of the +real message in the gospel--and enough original sin in human nature +to create opposition to it. The sorriest preachers are those who +preach a conventional morality while they try to be intellectually and +theologically radical. + +Men will not make great intellectual readjustments for a gospel which +does not greatly matter. If there is real adventure at the center of +the line the reserves are drawn from the wings almost unconsciously. + + + + +_1923_ + + +Gradually the whole horrible truth about the war is being revealed. +Every new book destroys some further illusion. How can we ever again +believe anything when we compare the solemn pretensions of statesmen +with the cynically conceived secret treaties? Here was simply a +tremendous contest for power between two great alliances of states in +which the caprice of statesmen combined with basic economic conflicts +to dictate the peculiar form of the alliances. Next time the cards +will be shuffled in a different way and the “fellowship in arms” will +consist of different fellows. + +As the truth becomes known there are however some compensations for the +disillusionment. If the moral pretensions of the heroes were bogus, the +iniquity of the villains was not as malicious as it once appeared. The +Kaiser was evidently a boob who was puerile enough to permit the German +navalists to force him into policies which he did not understand. +Von Tirpitz and his crowd may have been the real villains but they +probably did not want the war so much as they wanted to glorify the +navy and themselves through it. If Poincaré was the villain, it was the +limitations of a narrow and bigoted nationalism rather than the malice +of an evil heart which prompted his policies. The poor little Czar was +the victim of a neurotic wife, and she in turn the tool of religious +fanatics and fear-tormented bureaucrats. + +There doesn’t seem to be very much malice in the world. There is simply +not enough intelligence to conduct the intricate affairs of a complex +civilization. All the chief actors in the war appear now in the light +of children who played with dangerous toys. If they were criminal +it was in the sense that the weal of millions was involved in their +dangerous games and they didn’t let that fact dissuade them from their +play. All human sin seems so much worse in its consequences than in its +intentions. + +But that is not a fact which justifies moral nihilism. The consequences +are obvious and inevitable enough to deter a sensitive soul from the +course which leads to destruction. Not merely ignorance but callousness +to human welfare is an ingredient in the compound of social and +personal evil. + +In one sense modern civilization substitutes unconscious sins of +more destructive consequences for conscious sins of less destructive +consequences. Men try consciously to eliminate the atrocities of +society, but meanwhile they unheedingly build a civilization which is +more destructive of moral and personal values than anything intended in +a more primitive society. + + + + +_1923_ + + +I met a wonderful parson in the little village of ----. I went there +to speak at a high school commencement. His church seemed to be an +ordinary village church, but he was undeniably the real leader of the +community. Broad sympathies had made it possible for him to transcend +the usual denominational divisions which reduce most ministers to +impotence in small communities, at least as far as wider community +leadership is concerned. There were a few other churches in town, but +he had developed so many types of cooperation between them that they +were almost a unit in their enterprise. + +He had built a small church house which was a hive of activity +throughout the week. He conducted his own weekday school of religion, +spending three afternoons at the job. His influence upon the young +people was evidently a fruit of this close contact with them. He was so +happy in his work that he did not look upon big city churches as the +natural goal of his ambition. His wife and he and two little kiddies +live very modestly in a little parsonage, and the mistress of the manse +seems to find time to mother the neighborhood as well as her children. + +Perhaps I am inclined to romanticize about village life. Sometimes +it is very petty and mean, I know. But the absence of great class +distinctions makes for a higher type of fellowship in church and +community than is achieved in the metropolis, and the preacher is not +tempted to placate the powerful. The modest stipend which the small +church can afford makes for simple living and the absence of social +pride. If more young fellows would be willing to go into churches like +that and not suffer from inferiority complexes because they had not +landed one of the “big pulpits,” we might put new power into the church. + +Fortunately, this young fellow has an astute intelligence without being +an orator. If he were a more gifted speaker he would probably have been +“promoted”--and spoiled--long ago. I have often observed that privilege +and power tend to corrupt the simple Christian heart. I am now +convinced that to these two must be added the kind of obvious success +which the world knows how to measure. The simplicity which is preserved +because it does not meet the temptation of success is innocence rather +than virtue; but if we can’t have virtue, innocence is preferable to +moral failure. + +There are successful men who have maintained a virtuous humility and +sincerity in the day of success, but the achievement is very difficult. + + + + +_1923_ + +In Europe + + +I have been spending a few days with S---- and P---- in the Ruhr +district. Flew back to London from Cologne by aeroplane. The Ruhr +cities are the closest thing to hell I have ever seen. I never knew +that you could see hatred with the naked eye, but in the Ruhr one is +under the illusion that this is possible. The atmosphere is charged +with it. The streets are filled with French soldiers in their grey-blue +uniforms. Schools have been turned into barracks. Germans turn anxious +and furtive glances upon every stranger. French officers race their +automobiles wildly through the streets with sirens blowing shrilly. If +you can gain the confidence of Germans so that they will talk they will +tell you horrible tales of atrocities, deportations, sex crimes, etc. +Imagination fired by fear and hatred undoubtedly tends to elaborate +upon the sober facts. But the facts are bad enough. + +When we arrived at Cologne after spending days in the French zone +of occupation we felt as if we had come into a different world. The +obvious reluctance of the British to make common cause with the French +in the Ruhr adventure has accentuated the good will between the +British troops and the native population. But a day in Cologne cannot +erase the memory of Essen and Duesseldorf. It rests upon the mind +like a horrible nightmare. One would like to send every sentimental +spellbinder of war days into the Ruhr. This, then, is the glorious +issue for which the war was fought! I didn’t know Europe in 1914, but +I can’t imagine that the hatred between peoples could have been worse +than it is now. + +This is as good a time as any to make up my mind that I am done with +the war business. Of course, I wasn’t really in the last war. Would +that I had been! Every soldier, fighting for his country in simplicity +of heart without asking many questions, was superior to those of us +who served no better purpose than to increase or perpetuate the moral +obfuscation of nations. Of course, we really couldn’t know everything +we know now. But now we know. The times of man’s ignorance God may wink +at, but now he calls us all to repent. I am done with this business. I +hope I can make that resolution stick. + +Talking about the possibility of the church renouncing war, as we came +over on the boat, one of the cynics suggested that the present temper +of the church against war was prompted by nausea rather than idealism. +He insisted that the church would not be able to prove for some time +that it is really sincere in this matter. I suppose he is right; though +I do not know that one ought to be contemptuous of any experience +which leads to the truth. A pain in the stomach may sometimes serve +an ultimate purpose quite as well as an idea in the head. Yet it is +probably true that nausea finally wears off and the question will then +be whether there is a more fundamental force which will maintain a +conviction in defiance of popular hysteria. + +For my own part I am not going to let my decision in regard to war +stand alone. I am going to try to be a disciple of Christ, rather +than a mere Christian, in all human relations and experiment with the +potency of trust and love much more than I have in the past. + + + + +_1923_ + + +This has been a wonderful Christmas season. The people have been +splendid. It is fun to go into the homes and see the laughter and joy +of the children. It is rewarding to see how the people respond to our +call for Christmas giving among the poor. The church was piled high +yesterday with groceries and toys of every description. There is so +much that is good in human nature. + +Of course the cynics will say that it is easier to be charitable than +to be just, and the astute social observers will note that what we give +for the needy is but a small fraction of what we spend on ourselves. +After all, the spirit of love is still pretty well isolated in the +family life. If I had a family maybe that thought would never occur to +me. The old Methodist preacher who told me some time ago that I was so +cantankerous in my spirit of criticism about modern society because I +am not married may be right. If I had about four children to love I +might not care so much about insisting that the spirit of love shall +dominate all human affairs. And there might be more value in loving the +four children than in paying lip service to the spirit of love as I do. + + + + +_1924_ + + +A revival meeting seems never to get under my skin. Perhaps I am +too fish-blooded to enjoy them. But I object not so much to the +emotionalism as to the lack of intellectual honesty of the average +revival preacher. I do not mean to imply that the evangelists are +necessarily consciously dishonest. They just don’t know enough about +life and history to present the problem of the Christian life in its +full meaning. They are always assuming that nothing but an emotional +commitment to Christ is needed to save the soul from its sin and chaos. +They seem never to realize how many of the miseries of mankind are due +not to malice but to misdirected zeal and unbalanced virtue. They never +help the people who corrupt family love by making the family a selfish +unit in society or those who brutalize industry by excessive devotion +to the prudential virtues. + +Of course that is all inevitable enough. If you don’t simplify issues +you can’t arouse emotional crises. It’s the melodrama that captivates +the crowd. Sober history is seldom melodramatic. God and the devil may +be in conflict on the scene of life and history, but a victory follows +every defeat and some kind of defeat every victory. The representatives +of God are seldom divine and the minions of Satan are never quite +diabolical. + +I wonder whether there is any way of being potent oratorically without +over-simplifying truth. Or must power always be bought at the expense +of truth? Perhaps some simplification of life is justified. Every +artist does, after all, obscure some details in order to present others +in bolder relief. The religious rhetorician has a right to count +himself among, and take his standards from, the artists rather than +the scientists. The trouble is that he is usually no better than a +cartoonist. + + + + +_1924_ + + +After preaching tonight at a union service in ---- the pastor loci +took me about to show me his “plant” (industrialism has invaded even +ecclesiastical terminology) and with obvious pride told me of all the +progress that the church had made since his advent. One of the most +disillusioning experiences which I have had with ministers is their +invariable tendency to belittle or to be unappreciative of the work +of their predecessors. If one were to take the implications of their +remarks about their churches without a grain of salt one would imagine +that every church was in an obvious state of spiritual and organic +decay before the present generation of prophets took hold of the +desperate situation. There are, of course, marked exceptions to this +rule. But there is too much of this petty jealousy of former laborers +in the vineyard of the Lord. Some of the men are probably victims of +fawning parishioners and others are just naturally petty. + + + + +_1924_ + + +I am not surprised that most prophets are itinerants. Critics of the +church think we preachers are afraid to tell the truth because we +are economically dependent upon the people of our church. There is +something in that, but it does not quite get to the root of the matter. +I certainly could easily enough get more money than I am securing now, +and yet I catch myself weighing my words and gauging their possible +effect upon this and that person. I think the real clue to the tameness +of a preacher is the difficulty one finds in telling unpleasant truths +to people whom one has learned to love. + +To speak the truth in love is a difficult, and sometimes an almost +impossible, achievement. If you speak the truth unqualifiedly, that +is usually because your ire has been aroused or because you have no +personal attachment to the object of your strictures. Once personal +contact is established you are very prone to temper your wind to the +shorn sheep. It is certainly difficult to be human and honest at the +same time. I’m not surprised that most budding prophets are tamed in +time to become harmless parish priests. + +At that, I do not know what business I have carping at the good people +who are doing the world’s work and who are inevitably enmeshed to +a greater or less degree in the iniquities of society. Conscience, +Goethe has observed, belongs to the observer rather than the doer, +and it would be well for every preacher to realize that he is morally +sensitive partly because he is observing and not acting. What is +satisfying about the ministry is to note how far you can go in +unfolding the full meaning of the Christian gospel provided you don’t +present it with the implication that you have attained and are now +laying it as an obligation upon others. + +If the Christian adventure is made a mutual search for truth in which +the preacher is merely a leader among many searchers and is conscious +of the same difficulties in his own experience which he notes in +others, I do not see why he cannot be a prophet without being forced +into itinerancy. + + + + +_1924_ + +In Europe + + +We began the day with a visit to the York minster and ended it with +a dinner at the Rountree cocoa works. Some of the men thought there +was more spirituality in the discussion of the ethical problems of +modern industry in which we engaged at Rountree’s than in the communion +service we heard so atrociously read in the minster. Of course the +dinner discussion was richer in ethical content, but there are +nevertheless religious values in the cathedral which one cannot find in +a discussion of ethical problems however vital. + +Religion is a reaction to life’s mysteries and a reverence before the +infinitudes of the universe. Without ethical experience the infinite +is never defined in ethical terms, but the soul which is reverent and +morally vital at the same time learns how to apprehend the infinite in +terms of holiness and worships a God who transcends both our knowledge +and our conscience. The cathedral with its dim religious light, its +vaulted ceiling, its altar screen, and its hushed whispers is symbolic +of the element of mystery in religion. + +Without an adequate sermon no clue is given to the moral purpose at the +heart of the mystery, and reverence remains without ethical content. +But a religion which never goes beyond a sense of awe is no less +{“more” in 1929 reprint} complete (though perhaps less serviceable) +than one which has reduced life’s ultimate and ineffable truth to a pat +little formula which a proud little man expounds before a comfortable +and complacent congregation. I am sorry that there is no more ethically +vital preaching in the cathedral, though that wretched communion +service this morning, which could help no one if he did not believe in +magic, is hardly typical of everything which happens in a cathedral. +But I am equally sorry that the sense of awe and reverence has departed +from so many of our churches. + +The very appearance of many of our churches betrays the loss of +one necessary element in religion. Everything suggests the secular +rather than the religious, from the red hat of the rather too +sensuously pretty soprano soloist and the frock coat of the rather +too self-conscious parson to the comfortable pew cushions and the +splendiferous pew holders. The morning sun shines brightly into the +“auditorium” and the sun of worldly wisdom illumines the discourse of +the preacher. + +Of course I know that the devotional attitude frequently destroys +clear thinking, and we need clear thinking for ethical living in a +complex civilization. But it ought not be impossible to preserve the +poetic with the scientific attitude, the mystical with the analytical, +to have both worship and instruction. I think that is what Heywood +Broun was driving at some time ago when he expressed a preference +for an “Episcopal church with an heretical sermon.” Unfortunately +the heretical, i.e., the morally vital and contemporaneous religious +instruction, does not seem to flourish in the liturgical church. + +But there are men here in England who preach prophetic sermons in +cathedrals. There might be more. In America they are certainly not +numerous. But that is no reason why we should dismiss religious awe +and reverence as morally dangerous. After all, the prophetic preaching +which we hear in our “church auditoriums” is not so vigorous as to give +us any certainty that a secularized church is superior in its moral +potency. + + + + +_1924_ + + +While visiting at the home of Mr. and Mrs. ---- today little Ralph felt +it incumbent upon himself to entertain me by putting the family dog +through his tricks. I have already forgotten the breed of the dog, but +his shaggy locks covered his eyes so completely that he seemed to be +without eyesight. Ralph told me with great eagerness that the dog would +go blind if his locks were cut to improve his eyesight. Thus nature +adjusts herself to her own inadequacies, and women of the future may +run the peril of deafness if they uncover their ears. + +Ralph’s dog gave me the clue to much of our irreligion. The eyes of +so many people have been covered by superstitions and illusions that +they are not strong enough to preserve their sight in the daylight of +knowledge. Freed from their superstitions, they are blinded in the very +moment that they are given an unhindered view. They could see beauty +while they lived in twilight, but a brilliant light obscures life’s +beauty and meaning. + +Of course the eye may ultimately adjust itself to the brilliance of the +light, and as men grow accustomed to the concrete and specific objects +which distract them on first sight, they will learn again to view the +whole scene and to regard all things in their relationships. + +It is in relationships and in totalities that life’s meaning is +revealed. + + + + +_1924_ + + +Since spending the summer in Europe I have been devoting the entire +fall to a development of our worship service. The various types of +ritualistic services in non-conformist churches I heard over there +appealed to me so much that I decided to imitate them. Of course the +Anglican services have their own appeal, but the technique which makes +them possible is beyond us. For some years I have been having a few +prayer responses, but now I am developing a program with litanies, +confessions, acts of praise and every other bit of liturgical beauty +and meaning by which the service can be enriched. + +It’s a shame we have permitted our services to become so barren. My +only regret is that I did not wake up in time to build our church +properly for liturgical purposes. There could be much pleasure in +conducting a richly elaborated liturgical service without the restraint +of the rubrics to which the Anglicans must submit. I do not know +whether the people like the added beauty in the service as much as I +do, but many have expressed appreciation. It seems to me to make a +great deal of difference in the spiritual value of a service to have +some unison prayer with an authentic religious emotion expressed in +a well turned phrase, to have choir responses for the prayers and +moments of silence for quiet prayer. + +The idea that a formless service is more spontaneous and therefore +more religious than a formal one is disproved in my own experience. +Only a very few men have ever really put me in a mood of prayer by +their “pastoral prayers.” On the other hand, a really beautiful worship +service actually gives me a mystic sense of the divine. + + + + +_1924_ + + +Arrived in ---- today and spoke this noon to a group of liberal people. +The meeting was arranged by the secretary of the Y.W.C.A. I poked fun +at them a little for enjoying their theological liberalism so much in +this part of the country, while they were afraid of even the mildest +economic and political heresy. Of course that didn’t quite apply to the +people at the table, but it does apply to this whole section. There is +no one quite so ridiculous as a preacher who prides himself upon his +theological radicalism in a city where the theological battle was won a +generation ago, while he meanwhile speaks his convictions on matters of +economics only in anxious whispers. + +I was asked to visit ---- (leading preacher) and see whether I could +not interest him in our organization. He was an interesting study. He +told me of his important connections in the city, of his tremendous +church program, of the way he had increased the budget of his church, +of his building plans, of the necessity “of fighting on one front at a +time,” of his theological battles; and he ended by declining to join +the liberal group which sought his aid. + +He thought it would not be advisable, considering his heavy +responsibilities, to imperil the many great “causes” to which he was +devoting his life by identifying himself with a radical movement. I +didn’t mind his cowardice so much, though he tried to hide it, as his +vanity, which he took no pains to hide. I could just see him cavorting +weekly before his crowd of doting admirers. + +Obviously one of his chief difficulties is that he is good looking. A +minister has enough temptations to vanity without bearing the moral +hazard of a handsome face. If this young fellow had only been half as +homely as old Dr. Gordon he might have a chance of acquiring a portion +of his grace. But I don’t want to drive that generalization too far. I +know one or two saintly preachers who could pose for a collar ad. + + + + +_1924_ + + +Had a letter today informing me that the First ---- church in ---- has +called a new pastor. After trying futilely to find the right man, who +was to have as much scholarship as his predecessor and more “punch,” +they decided to raise the salary to $15,000. I don’t know whether that +was the factor which finally solved their problem, but at any rate they +have the man they want. I suppose it is not easy to get a combination +of Aristotle and Demosthenes, and on the current market, that ought to +be worth $15,000. Nevertheless there must be some limit to this matter +of oversized salaries. + +There ought to be some questioning, too, about the growing tendency of +churches to build their congregations around pulpit eloquence. What +kind of fundamental ethical question can a man be eloquent about when +he draws that much cash, particularly since a Croesus or two usually +has to supply an undue proportion of it? I don’t know anything about +the prophet of the Lord who accepted this call, but I venture to +prophesy that no sinner in that pagan city will quake in his boots in +anticipation of his coming. + +The idea of a professional good man is difficult enough for all of us +who are professionally engaged as teachers of the moral ideal. Of +course, “a man must live,” and it is promised that if we seek first the +kingdom and its righteousness “all these things shall be added unto +us.” But I doubt whether Jesus had a $15,000 salary in mind. If the +things that are added become too numerous they distract your attention +terribly. To try to keep your eye on the main purpose may only result +in making you squint-eyed. I hope the new prophet won’t begin his +pastorate with a sermon on the text, “I count all things but loss.” + + + + +_1924_ + + +I was a little ashamed of what I wrote recently about ministers’ +salaries, but today I was strangely justified in my criticism. Walking +into a store to buy a hat I met an old friend who told me about his new +preacher. His church had tried for a long while to secure the right +man, and then by dint of a special campaign they raised the salary +from $6,000 to $10,000. That is obviously more than most of the people +in the congregation make. He said to me with considerable pride, “You +ought to hear our new preacher. My, but he is a great talker!” Then he +came close and whispered to me out of hearing of the other customers: +“He ought to be. We are paying him ten thousand dollars.” The cynicism +was quite unconscious. + + + + +_1924_ + + +I begin to realize how little religious faith depends upon dialectical +support. When called upon to bury some one whose life revealed +spiritual charm and moral force I can preach the hope of immortality +with conviction and power. But funerals of religious and moral +nondescripts leave me enervated. I think I could bury a brazen sinner +with more satisfaction. There is always a note of real tragedy in the +life of an obvious reprobate that gives point to a sermon. But these +Tomlinsons are a trial. + +Of course, there is a good deal of pride in such an attitude, and it is +partly due to ignorance. As soon as I know the person whose death is +mourned I can enter into the occasion sympathetically. There is hardly +a soul so poor and flaccid but does not reveal some glimpse of the +eternal in its life. If I happen to lack contact with the deceased I +might well remind myself that his death is sincerely mourned by those +who are near. It is after all a glorious tribute to the qualities of +human nature that those who know us best love us most. Perhaps their +love is occasionally no more than a natural attachment which men +conceive for familiar objects. + +Funerals are a terrible trial to me, but I must admit that the +stolid courage and quiet grief of most mourners is a real source of +inspiration. Only occasionally does one meet with hysterical grief and +theatrical and insincere sorrow. How desperately people brush up their +little faith in times of sorrow! It is quite easy to see that religious +faith prospers because of, and not in spite of, the tribulations of +this world. It is because this mortal life is felt as an irrelevancy +to the main purpose in life that men achieve the courage to hope for +immortality. + + + + +_1924_ + + +We had a union Thanksgiving service today. It would have been a nice +service but for the fact that the leader could not get over the fact +that four denominations had been able to achieve unity to undertake +such a service. This was supposed to be a great advance. As a matter +of fact the people in the church were long since united in dozens of +community enterprises. The men, whatever church they belonged to, +attended the same Rotary and Kiwanis clubs and the women were members +of the same literary and review clubs. + +The church has lost the chance of becoming the unifying element in +our American society. It is not anticipating any facts. It is merely +catching up very slowly to the new social facts created by economic and +other forces. The American melting pot is doing its work. The churches +merely represent various European cultures, lost in the amalgam of +American life and maintaining a separate existence only in religion. + +What we accomplish in the way of church unity ought to be accepted with +humility and not hailed with pride. We are not creating. We are merely +catching up with creation. + + + + +_1924_ + + +Going to St. Louis today a portly and garrulous gentleman sat back +of me and became very much interested in two nuns who were reading +their prayerbooks. The man, who seemed the perfect type of successful +drummer, felt very superior to the nuns. How can anyone “fall for that +stuff” in this day and age, he wanted to know in a loud whisper. “They +remind me of ghosts,” he said. + +I had to admit that there was something almost unearthly about these +black figures with their white-rimmed hoods. But their faces were +kindly and human, and the face of the drummer was sensuous and florid. +Perhaps the difference between him and the nuns illustrates the quality +of our “modernity,” though I don’t want to maintain that he is the +perfect type of a modern man. But we do have a great many moderns +who are emancipated from every kind of religious discipline without +achieving any new loyalty which might qualify the brutal factors in +human life. + +It is better that life incarnate some ideal value, even if mixed with +illusion, (though anything which has the spirit of love in it is not +wholly illusion) than that it should express nothing but the will to +live. My drummer thinks of himself as a modern in comparison with those +nuns. I looked at him squatting there and glanced again at the homely +but beautiful faces of the nuns and said to myself: What is modern and +what is ancient? Were there not toads before there were ghosts and +fairies? + + + + +_1924_ + + +Bishop Williams is dead. I sit and stare at the floor while I say that +to myself and try to believe it. How strangely a vital personality +defies the facts of death. Nowhere have I seen a personality more +luminous with the Christ spirit than in this bishop who was also +a prophet. Here was a man who knew how to interpret the Christian +religion so that it meant something in terms of an industrial +civilization. His fearless protagonism of the cause of democracy in +industry won him the respect and love of the workers of the city as no +other churchman possessed it. + +Yet I am afraid that it must be admitted that he didn’t change the +prevailing attitude of Detroit industry by a hair’s breadth. He even +had to offer his resignation in the face of increasing hostility to +his social views. That letter of resignation was incidentally a gem +of humble self-analysis and courageous insistence on the truth of his +doctrine. + +He did not change Detroit industry but he left many of us holding our +heads more upright because of his intelligent and courageous analysis +of contemporary civilization from the perspective of a Christian +conscience. If a bishop with all his prestige could make no bigger dent +upon the prevailing mood of the city, what chance is there for the +rest of us? Perhaps the best that any of us can do is to say: + + Charge once more then and be dumb, + Let the victors when they come, + When the forts of folly fall, + Find thy body by the wall. + +Rejoice, said Jesus, not that the devils are subject unto you but +that your names are written in heaven. One ought to strive for the +reformation of society rather than one’s own perfection. But society +resists every effort to bring its processes under ethical restraint so +stubbornly that one must finally be satisfied with preserving one’s +moral integrity in a necessary and yet futile struggle. Of course the +struggle is never as futile as it seems from an immediate perspective. +The bishop did not change Detroit industry, but if the church +ever becomes a real agency of the kingdom of God in an industrial +civilization, his voice, though he is dead, will be in its counsels. + + + + +_1925_ + + +When I sit through a church conference I begin to see a little more +clearly why religion is on the whole so impotent ethically, why +the achievements of the church are so meager compared to its moral +pretensions. Sermon after sermon, speech after speech is based upon the +assumption that the people of the church are committed to the ethical +ideals of Jesus and that they are the sole or at least chief agents of +redemptive energy in society. + +It is very difficult to persuade people who are committed to a general +ideal to consider the meaning of that ideal in specific situations. +It is even more difficult to prompt them to consider specific ends of +social and individual conduct and to evaluate them in the light of +experience. + +The church conference begins and ends by attempting to arouse an +emotion of the ideal, usually in terms of personal loyalty to the +person of Jesus, but very little is done to attach the emotion to +specific tasks and projects. Is the industrial life of our day +unethical? Are nations imperialistic? Is the family disintegrating? Are +young people losing their sense of values? If so, we are told over and +over again that nothing will help but “a new baptism of the spirit,” +a “new revival of religion,” a “great awakening of the religious +consciousness.” + +But why not be specific? Why doesn’t the church offer specific +suggestions for the application of a Christian ethic to the +difficulties of our day? If that suggestion is made, the answer is that +such a policy would breed contention. It certainly would. No moral +project can be presented and no adventure made without resistance from +the traditionalist and debate among experimentalists. But besides being +more effective, such a course would be more interesting than this +constant bathing in sentimentalities. If the church could only achieve +schisms on ethical issues! They would represent life and reality. Its +present schisms are not immoral as such. They are immoral only in the +sense that they perpetuate issues which have no relevancy in our day. + + + + +_1925_ + + +The reactions of a group of ministers to an address on the relation of +religion to modern life are always interesting. Invariably there is one +group of men who are pathetically eager to “do something about it,” +to save civilization from its perils. I think the church will compare +favorably with the university in the number of men who are not blinded +to the defects of modern life and who are not enervated by a sense of +futility. The university has plenty of men whose eyes are open, but +they despair much more easily of finding a way out than the preachers. +The ministers have not lost some of that saving grace, “the foolishness +of faith.” + +Of course there is always a group of those who sit sullenly while you +harangue them. I had my eye fixed on one portly and prosperous priest +today who was obviously out of accord with what I was saying. Of course +I have no right to judge him because he did not agree with me. But he +seemed to me to be one of those satisfied and complacent chaplains who +has fed so long at the flesh-pots of Egypt that he resents anything +which disturbs his ease. A man like that reminds me of the eunuchs of +old who were robbed of their virility that they might adorn without +endangering their masters’ luxurious establishments. + +The old gentleman was there too who wanted to know whether I believed +in the deity of Jesus. He is in every town. He seemed to be a nice +sort, but he wanted to know how I could speak for an hour on the +Christian church without once mentioning the atonement. Nothing, said +he, but the blood of Jesus would save America from its perils. He made +quite an impassioned speech. At first I was going to answer him but it +seemed too useless. I finally told him I believed in blood atonement +too, but since I hadn’t shed any of the blood of sacrifice which it +demanded I felt unworthy to enlarge upon the idea. + + + + +_1925_ + + +We went through one of the big automobile factories today. So +artificial is life that these factories are like a strange world to +me though I have lived close to them for many years. The foundry +interested me particularly. The heat was terrific. The men seemed +weary. Here manual labor is a drudgery and toil is slavery. The men +cannot possibly find any satisfaction in their work. They simply work +to make a living. Their sweat and their dull pain are part of the price +paid for the fine cars we all run. And most of us run the cars without +knowing what price is being paid for them. + +Looking at these men the words of Markham’s “The Man with the Hoe” came +to me. A man with a hoe is a happy creature beside these suffering +souls. + + “The emptiness of ages in his face” + · · · · · · · · · + “Who made him dead to rapture and despair, + A thing that grieves not and that never hopes, + Stolid and stunned, a brother to the ox?” + +We are all responsible. We all want the things which the factory +produces and none of us is sensitive enough to care how much in human +values the efficiency of the modern factory costs. Beside the brutal +facts of modern industrial life, how futile are all our homiletical +spoutings! The church is undoubtedly cultivating graces and preserving +spiritual amenities in the more protected areas of society. But it +isn’t changing the essential facts of modern industrial civilization by +a hair’s breadth. It isn’t even thinking about them. + +The morality of the church is anachronistic. Will it ever develop a +moral insight and courage sufficient to cope with the real problems of +modern society? If it does it will require generations of effort and +not a few martyrdoms. We ministers maintain our pride and self-respect +and our sense of importance only through a vast and inclusive +ignorance. If we knew the world in which we live a little better we +would perish in shame or be overcome by a sense of futility. + + + + +_1925_ + + +The new parish organization seems to be working splendidly. The +congregation is divided into nine sections, each with a man and woman +as parish leaders. Each section meets twice a year in cottage meetings, +and meanwhile the leaders and their assistants visit the various +families, particularly the new members and those who are sick. Some +splendid new leaders have already been developed by this plan. Since I +must be absent from the city so much, the plan is all the more valuable. + +Last Sunday we discussed in the class whether a church ought to develop +fellowship for its own sake or whether fellowship ought to be the +inevitable by-product of unifying convictions. I suppose a small church +in a hostile environment would not have to worry about fellowship. If +people fight shoulder to shoulder they will be brothers. But even the +most heroic church is not so definitely in conflict with the society in +which it lives that you can really count on that kind of fellowship. +A local congregation is, after all, a social organism in which heroic +idealism is expressed in an occasional adventure, if at all, rather +than in a constant tension between its principles and the moral +mediocrities of the world. + +Meanwhile, it seems to me to be worth while to cultivate the graces of +neighborliness merely for their own sake. This is particularly true in +the large city where life is so impersonal and where the church has a +fine opportunity to personalize it a little. What surprises me is the +readiness with which people give themselves to various forms of mutual +aid once they are prompted to engage in them. + +Most people lack imagination much more than they lack good will. If +someone points out what can be done and what ought to be done there is +usually someone to do it. + + + + +_1925_ + +On a Western Trip + + +Out here on the Pacific coast, particularly in Los Angeles, one is +forcibly impressed with the influence of environment upon religion. +Every kind of cult seems to flourish in Los Angeles, and most of them +are pantheistic. Every sorry oriental religious nostrum is borrowed +in the vain effort to give meaning to pointless lives and to impart a +thrill to vacuous existences. The pantheism is partly due, no doubt, +to the salubrious nature of the southern California climate. Wherever +nature is unusually benignant, men tend to identify God and the natural +world and to lose all moral vigor in the process. + +But that is hardly the whole explanation. There are too many retired +people in Los Angeles. They left the communities where their +personalities had some social significance in order to vegetate on +these pleasant shores. In this sorry and monotonous existence they try +to save their self-respect by grasping for some religious faith which +will not disturb their ease by any too rigorous ethical demands. Of +course Aimee Semple McPherson is more successful than the pantheistic +cults. She fights the devil and gives the people a good show. She +storms against the vices which flourish in this paradise without +touching their roots. Furthermore she has the art of casting the glow +of religious imagination over sensuality without changing its essential +nature. In that art she seems to be typical rather than unique for this +whole civilization. If she is unique it is only in her success. + +They are always telling me that Detroit is the most typically American +of our cities. Perhaps Detroit is typical of the America which works +feverishly to get what it wants, while Los Angeles is typical of +the America which has secured what it wants. On the whole I prefer +the former to the latter. An honest enthusiasm even for inadequate +ends is better than a vacuous existence from which even the charm +of an imperfect ambition has departed. Of course the paganism of +power is more dangerous than the paganism of pleasure, but from the +perspective of a mere observer it is more interesting. Who would not +prefer Napoleon to his imbecile brothers who merely luxuriated in the +prosperity created by his ambition? + +Only in the case of complete innocency, as that of a child’s, is life +more beautiful in repose than in activity. Character is created by +a balance of tensions, and is more lovely even when the balance is +imperfect than in a state of complete relaxation. + +Of course Los Angeles has more culture than our midwestern cities. +Culture flourishes in leisure and sometimes redeems it. But it will +be a long time before this kind of leisure will produce more than +dilettantism. + + + + +_1925_ + + +We had a communion service tonight (Good Friday) and I preached on the +text “We preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and +to the Gentiles foolishness, but to them that are called the power of +God and the wisdom of God.” I don’t think I ever felt greater joy in +preaching a sermon. How experience and life change our perspectives! It +was only a few years ago that I did not know what to make of the cross; +at least I made no more of it than to recognize it as a historic fact +which proved the necessity of paying a high price for our ideals. Now I +see it as a symbol of ultimate reality. + +It seems pathetic to me that liberalism has too little appreciation of +the tragedy of life to understand the cross and orthodoxy insists too +much upon the absolute uniqueness of the sacrifice of Christ to make +the preaching of the cross effective. How can anything be uniquely +potent if it is absolutely unique? It is because the cross of Christ +symbolizes something in the very heart of reality, something in +universal experience that it has its central place in history. Life +is tragic and the most perfect type of moral beauty inevitably has at +least a touch of the tragic in it. Why? That is not so easy to explain. +But love pays such a high price for its objectives and sets its +objectives so high that they can never be attained. There is therefore +always a foolish and a futile aspect to love’s quest which give it the +note of tragedy. + +What makes this tragedy redemptive is that the foolishness of love is +revealed as wisdom in the end and its futility becomes the occasion for +new moral striving. About heroes, saints, and saviors it must always +remain true “that they, without us should not be made perfect.” + + + + +_1925_ + + +I wonder if the strong sense of frustration which comes over me so +frequently on Sunday evening and to which many other parsons have +confessed, is merely due to physical lassitude or whether it arises +from the fact that every preacher is trying to do a bigger thing +than he is equal to--and fails. I have an uneasy feeling that it may +be native honesty of the soul asserting itself. Aren’t we preachers +talking altogether too much about what can be proved and justified only +in experience? + + + + +_1925_ + + +Mr. ---- spoke at a luncheon meeting today. He made everyone writhe as +he pictured the injustices and immoralities of our present industrial +system. The tremendous effect of his powerful address was partially +offset by the bitterness with which he spoke and by the ill-concealed +assumption that his hearers would not care enough about what he said to +change their attitudes. I suppose it is difficult to escape bitterness +when you have the eyes to see and the heart to feel what others are too +blind and too callous to notice. The mordant note in the discourse of +the prophet may not only be inevitable but pedagogically effective. + +Perhaps there is no other way to arouse a people who are so oblivious +to the real issues of modern civilization. Yet I am compelled to doubt +the pedagogical benefits of this approach. While I use it myself, +sometimes I don’t like to have it used on me. It freezes my soul. And +there is usually some injustice, some insupportable generalization, +involved in this method which obsesses my mind and makes it difficult +for me to see the general truth with which the speaker wants to impress +me. + +If I had to choose between this bitterness and the blandness of many +pulpiteers I would, of course, choose the former. Better a warrior’s +grimness than the childish sentimentalities of people who are too +ignorant or too selfish to bear the burdens of the world. There are too +many men in the pulpit who look and act for all the world like cute +little altar boys who have no idea that the mass in which they are +participating is a dramatization of tragedy. + +Yet there seems to be no reason why a warrior ought not maintain his +effectiveness and yet overcome his bitterness, particularly if he is +a warrior who is fighting “not against flesh and blood but against +spiritual wickedness in high places.” The one certain cure for a bitter +spirit seems to me a realization that the critic is himself involved in +the sins which he castigates. Man is imperialistic and even parasitic +in his nature. He lives his life at the expense of other lives. By both +outer compulsion and inner restraint, his expansive desires are brought +under sufficient discipline to make social life possible. + +But there is no social life, not even in the family, which does +not illustrate this native imperialism in life. Look at all these +professional people, preachers, professors and doctors! Even in the +moment in which they declare their superiority over the commercial +world, where life is more frankly selfish and more obviously brutal, +they illustrate the common human frailty by some petty jockeying for +position, or some jealous depreciation of the success of others, or +some childish ego-assertion. + +The pessimist might draw the conclusion from this fact that we can make +progress only by a reorganization of society and never by a reformation +of human nature. But that conclusion does not seem to me to follow from +the facts. We do need a constant reorganization of social processes and +systems, so that society will not aggravate but mitigate the native +imperialistic impulses of man. The greed of modern civilization is +partly an expression of a universal human tendency and partly a vice +peculiar to a civilization with our kind of productive process. + +But meanwhile we can not afford to leave the capacities of man out of +the picture. There seems to me no reason why we can not cure people of +greed by making them conscious of both the nature and the consequences +of their expansive tendencies. Only we ought to realize, while we are +doing it, that our own life reveals some refined form of the sin which +we abhor. That will make it possible to undertake the task of world +regeneration with a spirit of patience and humility. + +The modern pulpit does not face this problem because it is not really +preaching repentance. Its estimate of human nature is too romantic +to give people any appreciation of the brutalities of life which are +frequently most real where they are most covert--in the lives of the +respectable classes. But whenever a prophet is born, either inside or +outside of the church, he does face the problem of preaching repentance +without bitterness and of criticising without spiritual pride. + +It is a real problem. Mr. ---- is effective, after a fashion, because +he is an itinerant. We only have to hear him once in so many years. +But think of sitting Sunday after Sunday under some professional holy +man who is constantly asserting his egotism by criticising yours. I +would rebel if I were a layman. A spiritual leader who has too many +illusions is useless. One who has lost his illusions about mankind and +retains his illusions about himself is insufferable. Let the process of +disillusionment continue until the self is included. At that point, of +course, only religion can save from the enervation of despair. But it +is at that point that true religion is born. + + + + +_1926_ + + +Preachers who are in danger of degenerating into common scolds might +learn a great deal from H----’s preaching style. I am not thinking +now of the wealth of scholarship which enriches his utterances but +of his technique in uniting religious emotion with aspiration rather +than with duty. If he wants to convict Detroit of her sins he preaches +a sermon on “the City of God,” and lets all the limitations of this +get-rich-quick metropolis emerge by implication. If he wants to flay +the denominationalism of the churches he speaks on some topic which +gives him the chance to delineate the ideal and inclusive church. + +On the whole, people do not achieve great moral heights out of a sense +of duty. You may be able to compel them to maintain certain minimum +standards by stressing duty, but the highest moral and spiritual +achievements depend not upon a push but upon a pull. People must be +charmed into righteousness. The language of aspiration rather than that +of criticism and command is the proper pulpit language. Of course it +has its limitations. In every congregation there are a few perverse +sinners who can go into emotional ecstasies about the “City of God” and +yet not see how they are helping to make their city a hell-hole. + +It is not a good thing to convict sin only by implication. Sometimes +the cruel word of censure must be uttered. “Woe unto you Scribes and +Pharisees, hypocrites” was spoken by one who incarnated tenderness. The +language of aspiration is always in danger of becoming soft; but it is +possible to avoid that pitfall and yet not sink into a habit of cheap +scolding. I like the way H---- does it. + + + + +_1926_ + + +Cynics sometimes insinuate that you can love people only if you don’t +know them too well; that a too intimate contact with the foibles and +idiosyncrasies of men will tempt one to be a misanthrope. I have not +found it so. I save myself from cynicism by knowing individuals, and +knowing them intimately. If I viewed humanity only from some distant +and high perspective I could not save myself from misanthropy. I think +the reason is simply that people are not as decent in their larger +relationship as in their more intimate contacts. + +Look at the industrial enterprise anywhere and you find criminal +indifference on the part of the strong to the fate of the weak. +The lust for power and the greed for gain are the dominant note in +business. An industrial overlord will not share his power with his +workers until he is forced to do so by tremendous pressure. The middle +classes, with the exception of a small minority of intelligentsia, do +not aid the worker in exerting this pressure. He must fight alone. + +The middle classes are in fact quite incapable of any high degree of +social imagination. Their experience is too limited to give them a +clear picture of the real issues in modern industrial life. Non-union +mines may organize in West Virginia and reduce miners to a starvation +wage without challenging the conscience of a great middle class nation. +If the children of strikers are starving it is more difficult to find +support for them than to win contributors for the missions of the +church. America may arouse the resentment of the world by its greed +and all the good people of the American prairie will feel nothing but +injured innocence from these European and Asiatic reactions to our +greed. + +Men are clearly not very lovely in the mass. One can maintain +confidence in them only by viewing them at close range. Then one may +see the moral nobility of unselfish parenthood, the pathetic eagerness +of father and mother to give their children more of life than they +enjoyed; the faithfulness of wives to their erring husbands; the +grateful respect of mature children for their old parents; the effort +of this and that courageous soul to maintain personal integrity in a +world which continually tempts to dishonesty, and the noble aspirations +of hearts that must seem quite unheroic to the unheeding world. + +The same middle classes which seem so blind to the larger moral +problems of society have, after all, the most wholesome family life of +any group in society. + + + + +_1926_ + + +Here is a preacher whom I have suspected of cowardice for years because +he never deviated by a hair’s breadth from the economic prejudices +of his wealthy congregation. I thought he knew better but was simply +afraid to speak out and seek to qualify the arch-conservatism of +his complacent crowd with a little Christian idealism. But I was +mistaken. I have just heard that he recently included in his sermon a +tirade against women who smoke cigarettes and lost almost a hundred +of his fashionable parishioners. He is evidently not lacking courage +in matters upon which he has deep convictions. Nobody, for that +matter, lacks courage when convictions are strong. Courage is simply +the rigorous devotion to one set of values against other values and +interests. + +Protestantism’s present impotence in qualifying the economic and +social life of the nation is due not so much to the pusillanimity of +the clerical leaders as to its individualistic traditions. The church +honestly regards it of greater moment to prevent women from smoking +cigarettes than to establish more Christian standards in industrial +enterprise. A minister who tries to prevent fashionable women from +smoking cigarettes is simply trying to enforce a code of personal habit +established in the middle classes of the nineteenth century upon the +plutocratic classes of the twentieth century. The effort is not only +vain but has little to do with essential Christianity. + +I would not deny that some real values may be at stake in such +questions of personal habits. But they affect the dominant motives +which determine the spirituality or sensuality of character but +slightly. The church does not seem to realize how unethical a +conventionally respectable life may be. + + + + +_1926_ + + +Some of these young business men in the congregation would compare +favorably with any leaders who grace the pulpits of our churches. Their +family relations seem to be almost ideal. They are trying honestly +to live a Christian life in their business relations. Lack of power +sometimes means that they cannot go as far in experimenting with +Christian values as they would like. But they are not complacent. They +are eager to learn, and are fair and careful in their judgments. Their +virtues are acquired with less self-conscious effort than those of +more studious people. They think and plan, but they do not stop the +adventure of life to meditate upon its difficulties and inadequacies. + +Extravert people are on the whole happier and more wholesome than the +introverts. If they do not act too unreflectively, they are able to +define their goals fairly accurately and they certainly pursue them +with more robust energy than do the moody intellectuals. + +It is surprising, too, how considerate and generous they are in their +relations with one another and with me. They take my impetuosities +for granted and exhibit little pettiness in their dealings with one +another. The women do not get along quite so well together. They are +too new at playing the game of life with others. But I will not +belabor that point. I may be exhibiting bachelor prejudices in making +it. At any rate I am willing to compare this group of young men who +bear the burdens of our church with any faculty group in the country. +They can teach you nothing about philosophy, but they do teach you much +about life and they reënforce your confidence in human nature. + + + + +_1926_ + +After Attending a Jewish-Christian Conference + + +Fellowship with peoples of other religious groups always results in +the grateful experience of discovering unsuspected treasuries of +common sentiment and conviction. More contact between enlightened Jews +and Christians would change the emphasis in many a Christian homily. +This conference was rewarding in many ways. But at one point I fail +absolutely to understand my Jewish friends. All of them, high and low, +intelligent and those who are less so, insist that the story of the +crucifixion is the real root of all or of most antisemitism, and they +seem to have some vain hope that broadminded Christians will be able +and willing to erase the story of the cross from the gospel record. The +least they expect is that the odium of the cross be placed upon the +Romans rather than the Jews. + +I can see that there would be some advantage in ascribing a historic +sin to a people who live only in history and who can therefore not +be victimized by belated vindictive prejudices. But would that be +history? The record is pretty plain and the fact that the Jewish elders +rather than Roman soldiers were the real crucifiers is supported not +only by evidence but by logic. The prophets of religion are always +martyred by the religious rather than by the irreligious. The Romans, +being irreligious, were not sufficiently fanatical to initiate the +crucifixion. + +It must be admitted that the phraseology of the Fourth Gospel may +easily incite the prejudices of the ignorant. But the enlightened will +find a better method to allay any antisemitic feeling which may result +from the record than to ascribe the crucifixion to the Romans. They +need only ascribe it to the general limitations of human nature and +society. Jews are not the only people who martyr and who have martyred +their prophets. The history of every nation and every people makes the +crucifixion a perennial and a universal historical fact. + +That is the very reason why Christians can no more afford to eliminate +the cross than they can ascribe it to the fortunately extinct +Romans. Anyone who incarnates the strategy of love as Jesus did +meets the resistance and incites the passions of human society. The +respectabilities of any human society are based upon moral compromises +and every community is as anxious to defend these compromises against +the prophet who presents some higher moral logic as against the +criminal who imperils the structure from below. + +The cross is central in the Christian religion, moreover, because it +symbolizes a cosmic as well as an historic truth. Love conquers the +world, but its victory is not an easy one. The price of all creativity +and redemption is pain. Most modern religionists who understand the God +of creation and not the God of redemption fail in understanding the +latter precisely because they do not see how closely related creation +and redemption are. Which simply means that they don’t understand that +creation is a painful process in which the old does not give way to the +new without trying to overcome it. + +The cross of Jesus is truly the most adequate symbol of both the +strategy and the destiny of love not only in history but in the +universe. We may grant our Jewish brethren that it is not the only +possible symbol of eternal verities, but it is a true one, and it +cannot therefore be sacrificed. + +Incidentally, I believe that Jewish people have a tendency to +overestimate the religious bases of antisemitism. Racial rather than +religious prejudice is the dominant factor in this social disease. +All ignorant people hate or fear those who deviate from their type. +Religious divergences may be as important as cultural and physical +differences, but they are not dominant. The Jews could accept our +religion and if they maintained their racial integrity they would +still suffer from various types of social ostracism. After all the +Negroes are Christian, but that hasn’t helped them much. Some Jews +dislike this comparison very much. They do not like to be put upon +the same basis with the Negroes. But that reveals unrealistic social +analysis. The majority group is intolerant of minorities whether their +culture is inferior, superior or equal. + + + + +_1926_ + + +One is hardly tempted to lose confidence in the future after listening +to a group of young people discussing the important problems of life. +Of course the number who approach the future reflectively and with real +appreciation for the issues involved in the readjustment of traditions +to new situations is not large. There are not many such groups and even +in these the number who really take part in the discussion is small. + +Nevertheless their wholesomeness is impressive. I can’t always withhold +a sense of pity for them. With traditions crumbling and accepted +standards inundated by a sea of moral relativity, they have a desperate +task on their hands to construct new standards adequate for their +happiness. There is always the temptation to be too rebellious or too +traditional, to be scornful of the old standard even when it preserves +obvious virtues, or to flee to it for fear of being lost in the +confusion of new standards. Yet the best way of avoiding these dangers +is to subject them to the scrutiny of a thoughtful group which knows +how to discern the limitations of any position, old or new. + +On the whole the discussions of our young people at the church seem to +be more wholesome than those in which I participate in the colleges. +Most of these young folks have assumed responsibilities and are +therefore not as inclined to be morbidly critical and sceptical as +the college group. The cases cited from their own experience help to +give vitality to their discussion, and they are not enervated by that +extreme sophistication which imperils the college youth and tempts +him to end every discussion and discount every discovery with the +reflection, “This also is vanity.” + +I really wonder how we are going to build a civilization sufficiently +intelligent to overcome dangerous prejudices and to emancipate itself +from the inadequacies of conventional morality without creating the +kind of sophistication which destroys all values by its scepticism and +dampens every enthusiasm by its cynicism. In America that possibility +is particularly dangerous because our intellectualism is of the +sophomoric type. There is no generation, or only one generation, +between the pioneers who conquered the prairies and these youngsters +who are trying to absorb the whole of modern culture in four years. The +traditions against which they react are less adequate, less modified by +experience and culture, than those which inform the peoples of Europe. + +And the teachers who guide them into the world of new knowledge are +frequently themselves so recently emancipated that they try to obscure +their cultural, religious and moral heritages by extreme iconoclasm. +It is difficult to be patient with one of these smart aleck Ph.D.s +on a western campus who imagines that he can impress the world with +his learning by being scornful of everything that was thought or done +before this century. + + + + +_1926_ + + +A letter from Hyde brings the sad news that C---- has lost his +pastorate. I am not surprised. He is courageous but tactless. +Undoubtedly he will regard himself as one of the Lord’s martyrs. +Perhaps he is. Perhaps loyalty to principle will always appear as +tactlessness from the perspective of those who don’t agree with you. +But I agree with C---- and still think him wanting in common sense. At +least he is pedagogically very awkward. + +You can’t rush into a congregation which has been fed from its very +infancy on the individualistic ethic of Protestantism and which is +immersed in a civilization where ethical individualism runs riot, and +expect to develop a social conscience among the people in two weeks. +Nor have you a right to insinuate that they are all hypocrites just +because they don’t see what you see. + +Of course it is not easy to speak the truth in love without losing a +part of the truth, and therefore one ought not be too critical of those +who put their emphasis on the truth rather than on love. But if a man +is not willing to try, at least, to be pedagogical, and if in addition +he suffers from a martyr complex, he has no place in the ministry. +Undoubtedly there are more ministers who violate their conscience than +such as suffer for conscience sake. But that is no reason why those +who have a robust conscience should not try to master the pedagogical +art. Perhaps if they would learn nothing else but to be less emotional +and challenging in the pulpit and more informative and educational not +only in the pulpit but in their work with smaller groups, they could +really begin to change the viewpoints and perspectives of their people. + + + + +_1926_ + + +Spoke tonight to the Churchmen’s Club of ----. The good Bishop who +introduced me was careful to disavow all my opinions before I uttered +them. He assured the brethren, however, that I would make them think. +I am getting tired of these introductions which are intended to +impress the speaker with the Christian virtue of the audience and its +willingness to listen to other then conventional opinions. The chairman +declares in effect, “Here is a hairbrained fellow who talks nonsense. +But we are Christian gentlemen who can listen with patience and +sympathy to even the most impossible opinions.” It is just a device to +destroy the force of a message and to protect the sensitive souls who +might be rudely shocked by a religious message which came in conflict +with their interests and prejudices. + +There is something pathetic about the timidity of the religious leader +who is always afraid of what an honest message on controversial +issues might do to his organization. I often wonder when I read the +eleventh chapter of Hebrews in which faith and courage are practically +identified whether it is psychologically correct to assume that the one +flows from the other. Courage is a rare human achievement. If it seems +to me that preachers are more cowardly than other groups; that may be +because I know myself. But I must confess that I haven’t discovered +much courage in the ministry. The average parson is characterized by +suavity and circumspection rather than by any robust fortitude. I do +not intend to be mean in my criticism because I am a coward myself and +find it tremendously difficult to run counter to general opinion. Yet +religion has always produced some martyrs and heroes. + +I suppose religion in its most vital form does make men indifferent to +popular approval. The apostle Paul averred that it was a small thing +to be judged of men because he was seeking the approval of God. In +a genuinely religious soul faith does seem to operate in that way. +Issues are regarded _sub specie aeternitatis_ and the judgment of +contemporaries becomes insignificant. But the average man fashions his +standards in the light of prevailing customs and opinions. It could +hardly be expected that every religious leader would be filled with +prophetic ardor and heedless courage. Many good men are naturally +cautious. But it does seem that the unique resource of religion ought +to give at least a touch of daring to the religious community and the +religious leader. + + + + +_1926_ + + +The excitement about the Federation of Labor convention in Detroit +has subsided, but there are echoes of the event in various magazines. +Several ministers have been commended for “courage” because they +permitted labor leaders to speak in their churches who represented +pretty much their own convictions and said pretty much what they had +been saying for years. + +It does seem pretty bad to have the churches lined up so solidly +against labor and for the open shop policy of the town. The ministers +are hardly to blame, except if they are to be condemned for not +bringing out the meaning of Christianity for industrial relations more +clearly in their ministry previous to the moment of crisis. As it +was, few of the churches were sufficiently liberal to be able to risk +an heretical voice in their pulpits. The idea that these A. F. of L. +leaders are dangerous heretics is itself a rather illuminating clue +to the mind of Detroit. I attended several sessions of the convention +and the men impressed me as having about the same amount of daring and +imagination as a group of village bankers. + +The ministers of the country are by various methods dissociating +themselves from the Detroit churches and are implying that they would +have acted more generously in a like situation. Perhaps so. There +are few cities in which wealth, suddenly acquired and proud of the +mechanical efficiency which produced it, is so little mellowed by +social intelligence. Detroit produces automobiles and is not yet +willing to admit that the poor automata who are geared in on the +production lines have any human problems. + +Yet we differ only in degree from the rest of the country. The +churches of America are on the whole thoroughly committed to the +interests and prejudices of the middle classes. I think it is a bit of +unwarranted optimism to expect them to make any serious contribution +to the reorganization of society. I still have hopes that they will +become sufficiently intelligent and heroic to develop some qualifying +considerations in the great industrial struggle, but I can no longer +envisage them as really determining factors in the struggle. Neither am +I able for this reason to regard them as totally useless, as some of +the critics do. + +The ethical reconstruction of modern industrial society is, to be sure, +a very important problem, but it is not the only concern of mankind. +The spiritual amenities and moral decencies which the churches help +to develop and preserve in the private lives of individuals are worth +something for their own sake. Yet it must be obvious that if anyone +is chosen by talent and destiny to put his life into the industrial +struggle, the church is hardly his best vehicle. + +The church is like the Red Cross service in war time. It keeps life +from degenerating into a consistent inhumanity, but it does not +materially alter the fact of the struggle itself. The Red Cross neither +wins the war nor abolishes it. Since the struggle between those who +have and those who have not is a never-ending one, society will always +be, in a sense, a battleground. It is therefore of some importance that +human loveliness be preserved outside of the battle lines. But those +who are engaged in this task ought to realize that the brutalities of +the conflict may easily negate the most painstaking humanizing efforts +behind the lines, and that these efforts may become a method for +evading the dangers and risks of the battlefield. + +If religion is to contribute anything to the solution of the industrial +problem, a more heroic type of religion than flourishes in the average +church must be set to the task. I don’t believe that the men who are +driven by that kind of religion need to dissociate themselves from the +churches, but they must bind themselves together in more effective +association than they now possess. + + + + +_1926_ + + +After preaching at ---- University this morning I stopped off at ---- +and dropped in at the Presbyterian church for the evening service. The +service was well attended and the music was very good. The minister had +a sermon which might best be described as a fulsome eulogy of Jesus +Christ. I wonder whether sermons like that mean anything. He just piled +up adjectives. Every hero of ancient and modern times was briefly +described in order that he might be made to bow before the superior +virtue of the Lord. But the whole thing left me completely cold. +The superiority of Jesus was simply dogmatically asserted and never +adequately analyzed. There was not a thing in the sermon that would +give the people a clue to the distinctive genius of Jesus or that would +help them to use the resources of his life for the solution of their +own problems. + +Through the whole discourse there ran the erroneous assumption that +Christians are real followers of Jesus and no effort was made to +describe the wide chasm which yawns between the uncompromising idealism +of the Galilean and the current morality. I wonder how many sermons of +that type are still being preached. If that sermon is typical it would +explain much of the conventional tameness of the church. + +How much easier it is to adore an ideal character than to emulate it. + + + + +_1926_ + + +That resolution we passed in our pastors’ meeting, calling upon the +police to be more rigorous in the enforcement of law, is a nice +admission of defeat upon the part of the church. Every one of our +cities has a crime problem, not so much because the police are not +vigilant as because great masses of men in an urban community are +undisciplined and chaotic souls, emancipated from the traditions which +guided their fathers and incapable of forming new and equally potent +cultural and moral restraints. The children of the puritans are in +this respect no better than the children of the immigrants. Both have +reacted against traditions which do not fit their new circumstances and +both are unable to escape license by new and better standards. + +Perhaps the real reason that we live such chaotic lives in urban +communities is because a city is not a society at all, and moral +standards are formed only in societies and through the sense of mutual +obligation which neighbors feel for one another. A big city is not a +society held together by human bonds. It is a mass of individuals, held +together by a productive process. Its people are spiritually isolated +even though they are mechanically dependent upon one another. In such +a situation it is difficult to create and preserve the moral and +cultural traditions which each individual needs to save his life from +anarchy. + +All of us do not live in moral chaos. But in so far as we escape it, +it is due to our loyalty to religious, moral and cultural traditions +which have come out of other ages and other circumstances. That is +why churches, Protestant, Catholic and Jewish, however irrelevant +their ethical idealism may be to the main facts of an industrial +civilization, are nevertheless indispensable. It is enough that our +society should be morally chaotic without also losing the kind of moral +restraint which still determines the life of many individuals. + +There is something very pathetic about the efforts of almost every one +of our large cities to restore by police coercion what has been lost by +the decay of moral and cultural traditions. But of course we do have +to save ourselves from anarchy, even if it must be done by force. Only +I think the church would do well to leave the police problem alone. If +violence must be used temporarily, let the state do so without undue +encouragement from the church. The church must work in another field +and if it has failed in that field, it cannot recoup its failures by +giving advice to the police department. The priest as a sublimated +policeman is a sorry spectacle. + + + + +_1926_ + + +We were discussing the first commandment in the preparatory class +today. The boys were trying to see whether “Thou shalt have no other +Gods before me” meant anything in modern life. It is a constant source +of surprise and delight to see with what profundity these boys and +girls deal with the problems of life. They decided that anything +that we loved more than God was in effect another god. But how do we +love God, I asked. There were the usual answers which show how some +children still identify religion with religious practices and customs, +particularly Sunday observance. But one of the boys came through with +this answer, “We love God by loving the best we know.” That seemed to +me not bad at all. + +Now we put on the blackboard all those interests which threatened to +become gods to us: money, clothes (volunteered by a girl, of course), +automobiles, eating, playing. We took up each one of these interests +and tried to determine when they were in danger of becoming too central +in life. On automobiles the boys didn’t have much conscience except +that they thought one ought not to clean them on Sunday. They take the +cult of the automobile for granted as everyone else. The girls had +quite a time defining the place where clothes cease to be a legitimate +interest and become an obsession. I was probably a poor one to lead +them in that discussion. + +On the matter of eating there was considerable difficulty. “We have +to eat to grow,” said one of the boys. Correct answer. When then, +is eating a form of idolatry? “When we eat all the time,” suggested +another boy. That left Junior in a corner. “I like to eat most all the +time,” he confessed ruefully. How can a hungry boy be anything but a +sceptic about a philosophy of values which does not have eating at the +center of it? Thus do the necessities of a robust organism defy the +value schemes prompted by tradition or arrived at by reflection. + +Junior just about stopped our discussion of comparative values by that +confession, “I like to eat most all the time,” and I couldn’t help but +think that my pedagogical impotence before this demand of natural life +was closely akin to the impotence of the church before a youthful and +vigorous national life, immersed in physical values and intent upon +physical satisfactions. Our youthful nation is also declaring, “I love +to eat most all the time”; and the error in its judgment is not easily +overcome by preachment and precept until time and experience will show +it the limits of animal satisfactions and teach it that man does not +live by bread alone. + + + + +_1926_ + + +I had a letter from a young preacher today who told me how he was +suffering for truth’s sake. He had merely been telling his congregation +that Jesus was a great spiritual teacher, as was Confucius and Laotsze, +and that the Christ idea was the product of Greek legend and ancient +mythology. His good people were so ignorant, he thought, that they +failed to show proper appreciation of his learning and resented his +iconoclasm. + +I find myself reacting violently to the sophomoric cocksureness of +this young fellow. I suppose I am getting old and have made those +compromises with the devil of superstition against which the editor of +the Christian Register warns so hysterically. But for the life of me I +can no more reduce Jesus to the status of a mere Galilean dreamer and +teacher than I can accept the orthodox Christologies. The person who +can make no distinction between a necessary symbolism and mythology +seems to me no better than the wooden-headed conservative who insists +that every bit of religious symbolism and poetry must be accepted +literally and metaphysically. + +It is not easy to define the God idea. Scientifically I suppose God is +“the element of spirituality which is integral to reality,” but for all +practical and religious purposes I find it both helpful and justified +to define him by saying that “God is like Jesus.” The ultimate nature +of reality cannot be grasped by science alone; poetic imagination is +as necessary as scientific precision. Some of the supposedly ignorant +peasants against whom my youthful friend is drawing his heroic sword +may have more truth on their side than any fresh young theologue could +possibly realize. + + + + +_1926_ + + +In the young men’s class this morning we continued our discussion of +the Sermon on the Mount. The boys have been making some interesting +contributions. On the whole they are sceptical of the practicability +of the demands which Jesus makes in the matter of trust and love and +forgiveness. It is rather interesting to have this revelation of the +basic cynicism of even the adolescent mind. They think that to follow +Jesus “would put a business man out of business in no time,” as one +expressed it today. Of course, it is better to see the difficulties +than to engage in some kind of sentimental avowal of Christian faith +without realizing how stubbornly life resists the ideal. + +After all, those boys are up against what St. Anthony saw when he was +tempted by the vision of the young woman and the old woman. The one +meant life but also lust, and the other meant faith but also death. +At least that is the way Flaubert has it. It is certainly not easy to +separate life from lust without destroying life. Yet Jesus came to give +us a more abundant life. + +“Maybe it would work if we tried it hard enough,” thought one of the +boys today when we discussed the practicability of trusting people. +That may be the answer to the whole question. + + + + +_1926_ + + +Bishop ---- and I shared the platform tonight. Fortunately, I spoke +first so that I did not have to compete with his powerful eloquence. +His sermon warmed the heart, but it was based upon the uncritical +assumption that modern Christianity is an exact replica of primitive +Christianity and is characterized by the same qualities of heroism and +faith. There was a disquieting tendency to patronize in the good man’s +demeanor. I should think it would be a very difficult achievement for +a bishop to be a real Christian. The position is bound to aggravate +the inclination to pride which all of us possess. I do not know many +bishops intimately. The few that I have known well have been singularly +free of arrogance; but they were unusual, for they were saved by +a sense of humor which is not frequently found in the pulpit and +certainly hardly ever in the episcopacy. + +“Be not ye called rabbi,” said Jesus, “and call no man father upon +earth, for one is your father which is in heaven.” I am not interested +in applying the words of Jesus literally, but it seems to me that the +principle involved in these words would wipe out the episcopacy. It +wouldn’t leave much justification either for “The Reverend Doctor.” Of +course the Christian community cannot do without leaders. But it might +learn to save them from pride and arrogance. + +The highest type of leadership maintains itself by its intrinsic worth, +sans panoply, pomp and power. Of course, there are never enough real +leaders to go around. Wherefore it becomes necessary to dress some men +up and by other artificial means to give them a prestige and a power +which they could not win by their own resources. But it would be well +if the church realized how dangerous power and prestige are, and how +easily they corrupt a man’s spiritual integrity. + +It is certainly not to the credit of the church that it is less +eager than the democratic state to circumscribe the authority and +socialize the power of the leader. The Methodists try to preserve the +proper spirit of humility among the bishops by relegating them to +parliamentary impotence once every four years. But who wouldn’t be +willing to suffer for that brief period for the sake of the power and +authority which the bishop exercises for the rest of the quadrennium? + +Somewhere I read the observation of an anthropologist that naked +savages could never have evolved a priesthood or an hereditary +monarchy. No one is so much superior to his fellows that he deserves +the positions of authority which a complex society finally evolves. +That is why the leader must be put over with the proper clothes and +paraphernalia. The throne and the crown make the king. Even the +President of the United States has impressive naval and military +aids to offset the unimposing frock which the democratic tradition +prescribes. As for the bishop, who could be more awe-inspiring than a +hierarch sitting upon his “throne” in his full regalia? That does not +apply to Methodist bishops. But they have so much power that they don’t +need the panoply. + +Think how insufferable bishops might be if they had to be both +worshiped and feared. I am afraid that is true of Catholic bishops. +Perhaps that is why the Catholic saints are not frequently found in the +hierarchy. + + + + +_1927_ + + +An impertinent youngster at the forum (midwestern college) accused +me today of being an authoritarian because I quoted several modern +philosophers and scientists in my address in support of my theistic +belief. I made a deep bow before him and congratulated him upon being +so proficient in laboratory experiments in every science and so +profound in his philosophical meditations that he could arrive at his +conclusions without the help of anyone else, scientist or philosopher. + +His question did set me thinking on the problem of freedom. Why do we +believe what we believe, and why do we do what we do? If the religion +of my home had been harsh and unlovely I would probably be today where +that young man is, in a position of rebellion against all religion. If +I had not had the aid of this helpful professor and that illuminating +book when my religious convictions were undergoing adjustment I might +not have made the necessary adjustments but would have thrown religious +convictions into the discard. + +If I were not in a position where human nature reveals itself in its +more lovely characteristics would I be able to maintain confidence +in the integrity of man, upon which so much of the confidence in God +depends? Has the class-conscious worker not a right to dismiss both +my political and my religious convictions as bourgeois prejudices? And +could I not with equal justice condemn his as myopic views which his +resentments against society explain but do not prove true? + +What we know as truth is determined by peculiar and individual +perspectives. Pressures of environment, influences of heredity, and +excellencies and deficiencies of teachers help to determine our life +philosophies. We ought therefore to hold them with decent humility and +a measure of scepticism. But if we permit ourselves to be tempted into +a complete subjectivism and scepticism by these facts, we put an end to +all philosophy and ultimately to civilization itself. For civilization +depends upon the vigorous pursuit of the highest values by people who +are intelligent enough to know that their values are qualified by their +interests and corrupted by their prejudices. + + + + +_1927_ + + +Perhaps there is no better illustration of the ethical impotence of the +modern church than its failure to deal with the evils and the ethical +problems of stock manipulation. Millions in property values are created +by pure legerdemain. Stock dividends, watered stock and excessive rise +in stock values, due to the productivity of the modern machine, are +accepted by the church without a murmur if only a slight return is made +by the beneficiaries through church philanthropies. + +Here is C---- recapitalizing his business and adding six million +dollars in stock. At least five of these millions will not be invested +in physical expansion but pocketed by the owner. They simply represent +capitalization of expected profits. Once this added burden has been +placed upon the industry any demands of the workers for a larger share +in the profits will be met by conclusive proof that the stock is +earning only a small dividend and that further increase in wages would +be “suicidal” to the business. + +Meanwhile C---- has become quite philanthropic. He gives fifty thousand +dollars here and a hundred thousand there. Since the good man is a +“Christian,” religious organizations profit most by his benefactions. +Every new donation is received with paeans of praise from church and +press. + +What I wonder is whether the gentleman is deceiving himself and really +imagines himself a Christian or whether he is really quite hard-boiled +and harbors a secret contempt for the little men who buzz about his +throne, singing their hallelujahs. One can never be sure how much we +mortals are fooled by our own inadequate virtues and sanctified vices +and how much we accept the world’s convenient tribute without being +convinced by it. Nor do I know which interpretation of the facts is to +be preferred, not as a matter of truth, but as a matter of charity. +What is worse--to be honest with yourself while you are dishonest with +the world, or to be dishonest with the world because you have deceived +yourself? + + + + +_1927_ + + +Dropped in on the First ---- Church of ---- on my way back from ---- +University. Went into the young people’s meeting before the evening +service and found a typical Endeavor meeting in progress. Some ninety +wholesome youngsters were in attendance. All the various tricks of a +good Endeavor meeting were used. Several little poems clipped from +the Endeavor World were recited at the appropriate time and some of +the members contributed quotations from Scripture and from well-known +authors. The leader gave a good but platitudinous talk. There was no +discussion. My impression was that this type of meeting, if still held, +would be very poorly attended. But here the facts belied my theories. +So much the worse for the young people of the church. Only a very inert +type of youngster could be satisfied with such a meeting, and only a +very uncritical mind would accept the pious platitudes which filled it, +without uttering a protest or challenging a dozen assumptions. + +However much such meetings may cultivate habits of loyalty to the +church among young people and preserve among them the traditional +religious attitudes and customs, they do nothing to fit young people +to live a Christian life amid the complexities of the modern world +or to hold to the Christian faith in the perplexities of a scientific +world view. What worries me particularly in regard to these meetings +is the assumption which underlies them that nothing but moral good +will is necessary to solve the problems of life. Almost every other +meeting is a consecration meeting. No one seems to introduce the young +people to the idea that an ethical life requires honest and searching +intelligence. Nothing is done to discover to their eyes the tremendous +chasm between the ideals of their faith and the social realities in +which they live. + +Under such circumstances we can expect no new vitality in the Christian +life as the new generation takes hold. Old virtues and respectabilities +will be maintained, but the areas of life which are still unchristian +will remain as they are. I see the danger in our own discussion groups +that the young people may satisfy all their idealism in incessant talk. +But the talk has at least the merit of exploring all sides of a problem +and of revealing the limitations of traditional attitudes and the need +of new ventures in faith. + + + + +_1927_ + + +Whenever I exchange thoughts with H----, as I do with greater frequency +and with increasing profit to myself, I have the uneasy feeling that +I belong to the forces which are destroying religion in the effort +to refine it. He is as critical as I am--well, perhaps not quite so +critical; but in all his critical evaluations of religious forms +he preserves a robust religious vitality which I seem to lack. His +scholarship is of course much more extensive than mine, but it has not +robbed him of religious naïveté, to use Schweitzer’s phrase. He has +preserved a confidence in the goodness of men and the ultimate triumph +of righteousness which I do not lack, but to which I do not hold so +unwaveringly. While we understand each other, we really belong to +different schools of thought. + +I have been profoundly impressed by the Spenglerian thesis that culture +is destroyed by the spirit of sophistication and I am beginning +to suspect that I belong to the forces of decadence in which this +sophistication is at work. I have my eye too much upon the limitations +of contemporary religious life and institutions; I always see the +absurdities and irrationalities in which narrow types of religion +issue. That wouldn’t be so bad if I did not use the instruments of +intellectualism rather than those of a higher spirituality for the +critical task. + +Nevertheless I hate a thoroughgoing cynic. I don’t want anyone to be +more cynical than I am. If I am saved from cynicism at all it is by +some sense of personal loyalty to the spirit and the genius of Jesus; +that and physical health. If I were physically anaemic I never would +be able to escape pessimism. This very type of morbid introspection +is one of the symptoms of the disease. I can’t justify myself in my +perilous position except by the observation that the business of being +sophisticated and naïve, critical and religious, at one and the same +time is as difficult as it is necessary, and only a few are able to +achieve the balance. H---- says I lack a proper appreciation of the +mystical values in religion. That is probably the root of the matter. +Yet I can’t resist another word in self-defense. The modern world is so +full of bunkum that it is difficult to attempt honesty in it without an +undue emphasis upon the critical faculty. + +If in this civilization we cannot enter the kingdom of God because we +cannot be as little children, the fault, dear Brutus, is in our stars +and not in ourselves. + + + + +_1927_ + + +I fell in with a gentleman on the Pullman smoker today (Pullman smokers +are perfect institutes for plumbing the depths and shallows of the +American mind) who had made a killing on the stock exchange. His luck +appeared like success from his perspective, and he was full of the +confidence with which success endows mortals. He spoke oracularly on +any and all subjects. He knew why the farmers were not making any +money and why the Europeans were not as prosperous as we. Isn’t it +strange how gambler’s luck gives men the assurance of wisdom for which +philosophers search in vain? I pity this man’s wife. But she probably +regards a new fur coat as adequate compensation for the task of +appearing convinced by his obiter dicta. + + + + +_1927_ + + +Seven clergymen sat down today with the national defense committee of +the board of commerce. They invited us to talk over our stand against +compulsory military education in the schools. It was an interesting +experience, particularly as it came but shortly after our conflict with +the same group on the matter of labor speakers in our pulpits. The +contrast in the attitude of the business men in these two controversies +is very illuminating. + +In the labor controversy they were hard-boiled realists who simply +wanted to prevent labor from getting its side before the public. At +that time they did not invite us to a round table discussion. They +had nothing to discuss. They simply used their power in the city to +prevent any discussion of the character of their power and the method +of its preservation. In this case they were aggrieved and bewildered +romanticists and idealists. They want military training in the schools +because they have been told by the army officers that such training +makes for patriotism. And patriotism is the only religion they know. + +They invited us to a luncheon precisely because they felt themselves +in a morally, not to say spiritually, impregnable position. I think +they were quite sure that a little argument would convince us of the +error of our ways. Our resistance was obviously very disconcerting to +them. Perhaps they had a right to be disconcerted; for it is only a +little while since there was a perfect alliance between the religion +of patriotism and organized Christianity. Since most of the men do not +attend church they had not heard of the qualms of conscience in the +pulpit that had, at least for the time being, dissolved that alliance. +We stood our ground and the meeting dissolved without any results. + +I wonder if it isn’t a little bit wicked to challenge the validity of +the only kind of altruism which men know. But no--narrow loyalties may +become more dangerous than selfishness. + + + + +_1927_ + + +I wonder why it is that so many of the churches which go in for +vaudeville programs and the hip-hip-hooray type of religious services +should belong to the Methodist and Baptist denominations. The +vulgarities of the stunt preacher are hardly compatible with either +the robust spiritual vitality or the puritan traditions of the more +evangelistic churches. Perhaps the phenomenon of which I speak is +due merely to the size of the two denominations. They may have more +showmen simply because they are big enough to have more leaders of all +varieties. Certainly no church surpasses the Methodist in the number +of men who possess real social passion and imagination. Nor are the +old emotionally warm and naïvely orthodox preachers wanting in either +church. + +Nevertheless there is a growing tendency toward stunt services in both +denominations. Perhaps it represents the strategy of denominational +and congregational organisms which are too much alive to accept the +fate of innocuous desuetude, which has befallen some other churches. +Finding the masses, which they once attracted by genuine religious +emotion, less inclined to seek satisfaction in religion, they maintain +themselves by offering such goods in entertainment and social life as +the people seem to desire. + +When the naïve enthusiasms of those generations, among whom religion is +an emotional experience and not a social tradition, begin to cool, the +churches which serve the new generations must either express religious +feeling through devotion to moral and aesthetic values or they must +substitute a baser emotionalism for the lost religious feeling. Perhaps +the prevalence of cheap theatricality among the churches of our great +democracy is a sign of the fact that the masses in America have lost +the capacity for unreflective and exuberant religious feeling before +they could acquire the kind of religion which is closely integrated +with the values of culture and art. + +There is something pathetic about the effort of the churches to capture +these spiritually vacuous multitudes by resort to any device which may +intrigue their vagrant fancies. But it may not represent a total loss. +The entertainment they offer may be vulgar, but it is not vicious, +and without them the people might find satisfaction in something even +cheaper. + + + + +_1927_ + + +At the Lenten service today the dynamic speaker dilated upon the heroic +character of the Christian faith. “Someone said to me recently,” he +reported, “‘Do you realize that it is dangerous to be a Christian?’ +‘Certainly,’ I answered, ‘It always has been and always will be.’” + +Isn’t it strange how we preachers insist on emphasizing the heroic +aspect of the Christian faith? That pose today was exactly like the +one struck by the minister in ---- who loved to say dramatically, +“The church needs a new casualty list,” while it was generally known +that he carefully evaded every issue which might create dissension or +contention. + +I think we ministers strike these heroic poses because we are dimly +aware of the fact that the gospel commits us to positions which require +heroic devotion before they will ever be realized in life. But we are +astute rather than heroic and cautious rather than courageous. Thus +we are in the dangerous position of being committed to the cross in +principle but escaping it in practice. We are honest enough to be +uneasy about that fact, but insincere enough to quiet our uneasiness by +heroic poses. + +Let any group of ministers gather and you will find someone declaring +fervently, “No one ever tells me what to say. My congregation gives +me perfect liberty.” That is just another way of quieting an uneasy +conscience; for we all know that if we explore the full meaning of a +gospel of love its principles will be found to run counter to cherished +prejudices. It is of course not impossible to retain freedom of the +pulpit, but if anyone is doing so without the peril of defections from +his ranks and opposition to his message, he is deceiving himself about +the quality of his message. Either his message is too innocuous to +deserve opposition or too conventional to arouse it. + +An astute pedagogy and a desire to speak the truth in love may greatly +decrease opposition to a minister’s message and persuade a difficult +minority to entertain at least, and perhaps to profit by, his message; +but if a gospel is preached without opposition it is simply not the +gospel which resulted in the cross. It is not, in short, the gospel of +love. + + + + +_1927_ + + +Talked today at the open forum which meets every Sunday afternoon in +the high school. The “lunatic fringe” of the city congregates there, +in addition to many sensible people. The question period in such +meetings is unfortunately monopolized to a great extent by the foolish +ones, though not always. Today one old gentleman wanted to know when I +thought the Lord would come again, while a young fellow spoke volubly +on communism and ended by challenging me to admit that all religion +is fantasy. Between those two you have the story of the tragic state +of religion in modern life. One half of the world seems to believe +that every poetic symbol with which religion must deal is an exact +definition of a concrete or an historical fact; the other half, having +learned that this is not the case, can come to no other conclusion but +that all religion is based upon fantasy. + +Fundamentalists have at least one characteristic in common with +most scientists. Neither can understand that poetic and religious +imagination has a way of arriving at truth by giving a clue to the +total meaning of things without being in any sense an analytic +description of detailed facts. The fundamentalists insist that religion +is science, and thus they prompt those who know that this is not true +to declare that all religious truth is contrary to scientific fact. + +How can an age which is so devoid of poetic imagination as ours be +truly religious? + + + + +_1927_ + + +Our city race commission has finally made its report after months of +investigation and further months of deliberation on our findings. It +has been a rare experience to meet with these white and colored leaders +and talk over our race problems. The situation which the colored people +of the city face is really a desperate one, and no one who does not +spend real time in gathering the facts can have any idea of the misery +and pain which exists among these people, recently migrated from the +south and unadjusted to our industrial civilization. Hampered both by +their own inadequacies and the hostility of a white world they have +a desperate fight to keep body and soul together, to say nothing of +developing those amenities which raise life above the brute level. + +I wish that some of our romanticists and sentimentalists could sit +through a series of meetings where the real social problems of a city +are discussed. They would be cured of their optimism. A city which is +built around a productive process and which gives only casual thought +and incidental attention to its human problems is really a kind of +hell. Thousands in this town are really living in torment while the +rest of us eat, drink and make merry. What a civilization! + +Incidentally I wish the good church people who hate our mayor so +much because he doesn’t conform to their rules and standards could +appreciate how superior his attitudes and viewpoints on race relations +are to those held by most church people. It seems to me rather +unfortunate that we must depend upon the “publicans” for our social +conscience to so great a degree while the “saints” develop their +private virtues and let the city as such fry in its iniquities. + + + + +_1927_ + + +I think I have solved the Sunday night service problem for good. I +give a short address or sermon upon a more or less controversial moral +issue, or upon a perplexing religious question, and after closing the +service we have a half-hour to forty-five minutes of discussion. The +group attracted by this kind of program is not large. It is not the +usual forum crowd. But it is a group of unusually thoughtful people, +and the way they explore the fundamental themes and problems of life is +worth more than many sermons. + +I am absolutely convinced that such discussions come to grips with +life’s real problems much more thoroughly than any ex cathedra +utterance from the pulpit. For one thing the people themselves make +the application of general principles to specific experiences. Then, +too, they inevitably explore the qualifications which life seems to +make upon every seemingly absolute principle. The real principles +of Christian living seem so much more real and also so much more +practicable when a group of thoughtful people make an honest effort to +fit them into the complexities of modern life. + +Perhaps the most interesting point about such a discussion is the way +every type of experience can be used to illustrate a certain general +truth. Last Sunday night an advertising man made a most interesting +contribution to the question of marriage and divorce out of his +experience as advertising counsel. He said that he had learnt in +business that it is always well to regard relationships as permanent +even when they are not so absolutely in a legal sense. If the parties +to a contract assume that it can be broken easily they will not extend +themselves as they ought to make those adjustments which a permanent +relationship requires.--Thus we make the experience gained in one +field of activity serve the problem of another field. Again and again +thoughtful mothers have thrown light upon the problems of democracy, +the place of coercion in life and the efficacy of trust out of +experience gained in their work with their children. + +If there were only more thoughtful people it would be worth while to +change every service into something like this evening discussion. But +discussion requires time and it doesn’t mean much to people who are +looking for “inspiration” rather than guidance. I suppose there is +still a place for inspirational addresses. But in a world in which so +many traditional moral ideas are in solution and so many others are +generally accepted and never applied, this kind of honest searching +with others, rather than for them, is particularly rewarding. + + + + +_1927_ + + +I wonder if it is really possible to have an honest Thanksgiving +celebration in an industrial civilization. Harvest festivals were +natural enough in peasant communities. The agrarian feels himself +dependent upon nature’s beneficence and anxious about nature’s +caprices. When the autumnal harvest is finally safe in the barns there +arise, with the sigh of relief, natural emotions of gratitude that must +express themselves religiously, since the bounty is actually created +by the mysterious forces of nature which man may guide but never quite +control. + +All that is different in an industrial civilization in which so much +wealth is piled up by the ingenuity of the machine, and, at least +seemingly, by the diligence of man. Thanksgiving becomes increasingly +the business of congratulating the Almighty upon his most excellent +coworkers, ourselves. I have had that feeling about the Thanksgiving +proclamations of our Presidents for some years. An individual, living +in an industrial community might still celebrate a Thanksgiving day +uncorrupted by pride, because he does benefit from processes and forces +which he does not create or even guide. But a national Thanksgiving, +particularly if it is meant to express gratitude for material bounty, +becomes increasingly a pharisaic rite. + +The union Thanksgiving service we attended this morning was full of +the kind of self-righteous bunk which made it quite impossible for me +to worship. There was indeed a faint odor of contrition in one of the +prayers and in an aside of the sermon, but it did not spring from the +heart. The Lord who was worshiped was not the Lord of Hosts, but the +spirit of Uncle Sam, given a cosmic eminence for the moment which the +dear old gentleman does not deserve. + +It is a bad thing when religion is used as a vehicle of pride. It would +be better to strut unashamedly down the boardwalk of nations than to +go through the business of bowing humbly before God while we say, “We +thank thee Lord that we are not as other men.” + + + + +_1927_ + + +Mother and I visited at the home of ---- today where the husband is +sick and was out of employment before he became sick. The folks have +few connections in the city. They belong to no church. What a miserable +existence it is to be friendless in a large city. And to be dependent +upon a heartless industry. The man is about 55 or 57 I should judge, +and he is going to have a desperate time securing employment after he +gets well. These modern factories are not meant for old men. They want +young men and they use them up pretty quickly. Your modern worker, with +no skill but what is in the machine, is a sorry individual. After he +loses the stamina of youth, he has nothing to sell. + +I promised ---- I would try to find him a job. I did it to relieve the +despair of that family, but I will have a hard time making good on my +promise. According to the ethics of our modern industrialism men over +fifty, without special training, are so much junk. It is a pleasure +to see how such an ethic is qualified as soon as the industrial unit +is smaller and the owner has a personal interest in his men. I could +mention quite a few such instances. But unfortunately the units are +getting larger and larger and more inhuman. + +I think I had better get in contact with more of these victims of our +modern industrialism and not leave that end of our work to mother +alone. A little such personal experience will help much to save you +from sentimentality. + + + + +_1927_ + + +Have just returned from the student conference at ----. A smart young +professor told the students that all social customs are based upon +irrational taboos. Our generation is the first with the opportunity to +build a rational social order. The way to build a rational society, +according to this savant, is to regard every relationship, custom, +convention and law as irrational until it has proved itself rational by +experience. + +A sample of the kind of society he would build by his reason was given +in his discussion of sex relations. He thinks the highest kind of +family life would result from the love of one woman for one man while +both indulged in promiscuous relations. Thus would the values of both +freedom and love be maintained. The smart young man seems never to have +heard that you cannot have your cake and eat it too. + +If you want love and cooperation in any kind of society, and most of +all in the family, it is necessary to sacrifice some freedom for its +sake. What strange fanatics these moderns are! Imagining themselves +dispassionate in their evaluation of all values, they are really +bigoted protagonists of the one value of freedom. Every other value +must be subordinated to it. + +It is true that every convention, custom, law and usage contains an +irrational element. Some were unreasonable from the beginning and +others have become so by shifting circumstance. It is necessary, +therefore, that we approach the facts of life experimentally and +scientifically, rather than traditionally. However, it seems to me +quite unreasonable to proceed upon the assumption that all traditions +are wholly unreasonable. Most of the moderns who think so are +significantly defective in the knowledge of history. + +There is at the heart of almost every tradition an element of +reasonableness and around its circumference a whole series of +irrationalities. Our business must be to destroy the latter and +restore the former by fitting it to contemporaneous circumstances and +conditions. + +I doubt whether it is wise for every person to be extremely critical +of all traditions in every field of thought and life. I imagine we +ought to specialize a little in this matter and let various people +experiment in various areas. This seems to me a wise policy for the +simple reason that it does not make for happiness for one person to do +the experimenting in every field. At any rate most of the intellectuals +I know who try to do it are miserable souls. I am always glad to escape +their company and consort with folks who take some things for granted. +There is an unnatural strain in their lives and, having made a virtue +of the critical temper, they usually discount virtue and achievement +even where it is indubitable. + +Since there are many more traditionalists than experimentalists, all +this may be bad advice. But I doubt whether the lethargy of the many +justifies the few in spoiling their tempers and their judgment. Let +every reformer find at least one field of interest and life where he +can be happily conventional. If he is trying to remake the economic +order, let him accept family life and be happy in it without too many +scruples about its alleged imperfections. On second thought I don’t +like this advice. At any rate it is inconsistent with my scorn for the +liberal theologians who are so preoccupied with the task of reforming +religion that they have no interest in the iniquities of society which +ought to challenge their conscience. + +Let us have reformers, then, who try to reform everything at the same +time! But I am going to keep my distance from them. + + + + +_1927_ + + +The new Ford car is out. The town is full of talk about it. Newspaper +reports reveal that it is the topic of the day in all world centers. +Crowds storm every exhibit to get the first glimpse of this new +creation. Mr. Ford has given out an interview saying that the car has +cost him about a hundred million dollars and that after finishing it he +still has about a quarter of a billion dollars in the bank. + +I have been doing a little arithmetic and have come to the conclusion +that the car cost Ford workers at least fifty million in lost wages +during the past year. No one knows how many hundreds lost their homes +in the period of unemployment, and how many children were taken out of +school to help fill the depleted family exchequer, and how many more +children lived on short rations during this period. Mr. Ford refuses to +concede that he made a mistake in bringing the car out so late. He has +a way of impressing the public even with his mistakes. We are now asked +to believe that the whole idea of waiting a year after the old car +stopped selling before bringing out a new one was a great advertising +scheme which reveals the perspicacity of this industrial genius. But no +one asks about the toll in human lives. + +What a civilization this is! Naïve gentlemen with a genius for +mechanics suddenly become the arbiters over the lives and fortunes +of hundreds of thousands. Their moral pretensions are credulously +accepted at full value. No one bothers to ask whether an industry which +can maintain a cash reserve of a quarter of a billion ought not make +some provision for its unemployed. It is enough that the new car is +a good one. Here is a work of art in the only realm of art which we +can understand. We will therefore refrain from making undue ethical +demands upon the artist. Artists of all the ages have been notoriously +unamenable to moral discipline. The cry of the hungry is drowned in the +song, “Henry has made a lady out of Lizzy.” + + + + +_1927_ + + +This prayer book controversy in the Church of England ought to give us +liberals who make so much of tolerance a pause. What are the limits of +tolerance? Does not tolerance of a theological position which one knows +or believes to be untrue become a betrayal of the truth? How can one +be tolerant of medievalism without playing traitor to the best in the +modern day? + +Here is the Episcopal church which many of us have counted blessed +because it was the one bridge over the chasm which separates +Catholicism and Protestantism. But the chasm is now revealed as too +wide for any bridge. Cooperation with the Catholic demands connivance +with religious practices which reduce religion to magic. No wonder the +Protestant laymen in Parliament threw the revised prayer book out. How +can anyone in the year of our Lord 1927 be seriously exercised over the +problem of the “real presence” in the Eucharist? Think of the spiritual +leaders of a torn and bleeding world debating learnedly on whether +and how God can be magically localized and salvation be confined in +a capsule. To read the arguments of the sacerdotalists is enough to +drive one into the arms of the unrepentent rationalists who regard all +religion as dangerous. + +The weaknesses of Catholicism ought not prompt one to disregard all +the finer spiritual and moral values which still live in this ancient +church. But there can be no final unity between an institution which +reduces religion to magic and a fellowship of the spirit which tries to +subdue the chaos of life under the ideal of faith. + +Magic is an enemy of all morality. It offers a short cut to all prizes +of the spirit which can be won only by heroic effort. + + + + +_1927_ + + +After speaking at ---- University today Professor ---- said he objected +to my assumption that the family is the root of human societies. He +said he believed that most forms of human cooperation were formed by +men who had to resist the special interests of the family, as typified +particularly by the narrow loyalty of the mother to her own offspring, +before they could establish wider fellowships. That was a new idea to +me and one that seems to be not without merit. Of course it does not +invalidate the thesis that the family is the first unit of society; for +the first fighting unit was probably composed of a group of fathers and +sons and sons’ sons. That is, not the family in the narrowest but in +the widest sense, the family as it develops into the clan is the first +real society. + +The idea that the family is frequently opposed to ventures in wider +fellowship is justified by more than one present fact. The family +is still essentially selfish, and many a man is beguiled from ideal +ventures by a false sense of obligation to his family. Think of the +number of men who sell their souls merely that their wives and children +may enjoy higher standards of living than other families. Think of the +number of mothers whose interest in life never goes beyond the ambition +to secure special advantages for their children. The mother of the +sons of Zebedee is a good example. In her you have motherhood in its +tragic limitations as well as in its sublime beauty. + +The family is not inevitably selfish or invariably opposed to larger +ventures in fellowship, but it may easily become so. Jesus’ ruthless +words, “He who loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of +me, he who loveth son and daughter more than me is not worthy of me,” +have more meaning than most Christians have realized. Celibacy may +be wrong because it escapes rather than solves this problem. But the +invariable tendency of religious movements of great moral sensitiveness +to experiment with celibacy is significant. Thus speaks a bachelor. +Let the cynic make the most of the private prejudice which colors this +judgment. + + + + +_1928_ + + +This conference on religious education seems to your humble servant the +last word in absurdity. We are told by a delightful “expert” that we +ought not really teach our children about God lest we rob them of the +opportunity of making their own discovery of God, and lest we corrupt +their young minds by our own superstitions. If we continue along these +lines the day will come when some expert will advise us not to teach +our children the English language, since we rob them thereby of the +possibility of choosing the German, French or Japanese languages as +possible alternatives. Don’t these good people realize that they are +reducing the principle of freedom to an absurdity? + +Religion, like language, is a social product. The potentialities +for both are in the child, but their highest articulations are the +result of ages of cultural and spiritual experience, and in the right +kind of religious education the experience of the race is joined +with the inclinations of the individual. We do not get a higher type +of religious idealism from children merely by withholding our own +religious ideas from them (however they may be filled with error), any +more than we would get a higher type of civilization by letting some +group of youngsters shift for themselves upon a desert island. + +A wise architect observed that you could break the laws of +architectural art provided you had mastered them first. That would +apply to religion as well as to art. Ignorance of the past does not +guarantee freedom from its imperfections. More probably it assures the +repetition of past errors. We ought of course to cultivate a wholesome +scepticism in our young people so that they will not accept the ideas +of the past too slavishly. But appreciation must come before criticism. + +We do not teach a child the limitations of Beethoven before we have +helped it to appreciate him; nor do we withhold any appreciation of the +classics in order that the child might be free to prefer Stravinsky to +Beethoven. What some of these moderns are doing is simply to destroy +the organs of religious insight and the atmosphere in which religious +attitudes may flourish, ostensibly for the sake of freedom, but really +at its expense. + +I have a dark suspicion that some of these modern religious educators +do not really know what religion is about. They want a completely +rational faith and do not realize that they are killing religion by +a complete rationalization. With all their pious phraseology and +supposedly modern pedagogy they really are decadent forces. + +Life is a battle between faith and reason in which each feeds upon the +other, drawing sustenance from it and destroying it. Nature has wisely +ordained that faith shall have an early advantage in the life of the +child to compensate for its later difficulties. If we imagine that we +help the progress of the race by inoculating children with a premature +sophistication we are of all men most miserable. Reason, without the +balance of faith, destroys a civilization soon enough, without giving +it this advantage among the young. I wonder if any of these modern +religious pedagogues have ever read Unamuno’s “The Tragic Sense of +Life”? + +Here I am talking like a fundamentalist. But why not? If we must choose +between types of fanaticism is there any particular reason why we +should prefer the fanatics who destroy a vital culture in the name of +freedom and reason to those who try to strangle a new culture at birth +in the name of authority and dogma? The latter type of fanaticism is +bound to end in futility. The growth of reason cannot be stopped by +dogma. But the former type is dangerous because it easily enervates a +rational culture with ennui and despair. + + + + +_1928_ + + +This Federal Council meeting is an interesting study in the geography +of morals. The race commission presented a report today in which it +tried to place the council on record as favoring the enforcement of +the fifteenth amendment as well as the eighteenth. It was obviously +an effort to exploit the strong prohibition sentiment of the churches +for the sake of committing them to the espousal of the interests of +the disfranchised Negroes in the south. That is not a bad political +strategy. But it did not quite work. + +A good brother from the southern Presbyterian church warned that to +interfere with this “political issue” would “soil the garments of the +bride of Christ.” To him the eighteenth amendment represented a “moral” +issue but the fifteenth was a “political” one. I have a sneaking +suspicion that the fifteenth amendment expresses more of the genius of +the gospel than the eighteenth, but that is neither here nor there. +What was interesting was the way in which various church leaders tried +to rescue us from the embarrassment into which the council was brought +by this proposal. + +A good brother who was raised in the south and now lives in the north +tried to act as mediator. He introduced his remarks with the usual +nice story about how much he loved his negro mammy. Some day he ought +to have a lesson in ethics and learn how much easier it is to love +those who acknowledge their inferiority than those who challenge our +superiority. It is indeed a virtuous woman who can love her social +competitor as sincerely as she loves her faithful maid. + +Another mediator was a southern bishop who has many northern +connections. He made much of the fact that the south disregards only +the spirit and not the letter of the enfranchising amendments to the +constitution. The bishop is really a man of some courage who has +spoken out bravely on the industrial conditions in the south. But he +was evidently afraid in this instance either to accept or to reject +a Christian view of race relations. So he stuck to casuistry about +the letter of the law. He has probably preached many a sermon on the +text about the letter killing and the spirit making alive. At any rate +everyone who spoke revealed how geographic and historical circumstance +had qualified Christian conviction. + +That was as true of those of us who took an uncompromising position +as the southern equivocators and the semi-southern mediators. To +the southerners we are not Christian idealists but merely “Yankee” +meddlers. And perhaps we are. At any rate it was easy to see from the +debate that the north cannot help the south much in solving its race +problem. If it is solved the solution must come out of the conscience +and heart of the south. + +After all, the problem, as every moral problem, is not merely +conditioned by geography but by mathematics. Contact between races when +the one race is almost as numerous as the other is quite a different +story from a relationship in which the subject race is numerically very +much weaker than the dominant group. Therefore let us not judge, lest +we be judged. It is so easy to repent of other people’s sins. + +Nevertheless it does not make one feel very comfortable to have a great +church body seek some politic solution for a problem in which the ideal +of Christian brotherhood leaves little room for equivocation. + + + + +_1928_ + + +There is a discouraging pettiness about human nature which makes +me hate myself each time I make an analysis of my inner motives +and springs of action. Here I am prodding and criticizing people +continually because they have made too many compromises with the +necessities of life and adjusted the Christian ideal until it has +completely lost its original meaning. Yet I make my own compromises all +the time. + +It is Christian to trust people, and my trust is carefully qualified by +mistrust and caution. + +It is Christian to love, and to trust in the potency of love rather +than in physical coercion. Logically that means non-resistance. Yet I +believe that a minimum of coercion is necessary in all social tasks, or +in most of them. + +It is Christian to forgive rather than to punish; yet I do little by +way of experimenting in the redemptive power of forgiveness. + +I am not really a Christian. In me, as in many others, “the native hue +of resolution is sicklied o’er by a pale cast of thought.” I am too +cautious to be a Christian. I can justify my caution, but so can the +other fellow who is more cautious than I am. + +The whole Christian adventure is frustrated continually not so much +by malice as by cowardice and reasonableness. Of course everyone must +decide for himself just where he is going to put his peg; where he is +going to arrive at some stable equilibrium between moral adventure +and necessary caution. And perhaps everyone is justified if he tries +to prove that there is a particular reasonableness about the type +of compromise which he has reached. But he might well learn, better +than I have learned, to be charitable with those who have made their +adjustments to the right and to the left of his position. If I do +not watch myself I will regard all who make their adjustments to my +right as fanatics and all who make them to the left as cowards. There +is a silly egotism about such an attitude. But it is difficult to be +pedagogically effective if you do not hold pretty resolutely to some +position. + +A reasonable person adjusts his moral goal somewhere between Christ and +Aristotle, between an ethic of love and an ethic of moderation. I hope +there is more of Christ than of Aristotle in my position. But I would +not be too sure of it. + + + + +_1928_ + + +Jack Hyde came up today for a chat. These newspaper men are always +interesting company. As religious editor of the Daily ----, he has been +following the preachers of the town pretty closely. Of course he is a +cynic, though a gentle one. He tells many an interesting story on how +the preachers try to get free publicity. + +I think there ought to be a club in which preachers and journalists +could come together and have the sentimentalism of the one matched with +the cynicism of the other. That ought to bring them pretty close to +the truth. The interesting part of the contrast is that the newspaper +is officially as optimistic about contemporary life as the pulpit. The +difference between the two is that the preacher is ensnared by his own +sentimentality and optimism while the newspaper man has two views, one +for official and one for private consumption. + + + + +_1928_ + + +My good friend ---- has sent me his church calendar. Among other things +he reports “Last Sunday almost as many strangers as members were +present. The weather was a bit cold. Was your loyalty chilly too? You +cannot fight battles with half the soldiers in their tents. Lent is +here. Give your church the right of way. Do your duty next Sunday.” + +Here we see how easily even the Protestant minister gravitates to the +viewpoint of the priest. He thinks people ought to regard it as a duty +to hear him preach. What is still worse is that he identifies church +attendance with moral heroism. Does he not realize that faithful church +attendance develops and reveals the virtue of patience much more than +the virtue of courage? + +I must admit that I have urged people to come to church myself as +a matter of duty. But I can do so no longer. The church service is +not an end in itself. Not even religion is an end in itself. If the +church service does not attract people by the comfort and challenge it +brings to them, we only postpone the evil day if we compel attendance +by appealing to their sense of duty. It may not be wrong to appeal to +their sense of loyalty to the institution and tell them that if they +have identified themselves with the institution as members they owe it +to the strangers to be there. But even that is dangerous. The church is +already too much an end in itself. + +These appeals make it appear that we regard religious devotion as a +service to God, a very dangerous idea. Of course a modern preacher +doesn’t really believe that. What is really in his mind, consciously or +unconsciously, is that the people owe him the duty to hear him preach. +That is perhaps a natural glorification of his own function but it +cannot be denied that there is something pathetic about it. + +I can see, of course, that all good things depend in part upon right +habits. Customs, attitudes and actions which are desirable cannot +always depend upon impulse and will. It may be a good thing that people +attend church as a matter of habit and because of a general sense of +obligation to the institution. If churches depended only upon people +who must make up their minds each Sunday whether or no they will attend +church, our attendance would be even smaller than it is. + +Yet habitual actions easily become meaningless, and institutions which +depend upon them lose their vitality. If habitual actions are not +continually revitalized by the compulsion of ideals and the attraction +of the values involved in them, they may easily become useless. + + + + +_1928_ + + +Detroit observed Good Friday today as never before. Sixteen theatres +and many churches besides were filled to capacity during the three-hour +period. I wonder how one is to understand this tremendous devotion +of this pagan city. How little place the real spirit of Christ has +in the industrial drive of this city. And yet men and women flock by +the thousands to meditate upon the cross. Perhaps we are all like the +centurian who helped to crucify Jesus and then was so impressed by the +whole drama of the cross that the confession was forced from his lips +“Surely this was the son of God.” + +Before going to the theatre service I passed a Methodist church with a +message on its bulletin board that explains many chapters in American +church history. It was: “Good Friday service this afternoon. Snappy +song service.” So we combine the somber notes of religion with the jazz +of the age. + +I wonder if anyone who needs a snappy song service can really +appreciate the meaning of the cross. But perhaps that is just a +Lutheran prejudice of mine. + + + + +_1928_ + + +A very sophisticated young man assured me in our discussion today +(student discussion at a middle western university) that no intelligent +person would enter the ministry today. He was sure that the ministry +was impossible as a vocation not only because too many irrationalities +were still enmeshed with religion but also because there was no real +opportunity for usefulness in the church. I tried to enlighten this +sophomoric wise man. + +Granted all the weaknesses of the church and the limitations of the +ministry as a profession, where can one invest one’s life where it can +be made more effective in as many directions? + +You can deal with children and young people and help them to set their +life goals and organize their personalities around just and reasonable +values. + +You can help the imperiled family shape the standards and the values by +which the institution of family life may be saved and adjusted to the +new conditions of an industrial civilization. + +You can awaken a complacent civilization to the injustices which +modern industrialism is developing. While ministers fail most at this +point there is nothing to prevent a courageous man from making a real +contribution to his society in this field. + +You can soften the asperities of racial conflict and aid the various +groups of a polyglot city to understand one another and themselves. + +You can direct the thoughts and the hopes of men to those facts and +those truths which mitigate the cruelty of the natural world and give +men the opportunity to assert the dignity of human life in the face of +the contempt of nature. + +You can help them to shape and to direct their hopes and aspirations +until their lives are determined and molded by the ideal objects of +their devotion. While it is true that magic and superstition are +still entwined, seemingly inextricably intertwined, with the highest +hopes and assurances of mankind, you may find real joy as a skillful +craftsman in separating hopes from illusions so that the one need not +perish with the other. + +Here is a task which requires the knowledge of a social scientist +and the insight and imagination of a poet, the executive talents of +a business man and the mental discipline of a philosopher. Of course +none of us meets all the demands made upon us. It is not easy to be +all things to all men. Perhaps that is why people are so critical of +us. Our task is not specific enough to make a high degree of skill +possible or to result in tangible and easily measured results. People +can find fault with us easily enough and we have no statistics to +overawe them and to negate their criticisms. + + + + +_1928_ + + +I spoke today at the “Victory dinner” of one of our civic organizations +which had been conducting a financial campaign in the interest of its +worthy objects. Not being well prepared I animadverted disconnectedly +upon the lack of culture in Detroit and expressed the hope that the +dawn of a new day was breaking. + +Mr. ---- who sat close to me was so angry about what I said that he +confessed that he had been tempted to interrupt me in the middle of +my address. He cited a large benefaction of his in the interest of a +religious organization as proof of Detroit’s culture and insisted that +the “old families,” to which he belonged, had real culture, whatever +might be said about the newer crowd. I told him his contribution was in +the interest of righteousness rather than culture. Inasmuch as it is +generally known that he made a fortune by rigging the stock market, he +was a little nonplussed by my answer. We finally came to an amicable +agreement upon the proposition that the streets of Detroit are cleaner +than those of Chicago. + + + + +_1928_ + + +I believe every preacher ought to take several radical journals, +preferably the ones which are extremely inimical to religion. The +ethical ideals of Christianity are so high and the compromises which +the average church and the average minister has made between these +ideals and the economic necessities of society are so great, and +self-deception is so easy, that we need the corrective of a critical +and perhaps cynical evaluation of religion in modern life. + +I should like to recommend this kind of reading particularly to +successful ministers who are so easily obsessed by a messianic complex +because of the compliments they receive. Let them remind themselves +that there are astute observers who think that all their preaching +is superficial and never touches the fundamental defects of modern +society, and that these critics are at least as near the truth as their +too generous devotees. + + + + +_1928_ + + +I think I ought to repent of the many unkind things I have said about +various ministers. We liberal preachers (I am thinking of social +liberalism now) are too ready to attribute conventional opinions +to cowardice. What we don’t realize is that the great majority of +parsons simply don’t share our radical convictions. If they get along +very handsomely in the kind of a civilization in which we live, that +is simply because they are in sincere general agreement with the +prevailing ideas of our day. Of course I think we have a right to +wonder a little how one can claim discipleship to one who disturbed +history so much and yet be such a thorough conformist. Yet it is +usually not cowardice but mental inertia which creates the conformity; +and sometimes the conformity is the honest fruit of a finely poised +rather than a daring mind. After all most of us are conformists in some +sense, and it is rather presumptuous on our part to condemn every type +of conformity except our own. + +I am moved to this reflection by the insistence of such men as the +editor of the Christian Register that every liberal who remains in +an evangelical communion and does not immediately join the Unitarian +church must be prompted by cowardice. When it is theological rather +than social liberalism that is made the test of conformity or +radicalism, it is my ox that is gored, and I begin to recant my +previous harsh opinions. If the editor of the Register can go so far +wrong in gauging the motives of evangelical liberals we social radicals +may be wrong in explaining why parsons fail to be thoroughgoing +pacifists. Great achievement! I learn how to be tolerant when I become +the victim of somebody else’s spiritual pride. + + + + +_1928_ + + +Had a profitable talk with a Jewish friend in the east. He said the +only Christian church that he could ever join would be that of the +Quakers. Of course he would not join the Quakers in the kind of a world +in which we are living, where Christians practice social ostracism +against Jews and thereby force every Jew to regard such a transfer of +religious loyalty in the light of treason to his racial community. He +felt that if he were free to choose his religious group he would choose +the Quakers because they have no professional ministry. He dabbles in +psychiatry and thinks he has looked through the professional minister. + +I would like to have him talk to a group of preachers sometime. Like +all realists he barely escapes the kind of cynicism which destroys +wholesome human relations. But he does escape it and is not at all +bitter in his analysis of human nature. That is why his reaction to the +ministry disquiets me. He has his hands on considerable truth. + +There is something very artificial about the professional ministry. +When religion deals with magic the professional priests can dispense +the magic and be quite happy. But when religion becomes a search for +all of life’s highest values there is something incongruous about +making your living in the business of helping people to discover and +develop these values. I don’t think this consideration invalidates the +ministry as a profession. In a day of specialists and experts there +ought to be room for a specialist in moral and spiritual values. But +think of commanding a large salary because you are a better preacher +than someone else! Isn’t that putting a market value on the ability of +a man to help people find God? Fortunately it is the rhetorical rather +than the spiritual gift that usually creates the different prices in +the preacher market. + + + + +_1928_ + + +Passing one of our big churches today I ran across this significant +slogan, calculated to impress the passing wayfarer: “We Will Go Out +of Business. When? When Every Man in Detroit Has Been Won to Christ.” +Of course it is just a slogan and not to be taken too seriously, but +the whole weakness of Protestantism is in it. Here we are living in a +complex world in which thousands who have been “won to Christ” haven’t +the slightest notion how to live a happy life or how to live together +with other people without making each other miserable. + +Yet the church goes about the business of winning people to +Christ--that is, pulling them through some kind of emotional or social +experience in which they are made to commit themselves, or in which +they really do commit themselves, to the good life as it is symbolized +in Christ, and imagining that this is the end of the task. I do not say +that such commitments do not have their value. But surely one must be +very blind to live under the illusion that the desire or even the will +to live a Christ-life is automatically fulfilled in present-day society +or in any society. + +The church which conceived that slogan is really better than the silly +advertisement might lead one to suppose. I think people receive some +light and leading there. Nevertheless, most of its energies go into +the business of “winning others.” The saddest part about these highly +evangelistic churches who put everything into the recruiting task +is that they generally tempt those who are already “won” to imagine +themselves perfect, or at least “saved.” I know one lawyer in that +church, and not a bad man either, who needs to be “won” to several +ideas in the gospel of Christ about which he hasn’t the faintest +glimmer of light. But he is too sure of himself to get a new idea. + + + + +_1928_ + + +Here is a minister making a confession in his weekly paper: “Last +Sunday night,” he writes, “I was at my worst and unfortunately there +were many strangers in the audience. I tried, but I could not get the +ball over the plate. I had taught a Sunday-school class, preached over +the radio, gone out to dinner, entertained a guest at supper, met the +---- committee and failed to get rest after Easter. I will try to do +better next Sunday, so come then.” + +It is all very nice and humble, but there is an implication of +professionalism in the whole thing that is appalling. The idea is that +he didn’t put on a good performance, “didn’t get the ball over the +plate.” There you have the whole weakness of a professional ministry, +striving each Sunday to make an interesting speech. It simply can’t be +denied that the business of furnishing inspiration twice each week, +on a regular schedule, by a person who is paid to do just that and +whose success is judged by the amount of “pep” he can concentrate +in his homilies, is full of moral and spiritual dangers. To follow +such a program without running into spiritual bankruptcy requires the +resources of a saint. + + + + +_1928_ + + +Arriving at ---- today, I was put up at the luxurious home of a very +charming potentate of the local pulpit. I was driven to my meeting in +a big Packard car (a gift of the congregation, my host informed me) +with a liveried chauffeur at the wheel. I don’t think I would have +reacted so strongly against this kind of life if I hadn’t been reading +Savotorelli’s Life of St. Francis on the way down and was inclined to +look at the world through the little brother’s rather than my own eyes. + +To object to this kind of luxury for ministers, and not voice the same +objection in regard to the standards of living among laymen, may seem +to involve us in a moral dualism. But I am no longer afraid of dualism. +We might well have more of it. It will be long while before we can +convince laymen of the spiritual implications in standards of living +in a civilization which knows of no other way to give a man a sense of +achievement than to let him advertise it by outward show. But ministers +ought to know better. + +Furthermore there is a moral peril in accepting the largess of men +to whom you are trying to minister. It is not that they try to +take conscious advantage of your sense of gratitude, but that such +dependence upon their generosity creates a psychological hazard +against honest presentation of the truth. Of course it is probably +true that men who receive these excessive benefactions are usually +too tame to need taming. Innocuous virtue is always more charming and +more liable to prompt a generous affection than the kind which raises +disquieting questions. + +Then too, ministers who can preach the gospel of Jesus in our kind of +civilization without making anyone uncomfortable deserve an automobile +for the difficult feat. And they need one to compensate them for that +lack of spiritual vitality which makes the performance of the feat +possible. Most of these modern appurtenances are toys which appeal to +childlike people. When we sacrifice the adventure of trying to maintain +an inner moral integrity, we are bound to seek for compensating thrills +and to find them in our mechanical toys. + +But all this may be the voice of jealousy. I love nothing so much in +the realm of physical pleasures as the sense of power which comes from +“stepping on the gas” when ensconsed in a big car. + + + + +_1928_ + + +Spoke today at the Jewish temple in ----. The more I make contact +with the Jews the more I am impressed with the superior sensitiveness +of the Jewish conscience in social problems. I have yet to find a +Christian men’s group that can surpass and few to equal the intelligent +interest of a Hebrew group in the economic and social issues of the +day. I do not say that there is not in privileged Jewish groups more +moral complacency than is compatible with their avowed devotion to the +Hebrew prophets, but there is at least a considerable appreciation of +the genius of prophetic religion and some honest effort to apply the +prophetic ideal to life. + +I am afraid that the individualistic traditions of Protestantism, and +perhaps also the strong Pauline strain in Protestant theology, have +obscured the social implications of Jesus’ gospel much more than is the +case in Jewish religion. I am not sure that the religious life in the +Jewish temple is always as obviously vital as it is in many Christian +churches, but what there is of it seems to me to be directed much more +astutely, at least from the social viewpoint, than in our groups. + +The Jews are after all a messianic people, and they have never escaped +the influence of their messianic, or if you will, their utopian +dreams. The glory of their religion is that they are really not +thinking so much of “salvation” as of a saved society. + + + + +_1928_ + + +The way Mrs. ---- bears her pains and awaits her ultimate and certain +dissolution with childlike faith and inner serenity is an achievement +which philosophers might well envy. I declare that there is a quality +in the lives of unschooled people, if they have made good use of the +school of life and pain, which wins my admiration much more than +anything you can find in effete circles. There is less of that whining +rebellion against life’s fortunes, less morbid introspection and more +faith in the goodness of God. And that faith is, whatever the little +cynics may say, really ultimate wisdom. + +Mrs. ---- has had a hard life, raised a large family under great +difficulties, is revered by her children, respected by her friends, +and she has learned to view the difficult future with quiet courage as +she surveys the painful and yet happy past with sincere gratitude. She +thanks me for praying with her and imagines that I am doing her a favor +to come to see her. But I really come for selfish reasons--because I +leave that home with a more radiant faith of my own. My confidence in +both man and God is strengthened. + +It is the quality in that woman’s life that seems to me to be +dissipated in the modern day, for all our progress. Perhaps we will +work out something comparable to it some day in a highly disciplined +culture. But as we lose the moral fibre of the generation of pioneers +and wait for the discipline of a generation of moral aristocracy, it is +ordained that we should wander through this present world where life is +too comfortable to have the tragic nobility which our fathers had and +too chaotic to disclose the charms which come from a great cultural and +moral tradition. + + + + +_1928_ + + +Here is a pastor singing himself to sleep. He writes: “Business men +who attend church have sense enough to go out and run their business +as Christians without the minister interfering with the technique. +Many of the most spiritual and influential ministers I know never deal +directly with politics, industry or reform.” It is true of course that +a minister can’t offer expert advice on the detailed application of +Christian principles to specific fields. But neither can he assume +that principles get themselves automatically applied in the world’s +complexities. + +One of the most fruitful sources of self-deception in the ministry is +the proclamation of great ideals and principles without any clue to +their relation to the controversial issues of the day. The minister +feels very heroic in uttering the ideals because he knows that +some rather dangerous immediate consequences are involved in their +application. But he doesn’t make the application clear, and those who +hear his words are either unable to see the immediate issue involved or +they are unconsciously grateful to the preacher for not belaboring a +contemporaneous issue which they know to be involved but would rather +not face. + +I have myself too frequently avoided the specific application of +general principles to controversial situations to be able to deny what +really goes on in the mind of the preacher when he is doing this. +I don’t think I have always avoided it, and when I haven’t I have +invariably gotten into some difficulty. Nobody challenges principles. + +Like the diplomats, the average man always accepts the gospel +“in principle,” and then proceeds to emasculate it by a thousand +reservations. I know we can’t be expert on every technical problem +involved in modern industrial and national civilization. But the +ministers who make a virtue of their pious generalities are either +self-deceived or conscious deceivers. + + + + +_1928_ + + +I am glad to hear of the new honors which have come to Bishop M----. +He seems to me to be the most glorious figure in American church life. +To have a philosopher, prophet and statesman all rolled into one, and +to have that one achieve a peculiar eminence in our religious life is +a clear illustration of how the richest character is achieved when +various, seemingly incompatible, tendencies and functions are fused in +one personality. + +Philosophers are not usually prophets. They are too reasonable and +circumspect to create or preserve the prophetic vision. The wise man is +too capable of balancing the truth, to which he ought to be loyal, with +some other truth with which it is in conflict. Thus he involves himself +in the endless antinomies of intellectualism. + +This philosopher is enough of a Christian to escape this fate. But he +has another hazard to overcome; for he is a statesman. For years he has +carried heavy responsibilities as a church leader; and it is always +more difficult for a responsible leader, tied to an organization, to +speak bravely than an irresponsible prophet. Yet he has accomplished +it. Here is a vindication of the power of the Christian life. Here +is a Thomas Aquinas and an Innocent III and something of a Francis +all under one hat. He is not as much of an absolutist as Francis, of +course; and his power is not as great as that of Innocent. But his +learning would compare favorably with that of Aquinas, and like the +great medieval philosopher, he has combined the study of metaphysics +with that of social economy. + +Strange that while I am so critical of bishops my greatest hero should +be a bishop and that, while I call myself an anti-puritan, that hero +should be a Methodist bishop. So life defies our prejudices and +generalizations. + + + + +_1928_ + + +I always thought I was a fairly brutal realist, but I am beginning +to suspect that the whole thing is a pose to hide the sentimental +preacher. At any rate now that the time has come to sever my +connections with the church I find it almost impossible to take the +step. There is nothing quite like the pastoral relationship. I would +almost be willing to sacrifice the future for the sake of staying here +and watching the lovely little kiddies grow up, and see the young boys +and girls that I have confirmed blossoming into manhood and womanhood. +There must be something bogus about me. Here I have been preaching the +gospel for thirteen years and crying, “Woe unto you if all men speak +well of you,” and yet I leave without a serious controversy in the +whole thirteen years. + +It is almost impossible to be sane and Christian at the same time, +and on the whole I have been more sane than Christian. I have said +what I believe, but in my creed the divine madness of a gospel of +love is qualified by considerations of moderation which I have called +Aristotelian, but which an unfriendly critic might call opportunistic. +I have made these qualifications because it seems to me that without +them the Christian ethic degenerates into asceticism and becomes +useless for any direction of the affairs of a larger society. + +I do not say that some one ought not to undertake an ascetic revolt +against civilization. Certainly there would be a peace in it which +no one can find who tries to adapt the principles of love to a +civilization built upon the drive of power and greed. Those of us who +make adjustments between the absolute ideal of our devotion and the +necessities of the immediate situation lack peace, because we can never +be sure that we have our adjustment at the right place. + +Every moral position which has left the absolute basis is in danger +of becoming a rationalization of some selfish purpose. I am not +unconscious of the fact that my tendency to criticise others so +severely for their alleged rationalizations and hypocrisies springs +from my own sense of insecurity. + +I persevere in the effort to combine the ethic of Jesus with what +might be called Greek caution because I see no great gain in ascetic +experiments. I might claim for such a strategy the full authority of +the gospel except that it seems to me more likely to avoid dishonesty +if one admits that the principle of love is not qualified in the gospel +and that it must be qualified in other than the most intimate human +associations. When one deals with the affairs of a civilization, one +is trying to make the principle of love effective as far as possible, +but one cannot escape the conclusion that society as such is brutal, +and that the Christian principle may never be more than a leaven in it. + +There has never been a time when I have not been really happy in +the relationships of the parish ministry. The church can really be +a community of love and can give one new confidence in the efficacy +of the principles of brotherhood outside of the family relation. The +questions and qualms of conscience arise when one measures the church +in its relationships to society, particularly to the facts of modern +industry. It is at this point where it seems to me that we had better +admit failure than to claim any victory. The admission of failure may +yet lead to some kind of triumph, while any premature confidence in the +victory of a Christian ethic will merely obfuscate the conscience. + +Modern industry, particularly American industry, is not Christian. The +economic forces which move it are hardly qualified at a single point +by really ethical considerations. If, while it is in the flush of its +early triumphs, it may seem impossible to bring it under the restraint +of moral law, it may strengthen faith to know that life without +law destroys itself. If the church can do nothing else, it can bear +witness to the truth until such a day as bitter experience will force a +recalcitrant civilization to a humility which it does not now possess. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78238 *** diff --git a/78238-h/78238-h.htm b/78238-h/78238-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e996aab --- /dev/null +++ b/78238-h/78238-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6247 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> + <meta name="format-detection" content="telephone=no,date=no,address=no,email=no,url=no"> + <title> + Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +h1,h2,h3 { + text-align: center; + clear: both; +} + +h2 {font-size: 1.4em;} + +p { + text-indent: 1.5em; + margin-top: .5em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .5em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; + border: 0; + background: #bbb; + height: 1px; +} + +hr.chap {width: 30%; margin-left: 35%; margin-right: 35%;} +hr.front {width: 10%; margin-left: 45%; margin-right: 45%;} + +hr.chap {width: 50%; margin-left: 25%; margin-right: 25%;} +@media print {hr.chap {display: none; visibility: hidden;} } + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} +h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + +.pagenum { + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-style: normal; + font-weight: normal; + font-variant: normal; + text-indent: 0; + color: #999; +} + +blockquote { + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 5%; +} + +.center {text-align: center; text-indent: 0;} + +.right {text-align: right;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +a {text-decoration: none;} +a:hover {text-decoration: underline;} + +/* Poetry */ + +/* uncomment the next line for centered poetry */ +/* .poetry-container {display: flex; justify-content: center;} */ +.poetry-container {text-align: center;} +.poetry {text-align: left; margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%;} +.poetry .stanza {margin: 1em auto;} +.poetry .verse {text-indent: -3em; padding-left: 3em;} + + +/* Poetry indents */ +.poetry .indent0 {text-indent: -3.0em;} +.poetry .indent1 {text-indent: 2em;} + + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78238 ***</div> + + +<h1> +<i>Leaves<br> +from the Notebook of a<br> +Tamed Cynic</i> +</h1> + + +<p class="center"> +REINHOLD NIEBUHR<br> +<br> +<span class="smcap">Willett, Clark & Colby</span><br> +<span class="smcap">Chicago: 440 South Dearborn Street</span><br> +<span class="smcap">New York: 200 Fifth Avenue</span><br> +1929 +</p> + +<hr class="front"> + +<p class="center"> +Copyright 1929 by<br> +REINHOLD NIEBUHR<br> +<br> +Manufactured in The U. S. A. by The Plimpton Press<br> +Norwood, Mass.—LaPorte, Ind. +</p> + +<hr class="front"> + +<p class="center"> +<i>To</i><br> +<i>my friends</i><br> +<i>and former coworkers</i><br> +<i>in</i><br> +<i>Bethel Evangelical Church</i><br> +<i>Detroit, Michigan</i> +</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_v">[v]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="Publishers_Note"> + <i>Publishers’ Note</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>The author’s reluctance to have this book +published is all the more reason for the publishers’ +desire to have it see the light of day. The author +felt that the book would be regarded as presumptuous +criticism. It is natural that he would feel that +way, for he is one of those rare men who see more +error in themselves than they see around them.</p> + +<p>But what is presumptuous criticism? In +“Human Nature and Its Remaking,” W. E. +Hocking writes:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>“Is it not true that the entire interpretation of instinct +as will to power and of the will to power as a +will to save souls, or to recreate, or reform, or educate +mankind, has in it more than a trace of presumption? +What it amounts to seems to be this, that if the complete +salvation of an individual will requires the +transformation of all its instincts into the will to save +others, we must be saved by saving; and it is very +doubtful whether in our unsaved condition we have +any right to suppose ourselves competent to save.... +Historically speaking, the crux of Christianity +is its element of presumption.”</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>This book is both an illustration of and an effort +to escape the note of presumption of which +Professor Hocking speaks. Perhaps the book can +be better understood in the light of Dr. Lynn Harold +Hough’s dedication of his book “Imperishable +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_vi">[vi]</span>Dreams.” The dedication is: “To my friend Reinhold +Niebuhr, in whose words and writings the +younger generation has achieved an almost disconcerting +sincerity and a penetrating power of +analysis which searches the conscience and refuses +the comfort of even the most delicate and gracious +spiritual self-deception.”</p> + +<p>This is sufficient comment to lead into the +book itself. Supremely human and simple in form, +this is a book which <i>touches life as it is</i>. A questioning +and open-minded young minister reports +what he sees—what he hears—what he thinks. +The reader watches. Page by page the cynic—the +same cynic that is in us all—is tamed—not +broken, not forced into compromises, but tamed +by the release of impulses of sympathy, of maturer +observation, of sincere analysis.</p> + +<p>There is fine poise of judgment and delicate +balancing of values throughout these <i>Leaves from +the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic</i>. This book is +not abstract religious and secular philosophy. It is +a report upon life and experience—upon America +in the making. It is a book without pretense. Authority +and dogma are absent. The book reveals +an honest, unhampered and penetrating mind actually +at work upon the vital problems of American +civilization in their Christian import.</p> + +<p class="right"> + <span class="smcap">Willett, Clark & Colby</span> +</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_vii">[vii]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="Preface_and_Apology"> + <i>Preface and Apology</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Most of the reflections recorded in these +pages were prompted by experiences of a local +Christian pastorate. Some are derived from wider +contacts with the churches and colleges of the +country. For the sake of giving a better clue to the +meaning of a few of them, it may be necessary to +say that they have as their background a pastorate +in an industrial community in which the natural +growth of the city made the expansion of a small +church into a congregation of considerable size, in +a period of thirteen years, inevitable. By the time +these lines reach the reader the author will have +exchanged his pastoral activities for academic +pursuits.</p> + +<p>It must be confessed in all candor that some of +the notes, particularly the later ones, were written +after it seemed fairly certain that they would +reach the eye of the public in some form or other. +It was therefore psychologically difficult to maintain +the type of honesty which characterizes the +self-revelations of a private diary. The reader +must consequently be warned (though such a +warning may be superfluous) to discount the unconscious +insincerities which no amount of self-discipline +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_viii">[viii]</span>can eliminate from words which are +meant for the public.</p> + +<p>The notes which have been chosen for publication +have been picked to illustrate the typical +problems of a modern minister in an industrial and +urban community and what seem to be more or less +typical reactions of a young minister to such problems. +Nothing new or startling was attempted in +the pastorate out of which these reflections grew. +If there is any justification for their publication, it +must lie in the light they may throw upon the problems +of the modern church and ministry rather than +upon any possible solutions of these problems.</p> + +<p>The book is published with an uneasy conscience, +the author half hoping that the publishers +would make short shrift of his indiscretions by +throttling the book. Some of the notes are really +too inane to deserve inclusion in any published +work, and they can be justified only as a background +for those notes which deal critically with +the problems of the modern ministry. The latter +are unfortunately, in many instances, too impertinent +to be in good taste, and I lacked the grace to +rob them of their impertinence without destroying +whatever critical value they might possess. I can +only emphasize in extenuation of the spirit which +prompted them, what is confessed in some of the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_ix">[ix]</span>criticisms, namely, that the author is not unconscious +of what the critical reader will himself divine, +a tendency to be most critical of that in other +men to which he is most tempted himself.</p> + +<p>The modern ministry is in no easy position; +for it is committed to the espousal of ideals (professionally, +at that) which are in direct conflict +with the dominant interests and prejudices of contemporary +civilization. This conflict is nowhere +more apparent than in America, where neither ancient +sanctities nor new social insights tend to +qualify, as they do in Europe, the heedless economic +forces of an industrial era.</p> + +<p>Inevitably a compromise must be made, or is +made, between the rigor of the ideal and the necessities +of the day. That has always been the case, +but the resulting compromises are more obvious to +an astute observer in our own day than in other +generations. We are a world-conscious generation, +and we have the means at our disposal to see and +to analyze the brutalities which characterize men’s +larger social relationships and to note the dehumanizing +effects of a civilization which unites men +mechanically and isolates them spiritually.</p> + +<p>Our knowledge may ultimately be the means +of our redemption, but for the moment it seems to +rob us of self-respect and respect for one another. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_x">[x]</span>Every conscientious minister is easily tempted to +a sense of futility because we live our lives microscopically +while we are able to view the scene in +which we labor telescopically. But the higher perspective +has its advantages as well as its dangers. +It saves us from too much self-deception. Men +who are engaged in the espousal of ideals easily fall +into sentimentality. From the outside and the disinterested +perspective this sentimentality may +seem like hypocrisy. If it is only sentimentality +and self-deception, viewed at closer range, it may +degenerate into real hypocrisy if no determined +effort is made to reduce it to a minimum.</p> + +<p>It is no easy task to deal realistically with the +moral confusion of our day, either in the pulpit or +the pew, and avoid the appearance, and possibly +the actual peril, of cynicism. An age which obscures +the essentially unethical nature of its dominant +interests by an undue preoccupation with the +application of Christian principles in limited areas, +may, as a matter of fact, deserve and profit by +ruthless satire. Yet the pedagogical merits of +satire are dubious, and in any event its weapons +will be foresworn by an inside critic for both selfish +and social reasons. For reasons of self-defense he +will be very gentle in dealing with limitations which +his own life illustrates.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xi">[xi]</span></p> + +<p>But he will be generous in judgment for another +reason. His intimate view of the facts will +help him to see that what an outside critic may call +hypocrisy may really be honest, because unconscious, +sentimentality and self-deception. When +virtues are used to hide moral limitations the critic +ought not to be too sure that the virtues are bogus. +Sometimes they are. But sometimes they merely +represent the effort of honest but short-sighted men +to preserve the excellencies of another day long +after these have ceased to have relevancy for the +problems of our own day; or sometimes they spring +from efforts to apply the Christian ideal to limited +and immediate areas of conduct where application +is fairly easy. In such cases no one can be +absolutely sure whether it is want of perspective or +want of courage which hinders the Christian idealist +from applying his ideals and principles to the +more remote and the more difficult relationships.</p> + +<p>That the ministry is particularly tempted to +the self-deceptions which afflict the moral life of +Christians today is obvious. If it is dangerous to +entertain great moral ideals without attempting to +realize them in life, it is even more perilous to proclaim +them in abstract terms without bringing +them into juxtaposition with the specific social and +moral issues of the day. The minister’s premature +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xii">[xii]</span>satisfaction in the presentation of moral ideals is +accentuated by the fact that he is a leader in a +community in which appreciative attitudes are on +the whole more prevalent than critical ones. The +minister is therefore easily fooled by extravagant +conceptions of his own moral stature, held by admiring +parishioners. If he could realize how much +of this appreciation represents transferred religious +emotion he could be more realistic in analyzing +himself. And if he could persuade himself to speak +of moral ideals in terms of specific issues and contemporary +situations, he would probably prompt +currents of critical thought which would destroy +the aura which invests his person with premature +sanctity.</p> + +<p>If a minister wants to be a man among men +he need only to stop creating devotion to abstract +ideals which every one accepts in theory and denies +in practice, and to agonize about their validity +and practicability in the social issues which he and +others face in our present civilization. That immediately +gives his ministry a touch of reality and +potency and robs it of an artificial prestige which +it can afford to dispense with, and is bound to be +stripped of, the kind of prestige which is the prerogative +of priests and professional holy men.</p> + +<p>The number of ministers who are perfectly +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xiii">[xiii]</span>realistic about their tasks and who are sincerely +anxious to help the modern generation find itself, +not only in the intricate problems of the personal +life but in the moral and social complexities of an +industrial society, is much larger than the critics +outside of the church are able to know and willing +to concede. If I have any regrets, it is that these +pages, preoccupied with criticism, deal inadequately +with such men and fail to discharge my +debt of gratitude to them. It is comparatively easy +for professors, secretaries and even bishops to +criticise the man in a local situation from the perspective +and the safety (relative, of course,) which +an irresponsible itinerancy supplies.</p> + +<p>No amount of pressure from an itinerant +“prophet” can change the fact that a minister is +bound to be a statesman as much as a prophet, +dealing with situations as well as principles. In +specific situations, actions must be judged not only +in terms of absolute standards but in consideration +of available resources in the lives of those +whom the minister leads.</p> + +<p>It may be well for the statesman to know that +statesmanship easily degenerates into opportunism +and that opportunism cannot be sharply distinguished +from dishonesty. But the prophet ought +to realize that his higher perspective and the uncompromising +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xiv">[xiv]</span>nature of his judgments always has +a note of irresponsibility in it. Francis of Assisi +may have been a better Christian than Pope Innocent +III. But it may be questioned whether his +moral superiority over the latter was as absolute +as it seemed. Nor is there any reason to believe +that Abraham Lincoln, the statesman and opportunist, +was morally inferior to William Lloyd Garrison, +the prophet. The moral achievement of +statesmen must be judged in terms which take account +of the limitations of human society which +the statesman must, and the prophet need not, +consider.</p> + +<p>Having both entered and left the parish ministry +against my inclinations, I pay my tribute to the +calling, firm in the conviction that it offers greater +opportunities for both moral adventure and social +usefulness than any other calling if it is entered +with open eyes and a consciousness of the hazards +to virtue which lurk in it. I make no apology for +being critical of what I love. No one wants a love +which is based upon illusions, and there is no reason +why we should not love a profession and yet be +critical of it.</p> + +<p class="right"> + <span class="smcap">Reinhold Niebuhr</span> +</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p class="center" style="font-size:2em"> +<i>Leaves</i><br> +<i>from the Notebook of a</i><br> +<i>Tamed Cynic</i> +</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[1]</span></p> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1915"> + <i>1915</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>There is something ludicrous about a callow +young fool like myself standing up to preach a sermon +to these good folks. I talk wisely about life +and know little about life’s problems. I tell them +of the need of sacrifice, although most of them +could tell me something about what that really +means. I preached a sermon the other day on +“The Involuntary Cross,” using the text of Simon +the Cyrene bearing the cross of Jesus. A good +woman, a little bolder than the rest, asked me in +going out whether I had borne many crosses. I +think I know a little more about that than I would +be willing to confess to her or to the congregation, +but her question was justified.</p> + +<p>Many of the people insist that they can’t understand +how a man so young as I could possibly +be a preacher. Since I am twenty-three their reaction +to my youth simply means that they find +something incompatible even between the ripe age +of twenty-three and the kind of seasoned wisdom +which they expect from the pulpit. “Let no one +despise thy youth,” said Paul to Timothy; but I +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[2]</span>doubt whether that advice stopped any of the old +saints from wagging their heads. I found it hard +the first few months to wear a pulpit gown. Now +I am getting accustomed to it. At first I felt too +much like a priest in it, and I abhor priestliness. +I have become reconciled to it partly as a simple +matter of habit, but I imagine that I am also beginning +to like the gown as a kind of symbol of +authority. It gives me the feeling that I am speaking +not altogether in my own name and out of my +own experience but by the authority of the experience +of many Christian centuries.</p> + +<p>Difficult as the pulpit job is, it is easier than +the work in the organizations of the congregation. +Where did anyone ever learn in a seminary how to +conduct or help with a Ladies Aid meeting? I am +glad that mother has come to live with me and will +take care of that part of the job. It is easier to +speak sagely from the pulpit than to act wisely in +the detailed tasks of the parish. A young preacher +would do well to be heard more than he is seen.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[3]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1915_1"> + <i>1915</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>I am glad there are only eighteen families in +this church. I have been visiting the members for +six weeks and haven’t seen all of them yet. Usually +I walk past a house two or three times before +I summon the courage to go in. I am always very +courteously received, so I don’t know exactly why +I should not be able to overcome this curious timidity. +I don’t know that very much comes of my +visits except that I really get acquainted with the +people.</p> + +<p>Usually after I have made a call I find some +good excuse to quit for the afternoon. I used to +do that in the days gone by when I was a book +agent. But there was reason for it then. I needed +the afternoon to regain my self-respect. Now it +seems to be pure laziness and fear. The people +are a little discouraged. Some of them seem to +doubt whether the church will survive. But there +are a few who are the salt of the earth, and if I +make a go of this they will be more responsible +than they will ever know.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[4]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1915_2"> + <i>1915</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Now that I have preached about a dozen sermons +I find I am repeating myself. A different text +simply means a different pretext for saying the +same thing over again. The few ideas that I had +worked into sermons at the seminary have all been +used, and now what? I suppose that as the years +go by life and experience will prompt some new +ideas and I will find some in the Bible that I have +missed so far. They say a young preacher must +catch his second wind before he can really preach. +I’d better catch it pretty soon or the weekly sermon +will become a terrible chore.</p> + +<p>You are supposed to stand before a congregation, +brimming over with a great message. Here +I am trying to find a new little message each +Sunday. If I really had great convictions I +suppose they would struggle for birth each week. +As the matter stands, I struggle to find an idea +worth presenting and I almost dread the approach +of a new sabbath. I don’t know whether +I can ever accustom myself to the task of bringing +light and inspiration in regular weekly +installments.</p> + +<p>How in the world can you reconcile the inevitability +of Sunday and its task with the moods and +caprices of the soul? The prophet speaks only +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[5]</span>when he is inspired. The parish preacher must +speak whether he is inspired or not. I wonder +whether it is possible to live on a high enough +plane to do that without sinning against the Holy +Spirit.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[6]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1916"> + <i>1916</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Visited old Mrs. G. today and gave her communion. +This was my first experience with communion +at the sick bed. I think there is a good +deal of superstition connected with the rite. It +isn’t very much different in some of its aspects +from the Catholic rite of extreme unction. Yet I +will not be too critical. If the rite suggests and +expresses the emotion of honest contrition it is +more than superstition. But that is the difficulty +of acting as priest. It is not in your power to determine +the use of a symbol. Whether it is a blessing +or a bit of superstition rests altogether with the +recipient.</p> + +<p>I must admit that I am losing some of the +aversion to the sacraments cultivated in my seminary +days. There is something very beautiful +about parents bringing their child to the altar with +a prayer of thanksgiving and as an act of dedication. +The trouble is that the old ritual in the book +of forms does not express this idea clearly. I have +to put the whole meaning of the sacrament as I see +it into the prayer. Perhaps I can use my own form +later on, if I get the confidence of the people.</p> + +<p>Incidentally Mrs. G. gave me a shock this +afternoon. After the service was completed she +fished around under her pillow and brought forth +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[7]</span>a five dollar bill. That was to pay me for my +trouble. I never knew this fee business still existed +in such a form in Protestantism. I knew they were +still paying for baptism in some denominations, +ours included. But this is a new one. The old +lady was a little hurt, I think, by my refusal. I +think she imagined that pity prompted my diffidence. +She insisted that she was quite able to pay. +I’d better get started on this whole fee question +and make an announcement that I won’t accept +any fees for anything. I think I’ll except weddings +however. Every one takes fees for them. It will +just make a scene when the groom or best man +slyly crosses your palm with a bill and you make a +righteous refusal. They never will understand. +Marriage is not a sacrament anyway. Then, too, +it’s fun getting a little extra money once in a while. +But isn’t marriage a sacrament?</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[8]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1916_1"> + <i>1916</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Doesn’t this denominational business wear +on one’s nerves? If I were a doctor people would +consult me according to the skill I had and the reputation +I could acquire. But being a minister I can +appeal only to people who are labeled as I am. +Yesterday that professor I met asked me what denomination +I belonged to. Being told, he promptly +pigeonholed me into my proper place and with a +superior air assumed that my mind was as definitely +set by my denominational background as is +that of an African Hottentot by his peculiar environment.</p> + +<p>Perhaps if I belonged to a larger denomination +this wouldn’t irk me so much. I suffer from an +inferiority complex because of the very numerical +weakness of my denomination. If I belonged to a +large one I might strut about and claim its glory +for myself. If I give myself to religion as a profession +I must find some interdenominational outlet +for my activities. But what? Secretaries and +Y.M.C.A. workers are too inarticulate. They deal +too much with machinery and too little with ideas. +I don’t want to be a chauffeur. Does that mean +that I am a minister merely because I am a fairly +glib talker? Who knows?</p> + +<p>But let us not be too cynical and too morbidly +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[9]</span>introspective. I may find something worth saying +in time and escape the fate of being a mere talker. +At any rate I swear that I will never aspire to be a +preacher of pretty sermons. I’ll keep them rough +just to escape the temptation of degenerating into +an elocutionist. Maybe I had better stop quoting +so much poetry. But that is hardly the point. +Plenty of sermons lack both beauty and meaning.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[10]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1916_2"> + <i>1916</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>The young fellows I am trying to teach in +Sunday school don’t listen to me attentively. I don’t +think I am getting very close to where they live. +Or perhaps I just haven’t learned how to put my +message across. I am constantly interrupted in +my talk by the necessity of calling someone to order. +It is a good thing that I have a class like +that. I’ll venture that my sermons aren’t getting +any nearer to the people, but the little group of +adults I am speaking to in the morning service are +naturally more patient or at least more polite than +these honest youngsters, and so I have less chance +to find out from them how futile I am. But that +doesn’t solve the problem of how to reach those +fellows.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[11]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1916_3"> + <i>1916</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>I had a letter from Professor L—— today +suggesting that I return to college and prepare myself +for the teaching profession. A year ago I was +certain that I would do that. Now I am not so sure. +Nevertheless the academic life has its allurements. +It is really simpler than the ministry. As a teacher +your only task is to discover the truth. As a +preacher you must conserve other interests besides +the truth. It is your business to deal circumspectly +with the whole religious inheritance lest the virtues +which are involved in the older traditions perish +through your iconoclasm. That is a formidable +task and a harassing one; for one can never be +quite sure where pedagogical caution ends and dishonesty +begins.</p> + +<p>What is particularly disquieting to a young +man in the ministry is the fact that some of his fine +old colleagues make such a virtue of their ignorance. +They are sure that there is no Second Isaiah +and have never heard that Deuteronomy represents +a later development in the law. I can’t blame +them for not having all the bright new knowledge +of a recent seminarian (not quite as new as the +seminarian imagines); but the ministry is the only +profession in which you can make a virtue of ignorance. +If you have read nothing but commentaries +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[12]</span>for twenty years, that is supposed to invest you +with an aura of sanctity and piety. Every profession +has its traditions and its traditionalists. But +the traditionalists in the pulpit are much more certain +than the others that the Lord is on their side.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[13]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1917"> + <i>1917</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Next week we are going to hold our first every +member canvass. They expect me to preach a sermon +which will prepare the good people to give +generously. I don’t mind that. Most people give +little enough for the church or for anything else not +connected with their own pleasures. But I don’t +see how you can preach a sermon adequate to the +needs of the moment without identifying the +church with the kingdom of God too unqualifiedly. +And meanwhile you are drawing your salary from +the church and remembering that if the canvass is +a success there may be an increase in salary next +year. It isn’t easy to mix the business of preaching +with the business of making a living and maintain +your honesty and self-respect.</p> + +<p>Of course every laborer is worthy of his hire. +But you notice that Paul, who insisted on that +point, nevertheless prided himself on his independence. +He wanted “not yours but you.” But let +us not be too squeamish. There is old J.Q. It +would do his soul good if he loosened up a bit. One +might say to him, “I want yours so that I can +get you.”</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[14]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1918"> + <i>1918</i> + <br> + (After a trip through the war training camps.) + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>I hardly know how to bring order out of confusion +in my mind in regard to this war. I think +that if Wilson’s aims are realized the war will serve +a good purpose. When I talk to the boys I make +much of the Wilsonian program as against the kind +of diplomacy which brought on the war. But it is +easier to talk about the aims of the war than to +justify its methods.</p> + +<p>Out at Funston I watched a bayonet practice. +It was enough to make me feel like a brazen hypocrite +for being in this thing, even in a rather indirect +way. Yet I cannot bring myself to associate +with the pacifists. Perhaps if I were not of German +blood I could. That may be cowardly, but I +do think that a new nation has a right to be pretty +sensitive about its unity.</p> + +<p>Some of the good old Germans have a hard +time hiding a sentiment which borders very closely +on hatred for this nation. Anyone who dissociates +himself from the cause of his nation in such a time +as this ought to do it only on the basis of an unmistakably +higher loyalty. If I dissociated myself +only slightly I would inevitably be forced into the +camp of those who romanticize about the Kaiser. +And the Kaiser is certainly nothing to me. If we +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[15]</span>must have war I’ll certainly feel better on the side +of Wilson than on the side of the Kaiser.</p> + +<p>What makes me angry is the way I kowtow to +the chaplains as I visit the various camps. Here +are ministers of the gospel just as I am. Just as I +they are also, for the moment, priests of the great +god Mars. As ministers of the Christian religion +I have no particular respect for them. Yet I am +overcome by a terrible inferiority complex when I +deal with them. Such is the power of a uniform. +Like myself, they have mixed the worship of the +God of love and the God of battles. But unlike +myself, they have adequate symbols of this double +devotion. The little cross on the shoulder is the +symbol of their Christian faith. The uniform itself +is the symbol of their devotion to the God of +battles. It is the uniform and not the cross which +impresses me and others. I am impressed even +when I know that I ought not be.</p> + +<p>What I dislike about most of the chaplains is +that they assume a very officious and also a very +masculine attitude. Ministers are not used to authority +and revel in it when acquired. The rather +too obvious masculinity which they try to suggest +by word and action is meant to remove any possible +taint which their Christian faith might be +suspected to have left upon them in the minds of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[16]</span>the he-men in the army. H—— is right. He tells +me that he wants to go into the army as a private +and not as a chaplain. He believes that the war is +inevitable but he is not inclined to reconcile its necessities +with the Christian ethic. He will merely +forget about this difficulty during the war. That +is much more honest than what I am doing.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[17]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1918_1"> + <i>1918</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>I can see one element in this strange fascination +of war which men have not adequately noted. +It reduces life to simple terms. The modern man +lives in such a complex world that one wonders +how his sanity is maintained as well as it is. Every +moral venture, every social situation and every +practical problem involves a whole series of conflicting +loyalties, and a man may never be quite +sure that he is right in giving himself to the one as +against the other. Shall he be just and sacrifice +love? Shall he strive for beauty and do it by gaining +the social privileges which destroy his sense of +fellowship with the underprivileged? Shall he +serve his family and neglect the state? Or be +patriotic to the detriment of the great family of +mankind? Shall he be diligent at the expense of +his health? Or keep healthy at the expense of the +great cause in which he is interested? Shall he +be truthful and therefore cruel? Or shall he be +kind and therefore a little soft? Shall he strive +for the amenities of life and make life less robust +in the process? Or shall he make courage +the ultimate virtue and brush aside the virtues +which a stable and therefore soft society has +cultivated?</p> + +<p>Out of this mesh of conflicting claims, interests, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[18]</span>loyalties, ideals, values and communities he is +rescued by the psychology of war which gives the +state at least a momentary priority over all other +communities and which makes courage the supreme +virtue. I talked to a young captain at camp last +week who told me how happy he was in the army +because he had “found himself” in military service. +Our further conversation led me to suspect +that it was this simplification of life which had +really brought him happiness; that and his love of +authority.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, all these momentary simplifications +of the complexities of life cannot be finally +satisfying, because they do violence to life. The +imperiled community may for a moment claim a +kind of unqualified loyalty which no community or +cause has the right or ability to secure in normal +times. But judgment returns to sobriety as events +become less disjointed and the world is once more +revealed in all its confusion of good in evil and evil +in good. The imperiled community was threatened +because of its vice as much as because of its virtue, +and the diabolical foe reassumes the lineaments of +our common humanity. Physical courage is proved +unequal to the task of ennobling man without the +aid of other virtues, and the same men who have +been raised to great heights by the self-forgetfulness +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[19]</span>of war have been sunk into new depths +of hatred. There is only momentary peace in +an all-consuming passion, except it be a passion +for what is indubitably the best. And what is the +best?</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[20]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1919"> + <i>1919</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>We had a great Easter service today. +Mother made the little chapel look very pretty, +working with a committee of young women. It +takes real work to decorate such a little place, and +make it really inviting. We received our largest +class of new members into the church thus far, +twenty-one in all. Most of them had no letters +from other churches and yet had been reared in +some church. We received them on reaffirmation +of faith.</p> + +<p>This matter of recruiting a membership for +the church is a real problem. Even the churches +which once believed a very definite conversion to +be the sine qua non of entrance into the fellowship +of the church are going in for “decision days” as +they lose confidence in the traditional assumption +that one can become a Christian only through a +crisis experience. But if one does not insist on that +kind of an experience it is not so easy to set up +tests of membership. Most of these “personal +evangelism” campaigns mean little more than an +ordinary recruiting effort with church membership +rather than the Christian life as the real +objective. They do not differ greatly from efforts +of various clubs as they seek to expand their +membership.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[21]</span></p> + +<p>Of course we make “acceptance of Jesus as +your savior” the real door into the fellowship of +the church. But the trouble is that this may mean +everything or nothing. I see no way of making the +Christian fellowship unique by any series of tests +which precede admission. The only possibility lies +in a winnowing process through the instrumentality +of the preaching and teaching function of the +church. Let them come in without great difficulty, +but make it difficult for them to stay in. The +trouble with this plan is that it is always easy to +load up your membership with very immature +Christians who will finally set the standard and +make it impossible to preach and to teach the gospel +in its full implications.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[22]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1919_1"> + <i>1919</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>What a picture that is of Wilson, Lloyd +George and Clemenceau settling the fate of the +world in Paris! Wilson is evidently losing his +battle. He would have done better to stay at home +and throw bolts from Olympus. If you have honest +and important differences of opinion with others, +it is better to write letters than to put your feet +under the same table with them. Compromises +are always more inevitable in personal contact than +in long distance negotiation.</p> + +<p>What seems to be happening at Paris is that +they will let Wilson label the transaction if the +others can determine its true import. Thus realities +are exchanged for words. There will be “no +indemnities” but of course there will be reparations; +and, since the damage was great, the reparations +may be made larger than any so-called indemnity +of the past. There will be “no annexations” +but there will be mandates.</p> + +<p>Wilson is a typical son of the manse. He believes +too much in words. The sly Clemenceau +sneaks new meanings into these nice words, in +which task he is probably ably helped by Mr. Lloyd +George, who is an admirable go-between, being as +worldly wise as M. Clemenceau and as evangelical +as Mr. Wilson. Yet who knows? Time may yet +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[23]</span>give Mr. Wilson the victory. Words have certain +meanings of which it is hard to rob them, and ideas +may create reality in time. The league of nations +may be, for the time being, merely a league of victors +but it will be difficult to destroy the redemptive +idea at the heart of it completely. Realities +are always defeating ideals, but ideals have a way +of taking vengeance upon the facts which momentarily +imprison them.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, it is always possible that +diabolical facts will so discredit the idea which they +ostensibly incarnate that they will necessitate the +projection of a new idea before progress can be +made.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[24]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1919_2"> + <i>1919</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Visited Miss Z. at the hospital. I like to go +now since she told me that it helps her to have me +pray with her. I asked the doctor about her and +he says her case is hopeless. Here faith seems +really to be functioning in lifting the soul above +physical circumstance. I have been so afraid of +quackery that I have leaned over backwards trying +to avoid the encouragement of false hopes. +Sometimes when I compare myself with these +efficient doctors and nurses hustling about I +feel like an ancient medicine man dumped into +the twentieth century. I think they have about +the same feeling toward me that I have about +myself.</p> + +<p>It must be very satisfying to deal as an exact +scientist with known data upon which to base your +conclusions. I have to work in the twilight zone +where superstition is inextricably mixed up with +something that is—well, not superstition. I do +believe that Jesus healed people. I can’t help but +note, however, that a large proportion of his cures +were among the demented. If people ask me, I tell +them that religion has more therapeutic value in +functional than in organic diseases. But I don’t +know whether I am altogether honest about this at +the bedside. I am still praying for health with +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[25]</span>Miss Z. But of course I don’t leave it at that. +I am trying to prepare her for the inevitable +and I think I have helped her a little in that +respect.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[26]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1919_3"> + <i>1919</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>This sickness of Miss Z.’s is getting on my +nerves. I can’t think of anything for the rest of +the day after coming from that bed of pain. If I +had more patients I suppose I would get a little +more hardened. Talk about professionalism! I +suppose men get professional to save their emotional +resources. Here I make one visit in an afternoon +and get all done up. Meanwhile the doctor +is making a dozen. He is less sentimental, but +probably does more good.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[27]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1920"> + <i>1920</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>I am really beginning to like the ministry. I +think since I have stopped worrying so much about +the intellectual problems of religion and have begun +to explore some of its ethical problems there is +more of a thrill in preaching. The real meaning +of the gospel is in conflict with most of the customs +and attitudes of our day at so many places that +there is adventure in the Christian message, even +if you only play around with its ideas in a conventional +world. I can’t say that I have done anything +in my life to dramatize the conflict between the +gospel and the world. But I find it increasingly +interesting to set the two in juxtaposition at least +in my mind and in the minds of others. And of +course ideas may finally lead to action.</p> + +<p>A young woman came to me the other day in +—— and told me that my talk on forgiveness in +the C—— Church of that town several months +ago has brought about a reconciliation between her +mother and sister after the two had been in a feud +for five years. I accepted the news with more outward +than inward composure. There is redemptive +power in the message! I could go on the new +courage that came out of that little victory for +many a month.</p> + +<p>I think I am beginning to like the ministry also +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[28]</span>because it gives you a splendid opportunity to have +all kinds of contacts with people in relationships in +which they are at their best. You do get tired of +human pettiness at times. But there is nevertheless +something quite glorious about folks. That is +particularly true when you find them bearing sorrow +with real patience. Think of Mrs. —— putting +up with that drunkard of a husband for the +sake of her children—and having such nice children. +One can learn more from her quiet courage +than from many a book.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[29]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1920_1"> + <i>1920</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Good old Gordon came to me today to advise +me that so-and-so might join the church but that +he had been told that I talked considerably on political +issues and he did not like politics in church. +I told my friend that I did not like political lectures +in a worship service myself, but that every religious +problem had ethical implications and every ethical +problem had some political and economic aspect. +We had quite a nice chat about it, though my +explanation did not seem altogether satisfactory. +Gordon suggested that I seemed unable to get as +many “prominent” people into the church as I +ought. I told him that we had some very nice +people in our church, but that I had no particular +desire or ability to cater to “prominent” people, +especially since there are plenty of churches who +seem to serve this class quite well.</p> + +<p>This is as close as I have come to having the +freedom of the pulpit challenged, except of course +by the tacit challenge of an occasional defection +from the ranks. The problem of the freedom of +the pulpit is a real one. But I am convinced that +the simplest way to get liberty is to take it. The +liberty to speak on all vital questions of the day +without qualifying the message in a half dozen +ways adds sufficient interest to the otherwise +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[30]</span>stodgy sermon to attract two listeners for every +one who is lost by having some pet prejudice disarranged. +But that generalization is hardly justified +by my meager experience.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[31]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1920_2"> + <i>1920</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>I had a great discussion in my young men’s +class this morning. Gradually I am beginning to +discover that my failure with the class was due to +my talking too much. Now I let them talk and the +thing is becoming interesting. Of course it isn’t so +easy to keep the discussion steered on any track. +Sometimes we talk in circles. But the fellows are +at least getting at some of the vital problems of +life and I am learning something from them. Disciplinary +problems have disappeared. The only +one left is the fellow who is always trying to say +something foolish or smart in the discussion.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[32]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1920_3"> + <i>1920</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>I went to the funeral of Mrs. T. at St. +Cecilia’s church. It must be a grateful task to deal +as a priest with the definite symbols which the +Catholic church uses and to dispense the absolute +certainties with which she assures the faithful. Of +course the requiem mass contains nothing that +would be of obvious comfort to the sorrowing heart. +But the implication of the whole transaction is that +the soul is now taken up in another world in which +the heartaches of this life are overcome.</p> + +<p>I don’t think the mass is so satisfying as a well +conducted Protestant funeral service in which some +cognizance is taken of the peculiar circumstances +of a great sorrow and of the unique characteristics +of the deceased. But it is certainly immeasurably +superior to the average Protestant service with +its banalities and sentimentalities. Religion is +poetry. The truth in the poetry is vivified by +adequate poetic symbols and is therefore more +convincing than the poor prose with which +the average preacher must attempt to grasp the +ineffable.</p> + +<p>Yet one must not forget that the truth is not +only vivified but also corrupted by the poetic symbol, +for it is only one step from a vivid symbol to +the touch of magic. The priest does, after all, deal +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[33]</span>with magic. When religion renounces magic it +finds itself in the poor workaday world trying to +discover the glimpses of the eternal in the common +scene. That is not an easy task, but it is not an +impossible one. Wherefore let us envy the priest, +but pity him too, meanwhile. He has been betrayed +by his magic. He has gained too easy a +victory over life’s difficulties and he helps his people +to find a premature peace. The rivers of life +in Protestant religion are easily lost in the sand, +but if they really run they carry more life than +holy water.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[34]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1921"> + <i>1921</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>I spoke to the —— club today and was introduced +by the chairman as a pastor who had recently +built a new church at “the impressive cost +of $170,000.” While the figure was not quite correct +it gave me somewhat of a start to find how +much emphasis was placed upon what was regarded +as a great business achievement. Here was a group +of business men, and the chairman knew of no way +to recommend me to them but by suggesting that +I was myself a business man of no mean ability. +That would have given the good men of my church +council a laugh. Knowing how little I had to do +with the raising of the money for the new church +and how I have always failed to put on the kind of +“pressure” they desired when we were raising +money, they would certainly have smiled wryly at +this eulogy.</p> + +<p>But it is all natural enough. America worships +success and so does the world in general. +And the only kind of success the average man can +understand is obvious success. There must be</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Things done that took the eye, that had the price;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">O’er which from level stand,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The low world laid its hand,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Found straightway to its mind, could value in a trice.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[35]</span></p> + +<p>After all the real work of a minister is not +easily gauged and the world may not be entirely +wrong in using external progress as an outward +sign of an inward grace. Even those who value +the real work of the ministry sometimes express +their appreciation in rather superficial phrases. I +remember when dear old —— celebrated his +twenty-fifth anniversary the good toastmaster +pathetically described his pastor’s successful ministry +by explaining that under his leadership the +congregation had “doubled its membership, installed +a new organ, built a parsonage, decorated +the church and wiped out its debt.” Not a word +about the words of comfort the good pastor had +spoken or the inspiration he had given to thirsting +souls.</p> + +<p>Perhaps it is foolish to be too sensitive about +these inevitable secularizations of religious values. +Let us be thankful that there is no quarterly meeting +in our denomination and no need of giving a +district superintendent a bunch of statistics to +prove that our ministry is successful.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[36]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1921_1"> + <i>1921</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>I visited Mrs. S. today. She is suffering from +cancer and will not live long. Her young grandson +E. came home from high school just as I was +leaving. He had a question for me. The Jewish +boys at school told him Jesus was a bastard and +Joseph was not his father. He also reported that +they accused him of having two Gods instead of +one. That dissolution of the Trinity into a dualism +by high school boys interested me. Even boys +seem to sense that if orthodox trinitarianism makes +for polytheism it really suggests two gods rather +than three. I chided E. for remembering so poorly +what he had learned in the preparatory class and +for being so irregular in church school where these +problems are discussed. I went over some of the +ideas on the humanity and the uniqueness of Jesus +which we had discussed in the class.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile I wished that I could talk to him +alone without interference from grandma, who +naïvely added her own theological mustard to the +dish. It is no easy task to build up the faith of one +generation and not destroy the supports of the religion +of the other. But fortunately the old lady +didn’t get what I was driving at and so didn’t interfere +very seriously. She was thankful to me for +straightening the young man out on his theology +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[37]</span>and seemed to think that I had settled all his difficulties +by my few words. “Ich habe ihm gesagt, +wart bis der Pastor kommt. Der wird dir alles +erklaeren.” It isn’t a bad idea to find someone +who has such confidence in you.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[38]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1922"> + <i>1922</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>When I sit in my study and meditate upon +men and events I am critical and circumspect. +Why is it that when I arise in the pulpit I try to be +imaginative and am sometimes possessed by a kind +of madness which makes my utterances extravagant +and dogmatic? Perhaps this change of technique +is due to my desire to move the audience. +Audiences are not easily moved from their lethargy +by cool and critical analyses. An appeal to the +emotions is necessary and emotions are not aroused +by a careful analysis of facts but by a presentation +of ideal values. I do not mean that I disavow the +critical method entirely in the pulpit. Indeed +many of my friendly critics think I am too critical +to be a good preacher. Nor am I ever very emotional. +Nevertheless there is a distinct difference +between my temper in the study and my spirit in +the pulpit.</p> + +<p>Perhaps this is as it should be. Let the study +serve to reveal the relativity of all things so that +pulpit utterances do not become too extravagant, +and let the pulpit save the student from sinking in +the sea of relativities. However qualified every +truth may be there is nevertheless a portion in +every truth and value which is essentially absolute +and which is therefore worth proclaiming. “All +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[39]</span>oratory,” declares a Greek scholar, “is based on +half truths.” That is why one ought naturally to +distrust and to discount the orator. On the other +hand, oratory may be the result of the kind of +poetic gift which sees a truth dissociated, for a moment +at least, from all relativities of time and circumstance +and lifted into the light of the absolute.</p> + +<p>I notice that the tendency of extravagance in +the pulpit and on the platform increases with the +size of the crowd. As my congregation increases +in size I become more unguarded in my statements. +Wherefore may the good Lord deliver me from ever +being a popular preacher. “Why is it,” asked one +of my elders the other day, “that your Sunday +evening sermons are more pessimistic than your +morning sermons?” I think what he really meant +is that they were more critical in analyzing life’s +problems. I told him that I tried to give inspiration +in the morning and education in the evening.</p> + +<p>But the fact is that circumstance probably affects +the quality of the message as much as purpose. +A full church gives me the sense of fighting +with a victorious host in the battles of the Lord. +A half empty church immediately symbolizes the +fact that Christianity is very much of a minority +movement in a pagan world and that it can be victorious +only by snatching victory out of defeat.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[40]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1922_1"> + <i>1922</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Just received a pitiful letter from a young +pastor who is losing his church because he has been +“too liberal.” I suppose there are churches which +will crucify a leader who tries to lead them into +the modern world of thought and life. Yet here +I have been all these years in a conservative communion +and have never had a squabble about theology. +I suppose that is partly due to the fact that +there were so few people here when I came that +no one had to listen to me if he didn’t like my approach. +Those who have come have associated +themselves with us because they were in general +agreement with “our gospel.” They have come, +however, from conservative communions and +churches. But of course they have been mostly +young people.</p> + +<p>If preachers get into trouble in pursuance of +their task of reinterpreting religious affirmations +in the light of modern knowledge I think it must be +partly because they beat their drums too loudly +when they make their retreats from untenable positions +of ancient orthodoxy. The correct strategy +is to advance at the center with beating drums and +let your retreats at the wings follow as a matter of +course and in the interest of the central strategy. +You must be honest, of course, but you might just +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[41]</span>as well straighten and shorten your lines without +mock heroics and a fanfare of trumpets.</p> + +<p>The beauty of this strategy is that there is +enough power at the center for a real advance and +enough opposition for a real conflict. If you set +the message of a gospel of love against a society +enmeshed in hatreds and bigotries and engulfed in +greed, you have a real but not necessarily a futile +conflict on your hands. There is enough natural +grace in the human heart to respond to the challenge +of the real message in the gospel—and +enough original sin in human nature to create opposition +to it. The sorriest preachers are those +who preach a conventional morality while they try +to be intellectually and theologically radical.</p> + +<p>Men will not make great intellectual readjustments +for a gospel which does not greatly matter. +If there is real adventure at the center of the line +the reserves are drawn from the wings almost +unconsciously.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[42]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1923"> + <i>1923</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Gradually the whole horrible truth about the +war is being revealed. Every new book destroys +some further illusion. How can we ever again believe +anything when we compare the solemn pretensions +of statesmen with the cynically conceived +secret treaties? Here was simply a tremendous +contest for power between two great alliances of +states in which the caprice of statesmen combined +with basic economic conflicts to dictate the peculiar +form of the alliances. Next time the cards will be +shuffled in a different way and the “fellowship in +arms” will consist of different fellows.</p> + +<p>As the truth becomes known there are however +some compensations for the disillusionment. +If the moral pretensions of the heroes were bogus, +the iniquity of the villains was not as malicious as +it once appeared. The Kaiser was evidently a +boob who was puerile enough to permit the German +navalists to force him into policies which he +did not understand. Von Tirpitz and his crowd +may have been the real villains but they probably +did not want the war so much as they wanted to +glorify the navy and themselves through it. If +Poincaré was the villain, it was the limitations of a +narrow and bigoted nationalism rather than the +malice of an evil heart which prompted his policies. +The poor little Czar was the victim of a neurotic +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[43]</span>wife, and she in turn the tool of religious fanatics +and fear-tormented bureaucrats.</p> + +<p>There doesn’t seem to be very much malice in +the world. There is simply not enough intelligence +to conduct the intricate affairs of a complex civilization. +All the chief actors in the war appear now +in the light of children who played with dangerous +toys. If they were criminal it was in the sense +that the weal of millions was involved in their +dangerous games and they didn’t let that fact +dissuade them from their play. All human sin +seems so much worse in its consequences than in +its intentions.</p> + +<p>But that is not a fact which justifies moral +nihilism. The consequences are obvious and inevitable +enough to deter a sensitive soul from the +course which leads to destruction. Not merely +ignorance but callousness to human welfare is an +ingredient in the compound of social and personal +evil.</p> + +<p>In one sense modern civilization substitutes +unconscious sins of more destructive consequences +for conscious sins of less destructive consequences. +Men try consciously to eliminate the atrocities of +society, but meanwhile they unheedingly build a +civilization which is more destructive of moral and +personal values than anything intended in a more +primitive society.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[44]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1923_1"> + <i>1923</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>I met a wonderful parson in the little village +of ——. I went there to speak at a high school +commencement. His church seemed to be an ordinary +village church, but he was undeniably the real +leader of the community. Broad sympathies had +made it possible for him to transcend the usual denominational +divisions which reduce most ministers +to impotence in small communities, at least as +far as wider community leadership is concerned. +There were a few other churches in town, but he +had developed so many types of cooperation between +them that they were almost a unit in their +enterprise.</p> + +<p>He had built a small church house which was +a hive of activity throughout the week. He conducted +his own weekday school of religion, spending +three afternoons at the job. His influence upon +the young people was evidently a fruit of this close +contact with them. He was so happy in his work +that he did not look upon big city churches as the +natural goal of his ambition. His wife and he and +two little kiddies live very modestly in a little parsonage, +and the mistress of the manse seems to find +time to mother the neighborhood as well as her +children.</p> + +<p>Perhaps I am inclined to romanticize about +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[45]</span>village life. Sometimes it is very petty and mean, +I know. But the absence of great class distinctions +makes for a higher type of fellowship in church +and community than is achieved in the metropolis, +and the preacher is not tempted to placate the +powerful. The modest stipend which the small +church can afford makes for simple living and the +absence of social pride. If more young fellows +would be willing to go into churches like that and +not suffer from inferiority complexes because they +had not landed one of the “big pulpits,” we might +put new power into the church.</p> + +<p>Fortunately, this young fellow has an astute +intelligence without being an orator. If he were a +more gifted speaker he would probably have been +“promoted”—and spoiled—long ago. I have +often observed that privilege and power tend to +corrupt the simple Christian heart. I am now convinced +that to these two must be added the kind +of obvious success which the world knows how to +measure. The simplicity which is preserved because +it does not meet the temptation of success is +innocence rather than virtue; but if we can’t have +virtue, innocence is preferable to moral failure.</p> + +<p>There are successful men who have maintained +a virtuous humility and sincerity in the day +of success, but the achievement is very difficult.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[46]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1923_2"> + <i>1923</i> + <br> + In Europe + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>I have been spending a few days with S—— +and P—— in the Ruhr district. Flew back to London +from Cologne by aeroplane. The Ruhr cities +are the closest thing to hell I have ever seen. +I never knew that you could see hatred with the +naked eye, but in the Ruhr one is under the illusion +that this is possible. The atmosphere is charged +with it. The streets are filled with French soldiers +in their grey-blue uniforms. Schools have been +turned into barracks. Germans turn anxious and +furtive glances upon every stranger. French officers +race their automobiles wildly through the +streets with sirens blowing shrilly. If you can gain +the confidence of Germans so that they will talk +they will tell you horrible tales of atrocities, deportations, +sex crimes, etc. Imagination fired by +fear and hatred undoubtedly tends to elaborate +upon the sober facts. But the facts are bad +enough.</p> + +<p>When we arrived at Cologne after spending +days in the French zone of occupation we felt as +if we had come into a different world. The obvious +reluctance of the British to make common +cause with the French in the Ruhr adventure has +accentuated the good will between the British +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[47]</span>troops and the native population. But a day in +Cologne cannot erase the memory of Essen and +Duesseldorf. It rests upon the mind like a horrible +nightmare. One would like to send every sentimental +spellbinder of war days into the Ruhr. +This, then, is the glorious issue for which the war +was fought! I didn’t know Europe in 1914, but I +can’t imagine that the hatred between peoples could +have been worse than it is now.</p> + +<p>This is as good a time as any to make up my +mind that I am done with the war business. Of +course, I wasn’t really in the last war. Would that +I had been! Every soldier, fighting for his country +in simplicity of heart without asking many questions, +was superior to those of us who served no +better purpose than to increase or perpetuate the +moral obfuscation of nations. Of course, we really +couldn’t know everything we know now. But now +we know. The times of man’s ignorance God may +wink at, but now he calls us all to repent. I am +done with this business. I hope I can make that +resolution stick.</p> + +<p>Talking about the possibility of the church +renouncing war, as we came over on the boat, one +of the cynics suggested that the present temper of +the church against war was prompted by nausea +rather than idealism. He insisted that the church +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[48]</span>would not be able to prove for some time that it is +really sincere in this matter. I suppose he is right; +though I do not know that one ought to be contemptuous +of any experience which leads to the +truth. A pain in the stomach may sometimes serve +an ultimate purpose quite as well as an idea in the +head. Yet it is probably true that nausea finally +wears off and the question will then be whether +there is a more fundamental force which will maintain +a conviction in defiance of popular hysteria.</p> + +<p>For my own part I am not going to let my decision +in regard to war stand alone. I am going to +try to be a disciple of Christ, rather than a mere +Christian, in all human relations and experiment +with the potency of trust and love much more than +I have in the past.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[49]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1923_3"> + <i>1923</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>This has been a wonderful Christmas season. +The people have been splendid. It is fun to go into +the homes and see the laughter and joy of the children. +It is rewarding to see how the people respond +to our call for Christmas giving among the +poor. The church was piled high yesterday with +groceries and toys of every description. There is +so much that is good in human nature.</p> + +<p>Of course the cynics will say that it is easier +to be charitable than to be just, and the astute social +observers will note that what we give for the +needy is but a small fraction of what we spend on +ourselves. After all, the spirit of love is still pretty +well isolated in the family life. If I had a family +maybe that thought would never occur to me. The +old Methodist preacher who told me some time ago +that I was so cantankerous in my spirit of criticism +about modern society because I am not married +may be right. If I had about four children to love +I might not care so much about insisting that the +spirit of love shall dominate all human affairs. And +there might be more value in loving the four children +than in paying lip service to the spirit of love +as I do.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[50]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1924"> + <i>1924</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>A revival meeting seems never to get under +my skin. Perhaps I am too fish-blooded to enjoy +them. But I object not so much to the emotionalism +as to the lack of intellectual honesty of the +average revival preacher. I do not mean to imply +that the evangelists are necessarily consciously dishonest. +They just don’t know enough about life +and history to present the problem of the Christian +life in its full meaning. They are always assuming +that nothing but an emotional commitment to +Christ is needed to save the soul from its sin and +chaos. They seem never to realize how many of +the miseries of mankind are due not to malice but +to misdirected zeal and unbalanced virtue. They +never help the people who corrupt family love by +making the family a selfish unit in society or those +who brutalize industry by excessive devotion to +the prudential virtues.</p> + +<p>Of course that is all inevitable enough. If you +don’t simplify issues you can’t arouse emotional +crises. It’s the melodrama that captivates the +crowd. Sober history is seldom melodramatic. +God and the devil may be in conflict on the +scene of life and history, but a victory follows +every defeat and some kind of defeat every +victory. The representatives of God are seldom +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[51]</span>divine and the minions of Satan are never quite +diabolical.</p> + +<p>I wonder whether there is any way of being +potent oratorically without over-simplifying truth. +Or must power always be bought at the expense of +truth? Perhaps some simplification of life is justified. +Every artist does, after all, obscure some +details in order to present others in bolder relief. +The religious rhetorician has a right to count himself +among, and take his standards from, the artists +rather than the scientists. The trouble is that he +is usually no better than a cartoonist.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[52]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1924_1"> + <i>1924</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>After preaching tonight at a union service in +—— the pastor loci took me about to show me his +“plant” (industrialism has invaded even ecclesiastical +terminology) and with obvious pride told +me of all the progress that the church had made +since his advent. One of the most disillusioning +experiences which I have had with ministers is their +invariable tendency to belittle or to be unappreciative +of the work of their predecessors. If one +were to take the implications of their remarks +about their churches without a grain of salt one +would imagine that every church was in an obvious +state of spiritual and organic decay before the +present generation of prophets took hold of the +desperate situation. There are, of course, marked +exceptions to this rule. But there is too much of +this petty jealousy of former laborers in the vineyard +of the Lord. Some of the men are probably +victims of fawning parishioners and others are just +naturally petty.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[53]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1924_2"> + <i>1924</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>I am not surprised that most prophets are +itinerants. Critics of the church think we preachers +are afraid to tell the truth because we are economically +dependent upon the people of our church. +There is something in that, but it does not quite +get to the root of the matter. I certainly could +easily enough get more money than I am securing +now, and yet I catch myself weighing my words +and gauging their possible effect upon this and that +person. I think the real clue to the tameness of a +preacher is the difficulty one finds in telling unpleasant +truths to people whom one has learned to +love.</p> + +<p>To speak the truth in love is a difficult, and +sometimes an almost impossible, achievement. If +you speak the truth unqualifiedly, that is usually +because your ire has been aroused or because you +have no personal attachment to the object of your +strictures. Once personal contact is established +you are very prone to temper your wind to the +shorn sheep. It is certainly difficult to be human +and honest at the same time. I’m not surprised +that most budding prophets are tamed in time to +become harmless parish priests.</p> + +<p>At that, I do not know what business I have +carping at the good people who are doing the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[54]</span>world’s work and who are inevitably enmeshed to +a greater or less degree in the iniquities of society. +Conscience, Goethe has observed, belongs to the +observer rather than the doer, and it would be well +for every preacher to realize that he is morally sensitive +partly because he is observing and not acting. +What is satisfying about the ministry is to note +how far you can go in unfolding the full meaning +of the Christian gospel provided you don’t present +it with the implication that you have attained and +are now laying it as an obligation upon others.</p> + +<p>If the Christian adventure is made a mutual +search for truth in which the preacher is merely a +leader among many searchers and is conscious of +the same difficulties in his own experience which +he notes in others, I do not see why he cannot be a +prophet without being forced into itinerancy.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[55]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1924_3"> + <i>1924</i> + <br> + In Europe + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>We began the day with a visit to the York +minster and ended it with a dinner at the Rountree +cocoa works. Some of the men thought there +was more spirituality in the discussion of the ethical +problems of modern industry in which we engaged +at Rountree’s than in the communion service +we heard so atrociously read in the minster. +Of course the dinner discussion was richer in ethical +content, but there are nevertheless religious +values in the cathedral which one cannot find in +a discussion of ethical problems however vital.</p> + +<p>Religion is a reaction to life’s mysteries and a +reverence before the infinitudes of the universe. +Without ethical experience the infinite is never defined +in ethical terms, but the soul which is reverent +and morally vital at the same time learns +how to apprehend the infinite in terms of holiness +and worships a God who transcends both our knowledge +and our conscience. The cathedral with its +dim religious light, its vaulted ceiling, its altar +screen, and its hushed whispers is symbolic of the +element of mystery in religion.</p> + +<p>Without an adequate sermon no clue is given +to the moral purpose at the heart of the mystery, +and reverence remains without ethical content. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[56]</span>But a religion which never goes beyond a sense of +awe is no less {“more” in 1929 reprint} complete (though perhaps less serviceable) +than one which has reduced life’s ultimate +and ineffable truth to a pat little formula which a +proud little man expounds before a comfortable +and complacent congregation. I am sorry that +there is no more ethically vital preaching in the +cathedral, though that wretched communion service +this morning, which could help no one if he did +not believe in magic, is hardly typical of everything +which happens in a cathedral. But I am +equally sorry that the sense of awe and reverence +has departed from so many of our churches.</p> + +<p>The very appearance of many of our churches +betrays the loss of one necessary element in religion. +Everything suggests the secular rather than +the religious, from the red hat of the rather too +sensuously pretty soprano soloist and the frock +coat of the rather too self-conscious parson to the +comfortable pew cushions and the splendiferous +pew holders. The morning sun shines brightly +into the “auditorium” and the sun of worldly wisdom +illumines the discourse of the preacher.</p> + +<p>Of course I know that the devotional attitude +frequently destroys clear thinking, and we need +clear thinking for ethical living in a complex civilization. +But it ought not be impossible to preserve +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[57]</span>the poetic with the scientific attitude, the mystical +with the analytical, to have both worship and instruction. +I think that is what Heywood Broun +was driving at some time ago when he expressed +a preference for an “Episcopal church with an +heretical sermon.” Unfortunately the heretical, +i.e., the morally vital and contemporaneous religious +instruction, does not seem to flourish in the +liturgical church.</p> + +<p>But there are men here in England who preach +prophetic sermons in cathedrals. There might be +more. In America they are certainly not numerous. +But that is no reason why we should dismiss +religious awe and reverence as morally dangerous. +After all, the prophetic preaching which we hear in +our “church auditoriums” is not so vigorous as to +give us any certainty that a secularized church is +superior in its moral potency.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[58]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1924_4"> + <i>1924</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>While visiting at the home of Mr. and Mrs. +—— today little Ralph felt it incumbent upon himself +to entertain me by putting the family dog +through his tricks. I have already forgotten the +breed of the dog, but his shaggy locks covered his +eyes so completely that he seemed to be without +eyesight. Ralph told me with great eagerness that +the dog would go blind if his locks were cut to improve +his eyesight. Thus nature adjusts herself to +her own inadequacies, and women of the future +may run the peril of deafness if they uncover their +ears.</p> + +<p>Ralph’s dog gave me the clue to much of our +irreligion. The eyes of so many people have been +covered by superstitions and illusions that they are +not strong enough to preserve their sight in the +daylight of knowledge. Freed from their superstitions, +they are blinded in the very moment +that they are given an unhindered view. They +could see beauty while they lived in twilight, +but a brilliant light obscures life’s beauty and +meaning.</p> + +<p>Of course the eye may ultimately adjust itself +to the brilliance of the light, and as men grow accustomed +to the concrete and specific objects which +distract them on first sight, they will learn again +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[59]</span>to view the whole scene and to regard all things in +their relationships.</p> + +<p>It is in relationships and in totalities that life’s +meaning is revealed.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[60]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1924_5"> + <i>1924</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Since spending the summer in Europe I have +been devoting the entire fall to a development of +our worship service. The various types of ritualistic +services in non-conformist churches I heard +over there appealed to me so much that I decided +to imitate them. Of course the Anglican services +have their own appeal, but the technique which +makes them possible is beyond us. For some years +I have been having a few prayer responses, but now +I am developing a program with litanies, confessions, +acts of praise and every other bit of liturgical +beauty and meaning by which the service can be +enriched.</p> + +<p>It’s a shame we have permitted our services +to become so barren. My only regret is that I did +not wake up in time to build our church properly +for liturgical purposes. There could be much +pleasure in conducting a richly elaborated liturgical +service without the restraint of the rubrics to +which the Anglicans must submit. I do not know +whether the people like the added beauty in the +service as much as I do, but many have expressed +appreciation. It seems to me to make a great deal +of difference in the spiritual value of a service to +have some unison prayer with an authentic religious +emotion expressed in a well turned phrase, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[61]</span>to have choir responses for the prayers and moments +of silence for quiet prayer.</p> + +<p>The idea that a formless service is more spontaneous +and therefore more religious than a formal +one is disproved in my own experience. Only a +very few men have ever really put me in a mood of +prayer by their “pastoral prayers.” On the other +hand, a really beautiful worship service actually +gives me a mystic sense of the divine.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[62]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1924_6"> + <i>1924</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Arrived in —— today and spoke this noon +to a group of liberal people. The meeting was arranged +by the secretary of the Y.W.C.A. I poked +fun at them a little for enjoying their theological +liberalism so much in this part of the country, while +they were afraid of even the mildest economic and +political heresy. Of course that didn’t quite apply +to the people at the table, but it does apply to this +whole section. There is no one quite so ridiculous +as a preacher who prides himself upon his theological +radicalism in a city where the theological battle +was won a generation ago, while he meanwhile +speaks his convictions on matters of economics +only in anxious whispers.</p> + +<p>I was asked to visit —— (leading preacher) +and see whether I could not interest him in our organization. +He was an interesting study. He told +me of his important connections in the city, of his +tremendous church program, of the way he had +increased the budget of his church, of his building +plans, of the necessity “of fighting on one front +at a time,” of his theological battles; and he ended +by declining to join the liberal group which sought +his aid.</p> + +<p>He thought it would not be advisable, considering +his heavy responsibilities, to imperil the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[63]</span>many great “causes” to which he was devoting his +life by identifying himself with a radical movement. +I didn’t mind his cowardice so much, though +he tried to hide it, as his vanity, which he took no +pains to hide. I could just see him cavorting +weekly before his crowd of doting admirers.</p> + +<p>Obviously one of his chief difficulties is that +he is good looking. A minister has enough temptations +to vanity without bearing the moral hazard +of a handsome face. If this young fellow had only +been half as homely as old Dr. Gordon he might +have a chance of acquiring a portion of his grace. +But I don’t want to drive that generalization too +far. I know one or two saintly preachers who could +pose for a collar ad.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[64]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1924_7"> + <i>1924</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Had a letter today informing me that the +First —— church in —— has called a new pastor. +After trying futilely to find the right man, who was +to have as much scholarship as his predecessor and +more “punch,” they decided to raise the salary to +$15,000. I don’t know whether that was the factor +which finally solved their problem, but at any +rate they have the man they want. I suppose it +is not easy to get a combination of Aristotle and +Demosthenes, and on the current market, that +ought to be worth $15,000. Nevertheless there +must be some limit to this matter of oversized +salaries.</p> + +<p>There ought to be some questioning, too, +about the growing tendency of churches to build +their congregations around pulpit eloquence. +What kind of fundamental ethical question can a +man be eloquent about when he draws that much +cash, particularly since a Croesus or two usually +has to supply an undue proportion of it? I don’t +know anything about the prophet of the Lord who +accepted this call, but I venture to prophesy that +no sinner in that pagan city will quake in his boots +in anticipation of his coming.</p> + +<p>The idea of a professional good man is difficult +enough for all of us who are professionally engaged +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[65]</span>as teachers of the moral ideal. Of course, +“a man must live,” and it is promised that if we +seek first the kingdom and its righteousness “all +these things shall be added unto us.” But I doubt +whether Jesus had a $15,000 salary in mind. If +the things that are added become too numerous +they distract your attention terribly. To try to +keep your eye on the main purpose may only result +in making you squint-eyed. I hope the new +prophet won’t begin his pastorate with a sermon on +the text, “I count all things but loss.”</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[66]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1924_8"> + <i>1924</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>I was a little ashamed of what I wrote recently +about ministers’ salaries, but today I was +strangely justified in my criticism. Walking into +a store to buy a hat I met an old friend who told +me about his new preacher. His church had tried +for a long while to secure the right man, and then +by dint of a special campaign they raised the salary +from $6,000 to $10,000. That is obviously +more than most of the people in the congregation +make. He said to me with considerable pride, +“You ought to hear our new preacher. My, but +he is a great talker!” Then he came close and +whispered to me out of hearing of the other customers: +“He ought to be. We are paying him +ten thousand dollars.” The cynicism was quite +unconscious.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[67]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1924_9"> + <i>1924</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>I begin to realize how little religious faith depends +upon dialectical support. When called upon +to bury some one whose life revealed spiritual +charm and moral force I can preach the hope of +immortality with conviction and power. But +funerals of religious and moral nondescripts leave +me enervated. I think I could bury a brazen sinner +with more satisfaction. There is always a note +of real tragedy in the life of an obvious reprobate +that gives point to a sermon. But these Tomlinsons +are a trial.</p> + +<p>Of course, there is a good deal of pride in such +an attitude, and it is partly due to ignorance. As +soon as I know the person whose death is mourned +I can enter into the occasion sympathetically. +There is hardly a soul so poor and flaccid but does +not reveal some glimpse of the eternal in its life. +If I happen to lack contact with the deceased I +might well remind myself that his death is sincerely +mourned by those who are near. It is after +all a glorious tribute to the qualities of human nature +that those who know us best love us most. +Perhaps their love is occasionally no more than a +natural attachment which men conceive for familiar +objects.</p> + +<p>Funerals are a terrible trial to me, but I must +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[68]</span>admit that the stolid courage and quiet grief of +most mourners is a real source of inspiration. Only +occasionally does one meet with hysterical grief +and theatrical and insincere sorrow. How desperately +people brush up their little faith in times of +sorrow! It is quite easy to see that religious faith +prospers because of, and not in spite of, the tribulations +of this world. It is because this mortal +life is felt as an irrelevancy to the main purpose +in life that men achieve the courage to hope for +immortality.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[69]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1924_10"> + <i>1924</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>We had a union Thanksgiving service today. +It would have been a nice service but for the fact +that the leader could not get over the fact that +four denominations had been able to achieve unity +to undertake such a service. This was supposed +to be a great advance. As a matter of fact the +people in the church were long since united in +dozens of community enterprises. The men, whatever +church they belonged to, attended the same +Rotary and Kiwanis clubs and the women +were members of the same literary and review +clubs.</p> + +<p>The church has lost the chance of becoming +the unifying element in our American society. It +is not anticipating any facts. It is merely catching +up very slowly to the new social facts created by +economic and other forces. The American melting +pot is doing its work. The churches merely represent +various European cultures, lost in the amalgam +of American life and maintaining a separate +existence only in religion.</p> + +<p>What we accomplish in the way of church +unity ought to be accepted with humility and not +hailed with pride. We are not creating. We are +merely catching up with creation.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[70]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1924_11"> + <i>1924</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Going to St. Louis today a portly and garrulous +gentleman sat back of me and became very +much interested in two nuns who were reading their +prayerbooks. The man, who seemed the perfect +type of successful drummer, felt very superior to the +nuns. How can anyone “fall for that stuff” in this +day and age, he wanted to know in a loud whisper. +“They remind me of ghosts,” he said.</p> + +<p>I had to admit that there was something almost +unearthly about these black figures with their +white-rimmed hoods. But their faces were kindly +and human, and the face of the drummer was sensuous +and florid. Perhaps the difference between him +and the nuns illustrates the quality of our “modernity,” +though I don’t want to maintain that he is +the perfect type of a modern man. But we do have +a great many moderns who are emancipated from +every kind of religious discipline without achieving +any new loyalty which might qualify the brutal +factors in human life.</p> + +<p>It is better that life incarnate some ideal value, +even if mixed with illusion, (though anything which +has the spirit of love in it is not wholly illusion) +than that it should express nothing but the will to +live. My drummer thinks of himself as a modern +in comparison with those nuns. I looked at him +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[71]</span>squatting there and glanced again at the homely +but beautiful faces of the nuns and said to myself: +What is modern and what is ancient? Were there +not toads before there were ghosts and fairies?</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[72]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1924_12"> + <i>1924</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Bishop Williams is dead. I sit and stare at +the floor while I say that to myself and try to believe +it. How strangely a vital personality defies +the facts of death. Nowhere have I seen a personality +more luminous with the Christ spirit than in +this bishop who was also a prophet. Here was a +man who knew how to interpret the Christian religion +so that it meant something in terms of an industrial +civilization. His fearless protagonism of +the cause of democracy in industry won him the +respect and love of the workers of the city as no +other churchman possessed it.</p> + +<p>Yet I am afraid that it must be admitted that +he didn’t change the prevailing attitude of Detroit +industry by a hair’s breadth. He even had to offer +his resignation in the face of increasing hostility to +his social views. That letter of resignation was +incidentally a gem of humble self-analysis and +courageous insistence on the truth of his doctrine.</p> + +<p>He did not change Detroit industry but he +left many of us holding our heads more upright +because of his intelligent and courageous analysis +of contemporary civilization from the perspective +of a Christian conscience. If a bishop with all his +prestige could make no bigger dent upon the prevailing +mood of the city, what chance is there for +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[73]</span>the rest of us? Perhaps the best that any of us +can do is to say:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Charge once more then and be dumb,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Let the victors when they come,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When the forts of folly fall,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Find thy body by the wall.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Rejoice, said Jesus, not that the devils are +subject unto you but that your names are written +in heaven. One ought to strive for the reformation +of society rather than one’s own perfection. But +society resists every effort to bring its processes +under ethical restraint so stubbornly that one must +finally be satisfied with preserving one’s moral integrity +in a necessary and yet futile struggle. Of +course the struggle is never as futile as it seems +from an immediate perspective. The bishop did +not change Detroit industry, but if the church ever +becomes a real agency of the kingdom of God in +an industrial civilization, his voice, though he is +dead, will be in its counsels.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[74]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1925"> + <i>1925</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>When I sit through a church conference I +begin to see a little more clearly why religion is on +the whole so impotent ethically, why the achievements +of the church are so meager compared to its +moral pretensions. Sermon after sermon, speech +after speech is based upon the assumption that the +people of the church are committed to the ethical +ideals of Jesus and that they are the sole or at least +chief agents of redemptive energy in society.</p> + +<p>It is very difficult to persuade people who are +committed to a general ideal to consider the meaning +of that ideal in specific situations. It is even +more difficult to prompt them to consider specific +ends of social and individual conduct and to evaluate +them in the light of experience.</p> + +<p>The church conference begins and ends by attempting +to arouse an emotion of the ideal, usually +in terms of personal loyalty to the person of Jesus, +but very little is done to attach the emotion to +specific tasks and projects. Is the industrial life +of our day unethical? Are nations imperialistic? +Is the family disintegrating? Are young people +losing their sense of values? If so, we are told over +and over again that nothing will help but “a new +baptism of the spirit,” a “new revival of religion,” +a “great awakening of the religious consciousness.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[75]</span></p> + +<p>But why not be specific? Why doesn’t the +church offer specific suggestions for the application +of a Christian ethic to the difficulties of our +day? If that suggestion is made, the answer is that +such a policy would breed contention. It certainly +would. No moral project can be presented and no +adventure made without resistance from the traditionalist +and debate among experimentalists. But +besides being more effective, such a course would +be more interesting than this constant bathing in +sentimentalities. If the church could only achieve +schisms on ethical issues! They would represent +life and reality. Its present schisms are not immoral +as such. They are immoral only in the sense +that they perpetuate issues which have no relevancy +in our day.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[76]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1925_1"> + <i>1925</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>The reactions of a group of ministers to an +address on the relation of religion to modern life +are always interesting. Invariably there is one +group of men who are pathetically eager to “do +something about it,” to save civilization from its +perils. I think the church will compare favorably +with the university in the number of men who are +not blinded to the defects of modern life and who +are not enervated by a sense of futility. The university +has plenty of men whose eyes are open, but +they despair much more easily of finding a way out +than the preachers. The ministers have not lost +some of that saving grace, “the foolishness of +faith.”</p> + +<p>Of course there is always a group of those who +sit sullenly while you harangue them. I had my +eye fixed on one portly and prosperous priest today +who was obviously out of accord with what +I was saying. Of course I have no right to +judge him because he did not agree with me. +But he seemed to me to be one of those satisfied +and complacent chaplains who has fed so long +at the flesh-pots of Egypt that he resents anything +which disturbs his ease. A man like +that reminds me of the eunuchs of old who were +robbed of their virility that they might adorn +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[77]</span>without endangering their masters’ luxurious +establishments.</p> + +<p>The old gentleman was there too who wanted +to know whether I believed in the deity of Jesus. +He is in every town. He seemed to be a nice sort, +but he wanted to know how I could speak for an +hour on the Christian church without once mentioning +the atonement. Nothing, said he, but the +blood of Jesus would save America from its perils. +He made quite an impassioned speech. At first I +was going to answer him but it seemed too useless. +I finally told him I believed in blood atonement +too, but since I hadn’t shed any of the blood of sacrifice +which it demanded I felt unworthy to enlarge +upon the idea.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[78]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1925_2"> + <i>1925</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>We went through one of the big automobile +factories today. So artificial is life that these factories +are like a strange world to me though I have +lived close to them for many years. The foundry +interested me particularly. The heat was terrific. +The men seemed weary. Here manual labor is a +drudgery and toil is slavery. The men cannot possibly +find any satisfaction in their work. They +simply work to make a living. Their sweat and +their dull pain are part of the price paid for the +fine cars we all run. And most of us run the cars +without knowing what price is being paid for them.</p> + +<p>Looking at these men the words of Markham’s +“The Man with the Hoe” came to me. A +man with a hoe is a happy creature beside these +suffering souls.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“The emptiness of ages in his face”</div> + <div class="verse indent1">· · · · · · · · ·</div> + <div class="verse indent0">“Who made him dead to rapture and despair,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A thing that grieves not and that never hopes,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Stolid and stunned, a brother to the ox?”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>We are all responsible. We all want the +things which the factory produces and none of us +is sensitive enough to care how much in human +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[79]</span>values the efficiency of the modern factory costs. +Beside the brutal facts of modern industrial life, +how futile are all our homiletical spoutings! The +church is undoubtedly cultivating graces and preserving +spiritual amenities in the more protected +areas of society. But it isn’t changing the essential +facts of modern industrial civilization by a +hair’s breadth. It isn’t even thinking about them.</p> + +<p>The morality of the church is anachronistic. +Will it ever develop a moral insight and courage +sufficient to cope with the real problems of modern +society? If it does it will require generations +of effort and not a few martyrdoms. We ministers +maintain our pride and self-respect and our sense +of importance only through a vast and inclusive +ignorance. If we knew the world in which we live +a little better we would perish in shame or be overcome +by a sense of futility.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[80]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1925_3"> + <i>1925</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>The new parish organization seems to be +working splendidly. The congregation is divided +into nine sections, each with a man and woman as +parish leaders. Each section meets twice a year in +cottage meetings, and meanwhile the leaders and +their assistants visit the various families, particularly +the new members and those who are sick. +Some splendid new leaders have already been +developed by this plan. Since I must be absent +from the city so much, the plan is all the +more valuable.</p> + +<p>Last Sunday we discussed in the class whether +a church ought to develop fellowship for its own +sake or whether fellowship ought to be the inevitable +by-product of unifying convictions. I suppose +a small church in a hostile environment would +not have to worry about fellowship. If people +fight shoulder to shoulder they will be brothers. +But even the most heroic church is not so definitely +in conflict with the society in which it lives +that you can really count on that kind of fellowship. +A local congregation is, after all, a social organism +in which heroic idealism is expressed in an +occasional adventure, if at all, rather than in a +constant tension between its principles and the +moral mediocrities of the world.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[81]</span></p> + +<p>Meanwhile, it seems to me to be worth while +to cultivate the graces of neighborliness merely for +their own sake. This is particularly true in the +large city where life is so impersonal and where +the church has a fine opportunity to personalize it +a little. What surprises me is the readiness with +which people give themselves to various forms of +mutual aid once they are prompted to engage in +them.</p> + +<p>Most people lack imagination much more than +they lack good will. If someone points out what +can be done and what ought to be done there is +usually someone to do it.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[82]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1925_4"> + <i>1925</i> + <br> + On a Western Trip + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Out here on the Pacific coast, particularly in +Los Angeles, one is forcibly impressed with the influence +of environment upon religion. Every kind +of cult seems to flourish in Los Angeles, and most +of them are pantheistic. Every sorry oriental religious +nostrum is borrowed in the vain effort to +give meaning to pointless lives and to impart a +thrill to vacuous existences. The pantheism is +partly due, no doubt, to the salubrious nature of +the southern California climate. Wherever nature +is unusually benignant, men tend to identify God +and the natural world and to lose all moral vigor +in the process.</p> + +<p>But that is hardly the whole explanation. +There are too many retired people in Los Angeles. +They left the communities where their personalities +had some social significance in order to vegetate +on these pleasant shores. In this sorry and +monotonous existence they try to save their self-respect +by grasping for some religious faith which +will not disturb their ease by any too rigorous +ethical demands. Of course Aimee Semple +McPherson is more successful than the pantheistic +cults. She fights the devil and gives the people a +good show. She storms against the vices which +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[83]</span>flourish in this paradise without touching their +roots. Furthermore she has the art of casting the +glow of religious imagination over sensuality without +changing its essential nature. In that art she +seems to be typical rather than unique for this +whole civilization. If she is unique it is only in +her success.</p> + +<p>They are always telling me that Detroit is the +most typically American of our cities. Perhaps +Detroit is typical of the America which works +feverishly to get what it wants, while Los Angeles +is typical of the America which has secured what +it wants. On the whole I prefer the former to the +latter. An honest enthusiasm even for inadequate +ends is better than a vacuous existence from which +even the charm of an imperfect ambition has +departed. Of course the paganism of power is +more dangerous than the paganism of pleasure, +but from the perspective of a mere observer it +is more interesting. Who would not prefer +Napoleon to his imbecile brothers who merely +luxuriated in the prosperity created by his +ambition?</p> + +<p>Only in the case of complete innocency, as +that of a child’s, is life more beautiful in repose +than in activity. Character is created by a balance +of tensions, and is more lovely even when the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[84]</span>balance is imperfect than in a state of complete +relaxation.</p> + +<p>Of course Los Angeles has more culture than +our midwestern cities. Culture flourishes in leisure +and sometimes redeems it. But it will be a long +time before this kind of leisure will produce more +than dilettantism.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[85]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1925_5"> + <i>1925</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>We had a communion service tonight (Good +Friday) and I preached on the text “We preach +Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and +to the Gentiles foolishness, but to them that are +called the power of God and the wisdom of God.” +I don’t think I ever felt greater joy in preaching a +sermon. How experience and life change our perspectives! +It was only a few years ago that I did +not know what to make of the cross; at least I +made no more of it than to recognize it as a historic +fact which proved the necessity of paying a +high price for our ideals. Now I see it as a symbol +of ultimate reality.</p> + +<p>It seems pathetic to me that liberalism has +too little appreciation of the tragedy of life to understand +the cross and orthodoxy insists too much +upon the absolute uniqueness of the sacrifice of +Christ to make the preaching of the cross effective. +How can anything be uniquely potent if it is absolutely +unique? It is because the cross of Christ +symbolizes something in the very heart of reality, +something in universal experience that it has its +central place in history. Life is tragic and the +most perfect type of moral beauty inevitably has +at least a touch of the tragic in it. Why? That is +not so easy to explain. But love pays such a high +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[86]</span>price for its objectives and sets its objectives so +high that they can never be attained. There is +therefore always a foolish and a futile aspect to +love’s quest which give it the note of tragedy.</p> + +<p>What makes this tragedy redemptive is that +the foolishness of love is revealed as wisdom in the +end and its futility becomes the occasion for new +moral striving. About heroes, saints, and saviors +it must always remain true “that they, without us +should not be made perfect.”</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[87]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1925_6"> + <i>1925</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>I wonder if the strong sense of frustration +which comes over me so frequently on Sunday evening +and to which many other parsons have confessed, +is merely due to physical lassitude or +whether it arises from the fact that every preacher +is trying to do a bigger thing than he is equal to—and +fails. I have an uneasy feeling that it may +be native honesty of the soul asserting itself. +Aren’t we preachers talking altogether too much +about what can be proved and justified only in +experience?</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[88]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1925_7"> + <i>1925</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Mr. —— spoke at a luncheon meeting today. +He made everyone writhe as he pictured the injustices +and immoralities of our present industrial +system. The tremendous effect of his powerful +address was partially offset by the bitterness with +which he spoke and by the ill-concealed assumption +that his hearers would not care enough about +what he said to change their attitudes. I suppose +it is difficult to escape bitterness when you have the +eyes to see and the heart to feel what others are too +blind and too callous to notice. The mordant note +in the discourse of the prophet may not only be inevitable +but pedagogically effective.</p> + +<p>Perhaps there is no other way to arouse a +people who are so oblivious to the real issues of +modern civilization. Yet I am compelled to doubt +the pedagogical benefits of this approach. While +I use it myself, sometimes I don’t like to have it +used on me. It freezes my soul. And there is +usually some injustice, some insupportable generalization, +involved in this method which obsesses +my mind and makes it difficult for me to see the +general truth with which the speaker wants to impress +me.</p> + +<p>If I had to choose between this bitterness and +the blandness of many pulpiteers I would, of course, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[89]</span>choose the former. Better a warrior’s grimness +than the childish sentimentalities of people who are +too ignorant or too selfish to bear the burdens of +the world. There are too many men in the pulpit +who look and act for all the world like cute little +altar boys who have no idea that the mass in which +they are participating is a dramatization of +tragedy.</p> + +<p>Yet there seems to be no reason why a warrior +ought not maintain his effectiveness and yet overcome +his bitterness, particularly if he is a warrior +who is fighting “not against flesh and blood but +against spiritual wickedness in high places.” The +one certain cure for a bitter spirit seems to me a +realization that the critic is himself involved in the +sins which he castigates. Man is imperialistic and +even parasitic in his nature. He lives his life at +the expense of other lives. By both outer compulsion +and inner restraint, his expansive desires are +brought under sufficient discipline to make social +life possible.</p> + +<p>But there is no social life, not even in the family, +which does not illustrate this native imperialism +in life. Look at all these professional people, +preachers, professors and doctors! Even in the +moment in which they declare their superiority over +the commercial world, where life is more frankly +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[90]</span>selfish and more obviously brutal, they illustrate +the common human frailty by some petty jockeying +for position, or some jealous depreciation of the +success of others, or some childish ego-assertion.</p> + +<p>The pessimist might draw the conclusion from +this fact that we can make progress only by a reorganization +of society and never by a reformation +of human nature. But that conclusion does not +seem to me to follow from the facts. We do need +a constant reorganization of social processes and +systems, so that society will not aggravate but mitigate +the native imperialistic impulses of man. The +greed of modern civilization is partly an expression +of a universal human tendency and partly a vice +peculiar to a civilization with our kind of productive +process.</p> + +<p>But meanwhile we can not afford to leave the +capacities of man out of the picture. There seems +to me no reason why we can not cure people of +greed by making them conscious of both the nature +and the consequences of their expansive tendencies. +Only we ought to realize, while we are doing it, +that our own life reveals some refined form of the +sin which we abhor. That will make it possible to +undertake the task of world regeneration with a +spirit of patience and humility.</p> + +<p>The modern pulpit does not face this problem +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[91]</span>because it is not really preaching repentance. Its +estimate of human nature is too romantic to give +people any appreciation of the brutalities of life +which are frequently most real where they are most +covert—in the lives of the respectable classes. +But whenever a prophet is born, either inside or +outside of the church, he does face the problem of +preaching repentance without bitterness and of +criticising without spiritual pride.</p> + +<p>It is a real problem. Mr. —— is effective, +after a fashion, because he is an itinerant. We +only have to hear him once in so many years. But +think of sitting Sunday after Sunday under some +professional holy man who is constantly asserting +his egotism by criticising yours. I would rebel if I +were a layman. A spiritual leader who has too +many illusions is useless. One who has lost his illusions +about mankind and retains his illusions about +himself is insufferable. Let the process of disillusionment +continue until the self is included. At +that point, of course, only religion can save from +the enervation of despair. But it is at that point +that true religion is born.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[92]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1926"> + <i>1926</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Preachers who are in danger of degenerating +into common scolds might learn a great deal from +H——’s preaching style. I am not thinking now +of the wealth of scholarship which enriches his +utterances but of his technique in uniting religious +emotion with aspiration rather than with duty. If +he wants to convict Detroit of her sins he preaches +a sermon on “the City of God,” and lets all the +limitations of this get-rich-quick metropolis emerge +by implication. If he wants to flay the denominationalism +of the churches he speaks on some topic +which gives him the chance to delineate the ideal +and inclusive church.</p> + +<p>On the whole, people do not achieve great +moral heights out of a sense of duty. You may be +able to compel them to maintain certain minimum +standards by stressing duty, but the highest moral +and spiritual achievements depend not upon a push +but upon a pull. People must be charmed into +righteousness. The language of aspiration rather +than that of criticism and command is the proper +pulpit language. Of course it has its limitations. +In every congregation there are a few perverse sinners +who can go into emotional ecstasies about the +“City of God” and yet not see how they are helping +to make their city a hell-hole.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[93]</span></p> + +<p>It is not a good thing to convict sin only by +implication. Sometimes the cruel word of censure +must be uttered. “Woe unto you Scribes and +Pharisees, hypocrites” was spoken by one who incarnated +tenderness. The language of aspiration +is always in danger of becoming soft; but it is possible +to avoid that pitfall and yet not sink into a +habit of cheap scolding. I like the way H—— +does it.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[94]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1926_1"> + <i>1926</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Cynics sometimes insinuate that you can love +people only if you don’t know them too well; that +a too intimate contact with the foibles and idiosyncrasies +of men will tempt one to be a misanthrope. +I have not found it so. I save myself from cynicism +by knowing individuals, and knowing them +intimately. If I viewed humanity only from some +distant and high perspective I could not save myself +from misanthropy. I think the reason is simply +that people are not as decent in their larger +relationship as in their more intimate contacts.</p> + +<p>Look at the industrial enterprise anywhere +and you find criminal indifference on the part of +the strong to the fate of the weak. The lust for +power and the greed for gain are the dominant note +in business. An industrial overlord will not share +his power with his workers until he is forced to do +so by tremendous pressure. The middle classes, +with the exception of a small minority of intelligentsia, +do not aid the worker in exerting this pressure. +He must fight alone.</p> + +<p>The middle classes are in fact quite incapable +of any high degree of social imagination. Their experience +is too limited to give them a clear picture +of the real issues in modern industrial life. Non-union +mines may organize in West Virginia and reduce +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[95]</span>miners to a starvation wage without challenging +the conscience of a great middle class nation. +If the children of strikers are starving it is more +difficult to find support for them than to win contributors +for the missions of the church. America +may arouse the resentment of the world by its +greed and all the good people of the American +prairie will feel nothing but injured innocence from +these European and Asiatic reactions to our greed.</p> + +<p>Men are clearly not very lovely in the mass. +One can maintain confidence in them only by viewing +them at close range. Then one may see the +moral nobility of unselfish parenthood, the pathetic +eagerness of father and mother to give their children +more of life than they enjoyed; the faithfulness +of wives to their erring husbands; the grateful +respect of mature children for their old parents; +the effort of this and that courageous soul to maintain +personal integrity in a world which continually +tempts to dishonesty, and the noble aspirations +of hearts that must seem quite unheroic to the unheeding +world.</p> + +<p>The same middle classes which seem so blind +to the larger moral problems of society have, after +all, the most wholesome family life of any group +in society.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[96]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1926_2"> + <i>1926</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Here is a preacher whom I have suspected of +cowardice for years because he never deviated by +a hair’s breadth from the economic prejudices of +his wealthy congregation. I thought he knew better +but was simply afraid to speak out and seek to +qualify the arch-conservatism of his complacent +crowd with a little Christian idealism. But I was +mistaken. I have just heard that he recently included +in his sermon a tirade against women who +smoke cigarettes and lost almost a hundred of +his fashionable parishioners. He is evidently not +lacking courage in matters upon which he has deep +convictions. Nobody, for that matter, lacks courage +when convictions are strong. Courage is simply +the rigorous devotion to one set of values +against other values and interests.</p> + +<p>Protestantism’s present impotence in qualifying +the economic and social life of the nation is due +not so much to the pusillanimity of the clerical +leaders as to its individualistic traditions. The +church honestly regards it of greater moment to +prevent women from smoking cigarettes than to +establish more Christian standards in industrial +enterprise. A minister who tries to prevent fashionable +women from smoking cigarettes is simply +trying to enforce a code of personal habit established +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[97]</span>in the middle classes of the nineteenth century +upon the plutocratic classes of the twentieth +century. The effort is not only vain but has little +to do with essential Christianity.</p> + +<p>I would not deny that some real values may be +at stake in such questions of personal habits. But +they affect the dominant motives which determine +the spirituality or sensuality of character but +slightly. The church does not seem to realize how +unethical a conventionally respectable life may be.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[98]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1926_3"> + <i>1926</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Some of these young business men in the congregation +would compare favorably with any leaders +who grace the pulpits of our churches. Their +family relations seem to be almost ideal. They +are trying honestly to live a Christian life in their +business relations. Lack of power sometimes +means that they cannot go as far in experimenting +with Christian values as they would like. But they +are not complacent. They are eager to learn, and +are fair and careful in their judgments. Their +virtues are acquired with less self-conscious effort +than those of more studious people. They think +and plan, but they do not stop the adventure of life +to meditate upon its difficulties and inadequacies.</p> + +<p>Extravert people are on the whole happier and +more wholesome than the introverts. If they do +not act too unreflectively, they are able to define +their goals fairly accurately and they certainly +pursue them with more robust energy than do the +moody intellectuals.</p> + +<p>It is surprising, too, how considerate and generous +they are in their relations with one another +and with me. They take my impetuosities for +granted and exhibit little pettiness in their dealings +with one another. The women do not get along +quite so well together. They are too new at playing +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[99]</span>the game of life with others. But I will not belabor +that point. I may be exhibiting bachelor +prejudices in making it. At any rate I am willing +to compare this group of young men who bear the +burdens of our church with any faculty group in +the country. They can teach you nothing about +philosophy, but they do teach you much about life +and they reënforce your confidence in human +nature.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[100]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1926_4"> + <i>1926</i> + <br> + After Attending a Jewish-Christian Conference + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Fellowship with peoples of other religious +groups always results in the grateful experience of +discovering unsuspected treasuries of common sentiment +and conviction. More contact between enlightened +Jews and Christians would change the +emphasis in many a Christian homily. This conference +was rewarding in many ways. But at one +point I fail absolutely to understand my Jewish +friends. All of them, high and low, intelligent and +those who are less so, insist that the story of the +crucifixion is the real root of all or of most antisemitism, +and they seem to have some vain hope +that broadminded Christians will be able and willing +to erase the story of the cross from the gospel +record. The least they expect is that the odium +of the cross be placed upon the Romans rather +than the Jews.</p> + +<p>I can see that there would be some advantage +in ascribing a historic sin to a people who live only +in history and who can therefore not be victimized +by belated vindictive prejudices. But would that +be history? The record is pretty plain and the +fact that the Jewish elders rather than Roman soldiers +were the real crucifiers is supported not only +by evidence but by logic. The prophets of religion +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[101]</span>are always martyred by the religious rather than +by the irreligious. The Romans, being irreligious, +were not sufficiently fanatical to initiate the crucifixion.</p> + +<p>It must be admitted that the phraseology of +the Fourth Gospel may easily incite the prejudices +of the ignorant. But the enlightened will find a +better method to allay any antisemitic feeling +which may result from the record than to ascribe +the crucifixion to the Romans. They need only +ascribe it to the general limitations of human nature +and society. Jews are not the only people +who martyr and who have martyred their prophets. +The history of every nation and every people +makes the crucifixion a perennial and a universal +historical fact.</p> + +<p>That is the very reason why Christians can no +more afford to eliminate the cross than they can +ascribe it to the fortunately extinct Romans. Anyone +who incarnates the strategy of love as Jesus +did meets the resistance and incites the passions of +human society. The respectabilities of any human +society are based upon moral compromises and +every community is as anxious to defend these +compromises against the prophet who presents +some higher moral logic as against the criminal +who imperils the structure from below.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[102]</span></p> + +<p>The cross is central in the Christian religion, +moreover, because it symbolizes a cosmic as well +as an historic truth. Love conquers the world, but +its victory is not an easy one. The price of all +creativity and redemption is pain. Most modern +religionists who understand the God of creation +and not the God of redemption fail in understanding +the latter precisely because they do not see +how closely related creation and redemption are. +Which simply means that they don’t understand +that creation is a painful process in which the old +does not give way to the new without trying to +overcome it.</p> + +<p>The cross of Jesus is truly the most adequate +symbol of both the strategy and the destiny of love +not only in history but in the universe. We may +grant our Jewish brethren that it is not the only +possible symbol of eternal verities, but it is a true +one, and it cannot therefore be sacrificed.</p> + +<p>Incidentally, I believe that Jewish people +have a tendency to overestimate the religious bases +of antisemitism. Racial rather than religious prejudice +is the dominant factor in this social disease. +All ignorant people hate or fear those who deviate +from their type. Religious divergences may be as +important as cultural and physical differences, but +they are not dominant. The Jews could accept our +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[103]</span>religion and if they maintained their racial integrity +they would still suffer from various types of +social ostracism. After all the Negroes are Christian, +but that hasn’t helped them much. Some +Jews dislike this comparison very much. They do +not like to be put upon the same basis with the +Negroes. But that reveals unrealistic social analysis. +The majority group is intolerant of minorities +whether their culture is inferior, superior or equal.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[104]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1926_5"> + <i>1926</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>One is hardly tempted to lose confidence in +the future after listening to a group of young people +discussing the important problems of life. Of +course the number who approach the future reflectively +and with real appreciation for the issues involved +in the readjustment of traditions to new +situations is not large. There are not many such +groups and even in these the number who really +take part in the discussion is small.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless their wholesomeness is impressive. +I can’t always withhold a sense of pity for +them. With traditions crumbling and accepted +standards inundated by a sea of moral relativity, +they have a desperate task on their hands to construct +new standards adequate for their happiness. +There is always the temptation to be too rebellious +or too traditional, to be scornful of the old standard +even when it preserves obvious virtues, or to +flee to it for fear of being lost in the confusion of +new standards. Yet the best way of avoiding these +dangers is to subject them to the scrutiny of a +thoughtful group which knows how to discern the +limitations of any position, old or new.</p> + +<p>On the whole the discussions of our young +people at the church seem to be more wholesome +than those in which I participate in the colleges. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[105]</span>Most of these young folks have assumed responsibilities +and are therefore not as inclined to be morbidly +critical and sceptical as the college group. +The cases cited from their own experience help to +give vitality to their discussion, and they are not +enervated by that extreme sophistication which +imperils the college youth and tempts him to end +every discussion and discount every discovery with +the reflection, “This also is vanity.”</p> + +<p>I really wonder how we are going to build a +civilization sufficiently intelligent to overcome dangerous +prejudices and to emancipate itself from the +inadequacies of conventional morality without creating +the kind of sophistication which destroys all +values by its scepticism and dampens every enthusiasm +by its cynicism. In America that possibility +is particularly dangerous because our intellectualism +is of the sophomoric type. There is no generation, +or only one generation, between the pioneers +who conquered the prairies and these youngsters +who are trying to absorb the whole of modern culture +in four years. The traditions against which +they react are less adequate, less modified by experience +and culture, than those which inform the +peoples of Europe.</p> + +<p>And the teachers who guide them into the +world of new knowledge are frequently themselves +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[106]</span>so recently emancipated that they try to obscure +their cultural, religious and moral heritages by extreme +iconoclasm. It is difficult to be patient with +one of these smart aleck Ph.D.s on a western campus +who imagines that he can impress the world +with his learning by being scornful of everything +that was thought or done before this century.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[107]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1926_6"> + <i>1926</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>A letter from Hyde brings the sad news that +C—— has lost his pastorate. I am not surprised. +He is courageous but tactless. Undoubtedly he +will regard himself as one of the Lord’s martyrs. +Perhaps he is. Perhaps loyalty to principle will +always appear as tactlessness from the perspective +of those who don’t agree with you. But I agree +with C—— and still think him wanting in common +sense. At least he is pedagogically very awkward.</p> + +<p>You can’t rush into a congregation which has +been fed from its very infancy on the individualistic +ethic of Protestantism and which is immersed +in a civilization where ethical individualism runs +riot, and expect to develop a social conscience +among the people in two weeks. Nor have you a +right to insinuate that they are all hypocrites just +because they don’t see what you see.</p> + +<p>Of course it is not easy to speak the truth in +love without losing a part of the truth, and therefore +one ought not be too critical of those who put +their emphasis on the truth rather than on love. +But if a man is not willing to try, at least, to be +pedagogical, and if in addition he suffers from a +martyr complex, he has no place in the ministry. +Undoubtedly there are more ministers who violate +their conscience than such as suffer for conscience +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[108]</span>sake. But that is no reason why those who have a +robust conscience should not try to master the +pedagogical art. Perhaps if they would learn +nothing else but to be less emotional and challenging +in the pulpit and more informative and educational +not only in the pulpit but in their work with +smaller groups, they could really begin to change +the viewpoints and perspectives of their people.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[109]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1926_7"> + <i>1926</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Spoke tonight to the Churchmen’s Club of +——. The good Bishop who introduced me was +careful to disavow all my opinions before I uttered +them. He assured the brethren, however, that I +would make them think. I am getting tired of +these introductions which are intended to impress +the speaker with the Christian virtue of the audience +and its willingness to listen to other then +conventional opinions. The chairman declares in +effect, “Here is a hairbrained fellow who talks nonsense. +But we are Christian gentlemen who can +listen with patience and sympathy to even the most +impossible opinions.” It is just a device to destroy +the force of a message and to protect the sensitive +souls who might be rudely shocked by a religious +message which came in conflict with their interests +and prejudices.</p> + +<p>There is something pathetic about the timidity +of the religious leader who is always afraid +of what an honest message on controversial issues +might do to his organization. I often wonder when +I read the eleventh chapter of Hebrews in which +faith and courage are practically identified whether +it is psychologically correct to assume that the one +flows from the other. Courage is a rare human +achievement. If it seems to me that preachers are +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[110]</span>more cowardly than other groups; that may be +because I know myself. But I must confess that +I haven’t discovered much courage in the ministry. +The average parson is characterized by suavity and +circumspection rather than by any robust fortitude. +I do not intend to be mean in my criticism +because I am a coward myself and find it tremendously +difficult to run counter to general opinion. +Yet religion has always produced some martyrs +and heroes.</p> + +<p>I suppose religion in its most vital form does +make men indifferent to popular approval. The +apostle Paul averred that it was a small thing to +be judged of men because he was seeking the approval +of God. In a genuinely religious soul faith +does seem to operate in that way. Issues are regarded +<i>sub specie aeternitatis</i> and the judgment +of contemporaries becomes insignificant. But the +average man fashions his standards in the light of +prevailing customs and opinions. It could hardly +be expected that every religious leader would be +filled with prophetic ardor and heedless courage. +Many good men are naturally cautious. But it +does seem that the unique resource of religion +ought to give at least a touch of daring to the religious +community and the religious leader.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[111]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1926_8"> + <i>1926</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>The excitement about the Federation of Labor +convention in Detroit has subsided, but there +are echoes of the event in various magazines. Several +ministers have been commended for “courage” +because they permitted labor leaders to speak +in their churches who represented pretty much +their own convictions and said pretty much what +they had been saying for years.</p> + +<p>It does seem pretty bad to have the churches +lined up so solidly against labor and for the open +shop policy of the town. The ministers are hardly +to blame, except if they are to be condemned for +not bringing out the meaning of Christianity for +industrial relations more clearly in their ministry +previous to the moment of crisis. As it was, few of +the churches were sufficiently liberal to be able +to risk an heretical voice in their pulpits. The idea +that these A. F. of L. leaders are dangerous heretics +is itself a rather illuminating clue to the mind of +Detroit. I attended several sessions of the convention +and the men impressed me as having about +the same amount of daring and imagination as a +group of village bankers.</p> + +<p>The ministers of the country are by various +methods dissociating themselves from the Detroit +churches and are implying that they would have +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[112]</span>acted more generously in a like situation. Perhaps +so. There are few cities in which wealth, +suddenly acquired and proud of the mechanical efficiency +which produced it, is so little mellowed by +social intelligence. Detroit produces automobiles +and is not yet willing to admit that the poor automata +who are geared in on the production lines +have any human problems.</p> + +<p>Yet we differ only in degree from the rest of +the country. The churches of America are on the +whole thoroughly committed to the interests and +prejudices of the middle classes. I think it is a +bit of unwarranted optimism to expect them to +make any serious contribution to the reorganization +of society. I still have hopes that they will +become sufficiently intelligent and heroic to develop +some qualifying considerations in the great +industrial struggle, but I can no longer envisage +them as really determining factors in the struggle. +Neither am I able for this reason to regard them as +totally useless, as some of the critics do.</p> + +<p>The ethical reconstruction of modern industrial +society is, to be sure, a very important problem, +but it is not the only concern of mankind. +The spiritual amenities and moral decencies which +the churches help to develop and preserve in the +private lives of individuals are worth something +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[113]</span>for their own sake. Yet it must be obvious that if +anyone is chosen by talent and destiny to put his +life into the industrial struggle, the church is hardly +his best vehicle.</p> + +<p>The church is like the Red Cross service in +war time. It keeps life from degenerating into a +consistent inhumanity, but it does not materially +alter the fact of the struggle itself. The Red Cross +neither wins the war nor abolishes it. Since the +struggle between those who have and those who +have not is a never-ending one, society will always +be, in a sense, a battleground. It is therefore of +some importance that human loveliness be preserved +outside of the battle lines. But those who +are engaged in this task ought to realize that +the brutalities of the conflict may easily negate the +most painstaking humanizing efforts behind the +lines, and that these efforts may become a method +for evading the dangers and risks of the battlefield.</p> + +<p>If religion is to contribute anything to the +solution of the industrial problem, a more heroic +type of religion than flourishes in the average +church must be set to the task. I don’t believe that +the men who are driven by that kind of religion +need to dissociate themselves from the churches, +but they must bind themselves together in more +effective association than they now possess.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[114]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1926_9"> + <i>1926</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>After preaching at —— University this +morning I stopped off at —— and dropped in at +the Presbyterian church for the evening service. +The service was well attended and the music was +very good. The minister had a sermon which +might best be described as a fulsome eulogy of +Jesus Christ. I wonder whether sermons like that +mean anything. He just piled up adjectives. +Every hero of ancient and modern times was +briefly described in order that he might be made +to bow before the superior virtue of the Lord. +But the whole thing left me completely cold. +The superiority of Jesus was simply dogmatically +asserted and never adequately analyzed. +There was not a thing in the sermon that would +give the people a clue to the distinctive genius +of Jesus or that would help them to use the resources +of his life for the solution of their own +problems.</p> + +<p>Through the whole discourse there ran the +erroneous assumption that Christians are real followers +of Jesus and no effort was made to describe +the wide chasm which yawns between the uncompromising +idealism of the Galilean and the current +morality. I wonder how many sermons of that +type are still being preached. If that sermon is +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[115]</span>typical it would explain much of the conventional +tameness of the church.</p> + +<p>How much easier it is to adore an ideal character +than to emulate it.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[116]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1926_10"> + <i>1926</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>That resolution we passed in our pastors’ +meeting, calling upon the police to be more rigorous +in the enforcement of law, is a nice admission of +defeat upon the part of the church. Every one of +our cities has a crime problem, not so much because +the police are not vigilant as because great masses +of men in an urban community are undisciplined +and chaotic souls, emancipated from the traditions +which guided their fathers and incapable of forming +new and equally potent cultural and moral restraints. +The children of the puritans are in this +respect no better than the children of the immigrants. +Both have reacted against traditions which +do not fit their new circumstances and both are unable +to escape license by new and better standards.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the real reason that we live such +chaotic lives in urban communities is because a city +is not a society at all, and moral standards are +formed only in societies and through the sense of +mutual obligation which neighbors feel for one another. +A big city is not a society held together by +human bonds. It is a mass of individuals, held together +by a productive process. Its people are +spiritually isolated even though they are mechanically +dependent upon one another. In such a situation +it is difficult to create and preserve the moral +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[117]</span>and cultural traditions which each individual needs +to save his life from anarchy.</p> + +<p>All of us do not live in moral chaos. But in +so far as we escape it, it is due to our loyalty to +religious, moral and cultural traditions which have +come out of other ages and other circumstances. +That is why churches, Protestant, Catholic and +Jewish, however irrelevant their ethical idealism +may be to the main facts of an industrial civilization, +are nevertheless indispensable. It is +enough that our society should be morally chaotic +without also losing the kind of moral restraint which +still determines the life of many individuals.</p> + +<p>There is something very pathetic about the +efforts of almost every one of our large cities to +restore by police coercion what has been lost by +the decay of moral and cultural traditions. But of +course we do have to save ourselves from anarchy, +even if it must be done by force. Only I think the +church would do well to leave the police problem +alone. If violence must be used temporarily, let +the state do so without undue encouragement from +the church. The church must work in another +field and if it has failed in that field, it cannot +recoup its failures by giving advice to the police +department. The priest as a sublimated policeman +is a sorry spectacle.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[118]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1926_11"> + <i>1926</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>We were discussing the first commandment +in the preparatory class today. The boys were trying +to see whether “Thou shalt have no other Gods +before me” meant anything in modern life. It is a +constant source of surprise and delight to see with +what profundity these boys and girls deal with the +problems of life. They decided that anything that +we loved more than God was in effect another god. +But how do we love God, I asked. There were the +usual answers which show how some children still +identify religion with religious practices and customs, +particularly Sunday observance. But one of +the boys came through with this answer, “We love +God by loving the best we know.” That seemed +to me not bad at all.</p> + +<p>Now we put on the blackboard all those interests +which threatened to become gods to us: money, +clothes (volunteered by a girl, of course), automobiles, +eating, playing. We took up each one of +these interests and tried to determine when they +were in danger of becoming too central in life. On +automobiles the boys didn’t have much conscience +except that they thought one ought not to clean +them on Sunday. They take the cult of the automobile +for granted as everyone else. The girls had +quite a time defining the place where clothes cease +to be a legitimate interest and become an obsession. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[119]</span>I was probably a poor one to lead them in +that discussion.</p> + +<p>On the matter of eating there was considerable +difficulty. “We have to eat to grow,” said one of +the boys. Correct answer. When then, is eating +a form of idolatry? “When we eat all the time,” +suggested another boy. That left Junior in a corner. +“I like to eat most all the time,” he confessed +ruefully. How can a hungry boy be anything +but a sceptic about a philosophy of values +which does not have eating at the center of it? +Thus do the necessities of a robust organism defy +the value schemes prompted by tradition or arrived +at by reflection.</p> + +<p>Junior just about stopped our discussion of +comparative values by that confession, “I like to +eat most all the time,” and I couldn’t help but +think that my pedagogical impotence before this +demand of natural life was closely akin to the impotence +of the church before a youthful and vigorous +national life, immersed in physical values and +intent upon physical satisfactions. Our youthful +nation is also declaring, “I love to eat most all the +time”; and the error in its judgment is not easily +overcome by preachment and precept until time +and experience will show it the limits of animal +satisfactions and teach it that man does not live +by bread alone.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[120]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1926_12"> + <i>1926</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>I had a letter from a young preacher today +who told me how he was suffering for truth’s sake. +He had merely been telling his congregation that +Jesus was a great spiritual teacher, as was Confucius +and Laotsze, and that the Christ idea was the +product of Greek legend and ancient mythology. +His good people were so ignorant, he thought, that +they failed to show proper appreciation of his +learning and resented his iconoclasm.</p> + +<p>I find myself reacting violently to the sophomoric +cocksureness of this young fellow. I suppose +I am getting old and have made those compromises +with the devil of superstition against +which the editor of the Christian Register warns +so hysterically. But for the life of me I can no +more reduce Jesus to the status of a mere Galilean +dreamer and teacher than I can accept the orthodox +Christologies. The person who can make no +distinction between a necessary symbolism and +mythology seems to me no better than the wooden-headed +conservative who insists that every bit of +religious symbolism and poetry must be accepted +literally and metaphysically.</p> + +<p>It is not easy to define the God idea. Scientifically +I suppose God is “the element of spirituality +which is integral to reality,” but for all +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[121]</span>practical and religious purposes I find it both helpful +and justified to define him by saying that “God +is like Jesus.” The ultimate nature of reality cannot +be grasped by science alone; poetic imagination +is as necessary as scientific precision. Some of the +supposedly ignorant peasants against whom my +youthful friend is drawing his heroic sword may +have more truth on their side than any fresh young +theologue could possibly realize.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[122]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1926_13"> + <i>1926</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>In the young men’s class this morning we continued +our discussion of the Sermon on the Mount. +The boys have been making some interesting contributions. +On the whole they are sceptical of the +practicability of the demands which Jesus makes +in the matter of trust and love and forgiveness. It +is rather interesting to have this revelation of the +basic cynicism of even the adolescent mind. They +think that to follow Jesus “would put a business +man out of business in no time,” as one expressed +it today. Of course, it is better to see the difficulties +than to engage in some kind of sentimental +avowal of Christian faith without realizing how +stubbornly life resists the ideal.</p> + +<p>After all, those boys are up against what St. +Anthony saw when he was tempted by the vision +of the young woman and the old woman. The one +meant life but also lust, and the other meant faith +but also death. At least that is the way Flaubert +has it. It is certainly not easy to separate life from +lust without destroying life. Yet Jesus came to +give us a more abundant life.</p> + +<p>“Maybe it would work if we tried it hard +enough,” thought one of the boys today when we +discussed the practicability of trusting people. +That may be the answer to the whole question.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[123]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1926_14"> + <i>1926</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Bishop —— and I shared the platform tonight. +Fortunately, I spoke first so that I did not +have to compete with his powerful eloquence. His +sermon warmed the heart, but it was based upon +the uncritical assumption that modern Christianity +is an exact replica of primitive Christianity and is +characterized by the same qualities of heroism and +faith. There was a disquieting tendency to patronize +in the good man’s demeanor. I should think +it would be a very difficult achievement for a bishop +to be a real Christian. The position is bound to +aggravate the inclination to pride which all of us +possess. I do not know many bishops intimately. +The few that I have known well have been singularly +free of arrogance; but they were unusual, for +they were saved by a sense of humor which is not +frequently found in the pulpit and certainly hardly +ever in the episcopacy.</p> + +<p>“Be not ye called rabbi,” said Jesus, “and +call no man father upon earth, for one is your +father which is in heaven.” I am not interested in +applying the words of Jesus literally, but it seems +to me that the principle involved in these words +would wipe out the episcopacy. It wouldn’t leave +much justification either for “The Reverend Doctor.” +Of course the Christian community cannot +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[124]</span>do without leaders. But it might learn to save +them from pride and arrogance.</p> + +<p>The highest type of leadership maintains itself +by its intrinsic worth, sans panoply, pomp and +power. Of course, there are never enough real +leaders to go around. Wherefore it becomes necessary +to dress some men up and by other artificial +means to give them a prestige and a power which +they could not win by their own resources. But it +would be well if the church realized how dangerous +power and prestige are, and how easily they corrupt +a man’s spiritual integrity.</p> + +<p>It is certainly not to the credit of the church +that it is less eager than the democratic state to +circumscribe the authority and socialize the power +of the leader. The Methodists try to preserve the +proper spirit of humility among the bishops by +relegating them to parliamentary impotence once +every four years. But who wouldn’t be willing to +suffer for that brief period for the sake of the power +and authority which the bishop exercises for the +rest of the quadrennium?</p> + +<p>Somewhere I read the observation of an +anthropologist that naked savages could never +have evolved a priesthood or an hereditary monarchy. +No one is so much superior to his fellows +that he deserves the positions of authority which +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[125]</span>a complex society finally evolves. That is why the +leader must be put over with the proper clothes and +paraphernalia. The throne and the crown make +the king. Even the President of the United States +has impressive naval and military aids to offset +the unimposing frock which the democratic tradition +prescribes. As for the bishop, who could be +more awe-inspiring than a hierarch sitting upon his +“throne” in his full regalia? That does not apply +to Methodist bishops. But they have so much +power that they don’t need the panoply.</p> + +<p>Think how insufferable bishops might be if +they had to be both worshiped and feared. I am +afraid that is true of Catholic bishops. Perhaps +that is why the Catholic saints are not frequently +found in the hierarchy.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[126]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1927"> + <i>1927</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>An impertinent youngster at the forum (midwestern +college) accused me today of being an authoritarian +because I quoted several modern philosophers +and scientists in my address in support +of my theistic belief. I made a deep bow before +him and congratulated him upon being so proficient +in laboratory experiments in every science +and so profound in his philosophical meditations +that he could arrive at his conclusions without the +help of anyone else, scientist or philosopher.</p> + +<p>His question did set me thinking on the problem +of freedom. Why do we believe what we believe, +and why do we do what we do? If the religion +of my home had been harsh and unlovely +I would probably be today where that young man +is, in a position of rebellion against all religion. If +I had not had the aid of this helpful professor and +that illuminating book when my religious convictions +were undergoing adjustment I might not have +made the necessary adjustments but would have +thrown religious convictions into the discard.</p> + +<p>If I were not in a position where human nature +reveals itself in its more lovely characteristics +would I be able to maintain confidence in the integrity +of man, upon which so much of the confidence +in God depends? Has the class-conscious +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[127]</span>worker not a right to dismiss both my political and +my religious convictions as bourgeois prejudices? +And could I not with equal justice condemn his as +myopic views which his resentments against society +explain but do not prove true?</p> + +<p>What we know as truth is determined by peculiar +and individual perspectives. Pressures of +environment, influences of heredity, and excellencies +and deficiencies of teachers help to determine +our life philosophies. We ought therefore to hold +them with decent humility and a measure of scepticism. +But if we permit ourselves to be tempted +into a complete subjectivism and scepticism by +these facts, we put an end to all philosophy and +ultimately to civilization itself. For civilization +depends upon the vigorous pursuit of the highest +values by people who are intelligent enough to +know that their values are qualified by their interests +and corrupted by their prejudices.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[128]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1927_1"> + <i>1927</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Perhaps there is no better illustration of the +ethical impotence of the modern church than its +failure to deal with the evils and the ethical problems +of stock manipulation. Millions in property +values are created by pure legerdemain. Stock +dividends, watered stock and excessive rise in stock +values, due to the productivity of the modern machine, +are accepted by the church without a murmur +if only a slight return is made by the beneficiaries +through church philanthropies.</p> + +<p>Here is C—— recapitalizing his business and +adding six million dollars in stock. At least five of +these millions will not be invested in physical expansion +but pocketed by the owner. They simply +represent capitalization of expected profits. Once +this added burden has been placed upon the industry +any demands of the workers for a larger share +in the profits will be met by conclusive proof that +the stock is earning only a small dividend and that +further increase in wages would be “suicidal” to +the business.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile C—— has become quite philanthropic. +He gives fifty thousand dollars here and +a hundred thousand there. Since the good man is +a “Christian,” religious organizations profit most +by his benefactions. Every new donation is received +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[129]</span>with paeans of praise from church and +press.</p> + +<p>What I wonder is whether the gentleman is +deceiving himself and really imagines himself a +Christian or whether he is really quite hard-boiled +and harbors a secret contempt for the little men +who buzz about his throne, singing their hallelujahs. +One can never be sure how much we mortals +are fooled by our own inadequate virtues and +sanctified vices and how much we accept the world’s +convenient tribute without being convinced by it. +Nor do I know which interpretation of the facts is +to be preferred, not as a matter of truth, but as a +matter of charity. What is worse—to be honest +with yourself while you are dishonest with the +world, or to be dishonest with the world because +you have deceived yourself?</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[130]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1927_2"> + <i>1927</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Dropped in on the First —— Church of —— +on my way back from —— University. Went into +the young people’s meeting before the evening +service and found a typical Endeavor meeting in +progress. Some ninety wholesome youngsters +were in attendance. All the various tricks of a +good Endeavor meeting were used. Several little +poems clipped from the Endeavor World were recited +at the appropriate time and some of the members +contributed quotations from Scripture and +from well-known authors. The leader gave a good +but platitudinous talk. There was no discussion. +My impression was that this type of meeting, if +still held, would be very poorly attended. But +here the facts belied my theories. So much the +worse for the young people of the church. Only a +very inert type of youngster could be satisfied +with such a meeting, and only a very uncritical +mind would accept the pious platitudes which filled +it, without uttering a protest or challenging a dozen +assumptions.</p> + +<p>However much such meetings may cultivate +habits of loyalty to the church among young people +and preserve among them the traditional religious +attitudes and customs, they do nothing to fit young +people to live a Christian life amid the complexities +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[131]</span>of the modern world or to hold to the Christian +faith in the perplexities of a scientific world view. +What worries me particularly in regard to these +meetings is the assumption which underlies them +that nothing but moral good will is necessary to +solve the problems of life. Almost every other +meeting is a consecration meeting. No one seems +to introduce the young people to the idea that an +ethical life requires honest and searching intelligence. +Nothing is done to discover to their eyes +the tremendous chasm between the ideals of their +faith and the social realities in which they live.</p> + +<p>Under such circumstances we can expect no +new vitality in the Christian life as the new generation +takes hold. Old virtues and respectabilities +will be maintained, but the areas of life which are +still unchristian will remain as they are. I see the +danger in our own discussion groups that the young +people may satisfy all their idealism in incessant +talk. But the talk has at least the merit of exploring +all sides of a problem and of revealing the limitations +of traditional attitudes and the need of +new ventures in faith.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[132]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1927_3"> + <i>1927</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Whenever I exchange thoughts with H——, +as I do with greater frequency and with increasing +profit to myself, I have the uneasy feeling that I +belong to the forces which are destroying religion +in the effort to refine it. He is as critical as I am—well, +perhaps not quite so critical; but in all +his critical evaluations of religious forms he preserves +a robust religious vitality which I seem to +lack. His scholarship is of course much more extensive +than mine, but it has not robbed him of +religious naïveté, to use Schweitzer’s phrase. He +has preserved a confidence in the goodness of men +and the ultimate triumph of righteousness which I +do not lack, but to which I do not hold so unwaveringly. +While we understand each other, we really +belong to different schools of thought.</p> + +<p>I have been profoundly impressed by the +Spenglerian thesis that culture is destroyed by the +spirit of sophistication and I am beginning to suspect +that I belong to the forces of decadence in +which this sophistication is at work. I have my +eye too much upon the limitations of contemporary +religious life and institutions; I always see the absurdities +and irrationalities in which narrow types +of religion issue. That wouldn’t be so bad if I did +not use the instruments of intellectualism rather +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[133]</span>than those of a higher spirituality for the critical +task.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless I hate a thoroughgoing cynic. I +don’t want anyone to be more cynical than I am. +If I am saved from cynicism at all it is by some +sense of personal loyalty to the spirit and the +genius of Jesus; that and physical health. If I +were physically anaemic I never would be able to +escape pessimism. This very type of morbid introspection +is one of the symptoms of the disease. I +can’t justify myself in my perilous position except +by the observation that the business of being sophisticated +and naïve, critical and religious, at one +and the same time is as difficult as it is necessary, +and only a few are able to achieve the balance. +H—— says I lack a proper appreciation of the +mystical values in religion. That is probably the +root of the matter. Yet I can’t resist another word +in self-defense. The modern world is so full of +bunkum that it is difficult to attempt honesty in +it without an undue emphasis upon the critical +faculty.</p> + +<p>If in this civilization we cannot enter the kingdom +of God because we cannot be as little children, +the fault, dear Brutus, is in our stars and not in +ourselves.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[134]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1927_4"> + <i>1927</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>I fell in with a gentleman on the Pullman +smoker today (Pullman smokers are perfect institutes +for plumbing the depths and shallows of the +American mind) who had made a killing on the +stock exchange. His luck appeared like success +from his perspective, and he was full of the confidence +with which success endows mortals. He +spoke oracularly on any and all subjects. He knew +why the farmers were not making any money and +why the Europeans were not as prosperous as we. +Isn’t it strange how gambler’s luck gives men the +assurance of wisdom for which philosophers search +in vain? I pity this man’s wife. But she probably +regards a new fur coat as adequate compensation +for the task of appearing convinced by his obiter +dicta.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[135]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1927_5"> + <i>1927</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Seven clergymen sat down today with the +national defense committee of the board of commerce. +They invited us to talk over our stand +against compulsory military education in the +schools. It was an interesting experience, particularly +as it came but shortly after our conflict with +the same group on the matter of labor speakers in +our pulpits. The contrast in the attitude of the +business men in these two controversies is very +illuminating.</p> + +<p>In the labor controversy they were hard-boiled +realists who simply wanted to prevent labor from +getting its side before the public. At that time +they did not invite us to a round table discussion. +They had nothing to discuss. They simply used +their power in the city to prevent any discussion +of the character of their power and the method of +its preservation. In this case they were aggrieved +and bewildered romanticists and idealists. They +want military training in the schools because they +have been told by the army officers that such training +makes for patriotism. And patriotism is the +only religion they know.</p> + +<p>They invited us to a luncheon precisely because +they felt themselves in a morally, not to say +spiritually, impregnable position. I think they +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[136]</span>were quite sure that a little argument would convince +us of the error of our ways. Our resistance +was obviously very disconcerting to them. Perhaps +they had a right to be disconcerted; for it is +only a little while since there was a perfect alliance +between the religion of patriotism and organized +Christianity. Since most of the men do not attend +church they had not heard of the qualms of conscience +in the pulpit that had, at least for the +time being, dissolved that alliance. We stood +our ground and the meeting dissolved without any +results.</p> + +<p>I wonder if it isn’t a little bit wicked to challenge +the validity of the only kind of altruism +which men know. But no—narrow loyalties may +become more dangerous than selfishness.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[137]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1927_6"> + <i>1927</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>I wonder why it is that so many of the +churches which go in for vaudeville programs and +the hip-hip-hooray type of religious services should +belong to the Methodist and Baptist denominations. +The vulgarities of the stunt preacher are +hardly compatible with either the robust spiritual +vitality or the puritan traditions of the more +evangelistic churches. Perhaps the phenomenon +of which I speak is due merely to the size of +the two denominations. They may have more +showmen simply because they are big enough +to have more leaders of all varieties. Certainly +no church surpasses the Methodist in the number +of men who possess real social passion and +imagination. Nor are the old emotionally warm +and naïvely orthodox preachers wanting in either +church.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless there is a growing tendency toward +stunt services in both denominations. Perhaps +it represents the strategy of denominational +and congregational organisms which are too much +alive to accept the fate of innocuous desuetude, +which has befallen some other churches. Finding +the masses, which they once attracted by genuine +religious emotion, less inclined to seek satisfaction +in religion, they maintain themselves by offering +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[138]</span>such goods in entertainment and social life as the +people seem to desire.</p> + +<p>When the naïve enthusiasms of those generations, +among whom religion is an emotional experience +and not a social tradition, begin to cool, the +churches which serve the new generations must +either express religious feeling through devotion to +moral and aesthetic values or they must substitute +a baser emotionalism for the lost religious feeling. +Perhaps the prevalence of cheap theatricality +among the churches of our great democracy is a +sign of the fact that the masses in America have +lost the capacity for unreflective and exuberant religious +feeling before they could acquire the kind +of religion which is closely integrated with the +values of culture and art.</p> + +<p>There is something pathetic about the effort +of the churches to capture these spiritually vacuous +multitudes by resort to any device which may +intrigue their vagrant fancies. But it may not represent +a total loss. The entertainment they offer +may be vulgar, but it is not vicious, and without +them the people might find satisfaction in something +even cheaper.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[139]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1927_7"> + <i>1927</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>At the Lenten service today the dynamic +speaker dilated upon the heroic character of the +Christian faith. “Someone said to me recently,” +he reported, “‘Do you realize that it is dangerous +to be a Christian?’ ‘Certainly,’ I answered, ‘It +always has been and always will be.’”</p> + +<p>Isn’t it strange how we preachers insist on +emphasizing the heroic aspect of the Christian +faith? That pose today was exactly like the one +struck by the minister in —— who loved to say +dramatically, “The church needs a new casualty +list,” while it was generally known that he carefully +evaded every issue which might create dissension +or contention.</p> + +<p>I think we ministers strike these heroic poses +because we are dimly aware of the fact that the +gospel commits us to positions which require heroic +devotion before they will ever be realized in life. +But we are astute rather than heroic and cautious +rather than courageous. Thus we are in the dangerous +position of being committed to the cross in +principle but escaping it in practice. We are honest +enough to be uneasy about that fact, but insincere +enough to quiet our uneasiness by heroic poses.</p> + +<p>Let any group of ministers gather and you will +find someone declaring fervently, “No one ever +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[140]</span>tells me what to say. My congregation gives me +perfect liberty.” That is just another way of +quieting an uneasy conscience; for we all know that +if we explore the full meaning of a gospel of love its +principles will be found to run counter to cherished +prejudices. It is of course not impossible to retain +freedom of the pulpit, but if anyone is doing so +without the peril of defections from his ranks and +opposition to his message, he is deceiving himself +about the quality of his message. Either his message +is too innocuous to deserve opposition or too +conventional to arouse it.</p> + +<p>An astute pedagogy and a desire to speak the +truth in love may greatly decrease opposition to a +minister’s message and persuade a difficult minority +to entertain at least, and perhaps to profit by, +his message; but if a gospel is preached without +opposition it is simply not the gospel which resulted +in the cross. It is not, in short, the gospel +of love.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[141]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1927_8"> + <i>1927</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Talked today at the open forum which meets +every Sunday afternoon in the high school. The +“lunatic fringe” of the city congregates there, in +addition to many sensible people. The question +period in such meetings is unfortunately monopolized +to a great extent by the foolish ones, though +not always. Today one old gentleman wanted to +know when I thought the Lord would come again, +while a young fellow spoke volubly on communism +and ended by challenging me to admit that all religion +is fantasy. Between those two you have the +story of the tragic state of religion in modern life. +One half of the world seems to believe that every +poetic symbol with which religion must deal is an +exact definition of a concrete or an historical fact; +the other half, having learned that this is not the +case, can come to no other conclusion but that all +religion is based upon fantasy.</p> + +<p>Fundamentalists have at least one characteristic +in common with most scientists. Neither can +understand that poetic and religious imagination +has a way of arriving at truth by giving a clue to +the total meaning of things without being in any +sense an analytic description of detailed facts. +The fundamentalists insist that religion is science, +and thus they prompt those who know that this is +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[142]</span>not true to declare that all religious truth is contrary +to scientific fact.</p> + +<p>How can an age which is so devoid of poetic +imagination as ours be truly religious?</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[143]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1927_9"> + <i>1927</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Our city race commission has finally made its +report after months of investigation and further +months of deliberation on our findings. It has been +a rare experience to meet with these white and +colored leaders and talk over our race problems. +The situation which the colored people of the city +face is really a desperate one, and no one who does +not spend real time in gathering the facts can have +any idea of the misery and pain which exists among +these people, recently migrated from the south and +unadjusted to our industrial civilization. Hampered +both by their own inadequacies and the hostility +of a white world they have a desperate fight +to keep body and soul together, to say nothing of +developing those amenities which raise life above +the brute level.</p> + +<p>I wish that some of our romanticists and sentimentalists +could sit through a series of meetings +where the real social problems of a city are discussed. +They would be cured of their optimism. +A city which is built around a productive process +and which gives only casual thought and incidental +attention to its human problems is really a kind of +hell. Thousands in this town are really living in +torment while the rest of us eat, drink and make +merry. What a civilization!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[144]</span></p> + +<p>Incidentally I wish the good church people +who hate our mayor so much because he doesn’t +conform to their rules and standards could appreciate +how superior his attitudes and viewpoints on +race relations are to those held by most church +people. It seems to me rather unfortunate that +we must depend upon the “publicans” for our social +conscience to so great a degree while the +“saints” develop their private virtues and let the +city as such fry in its iniquities.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[145]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1927_10"> + <i>1927</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>I think I have solved the Sunday night service +problem for good. I give a short address or sermon +upon a more or less controversial moral issue, or +upon a perplexing religious question, and after closing +the service we have a half-hour to forty-five +minutes of discussion. The group attracted by +this kind of program is not large. It is not the +usual forum crowd. But it is a group of unusually +thoughtful people, and the way they explore the +fundamental themes and problems of life is worth +more than many sermons.</p> + +<p>I am absolutely convinced that such discussions +come to grips with life’s real problems much +more thoroughly than any ex cathedra utterance +from the pulpit. For one thing the people themselves +make the application of general principles +to specific experiences. Then, too, they inevitably +explore the qualifications which life seems to make +upon every seemingly absolute principle. The real +principles of Christian living seem so much more +real and also so much more practicable when a +group of thoughtful people make an honest effort +to fit them into the complexities of modern life.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the most interesting point about such +a discussion is the way every type of experience can +be used to illustrate a certain general truth. Last +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[146]</span>Sunday night an advertising man made a most interesting +contribution to the question of marriage +and divorce out of his experience as advertising +counsel. He said that he had learnt in business +that it is always well to regard relationships as permanent +even when they are not so absolutely in a +legal sense. If the parties to a contract assume +that it can be broken easily they will not extend +themselves as they ought to make those adjustments +which a permanent relationship requires.—Thus +we make the experience gained in one field +of activity serve the problem of another field. +Again and again thoughtful mothers have thrown +light upon the problems of democracy, the place of +coercion in life and the efficacy of trust out of experience +gained in their work with their children.</p> + +<p>If there were only more thoughtful people it +would be worth while to change every service into +something like this evening discussion. But discussion +requires time and it doesn’t mean much to +people who are looking for “inspiration” rather +than guidance. I suppose there is still a place for +inspirational addresses. But in a world in which +so many traditional moral ideas are in solution and +so many others are generally accepted and never +applied, this kind of honest searching with others, +rather than for them, is particularly rewarding.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[147]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1927_11"> + <i>1927</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>I wonder if it is really possible to have an +honest Thanksgiving celebration in an industrial +civilization. Harvest festivals were natural enough +in peasant communities. The agrarian feels himself +dependent upon nature’s beneficence and anxious +about nature’s caprices. When the autumnal +harvest is finally safe in the barns there arise, with +the sigh of relief, natural emotions of gratitude +that must express themselves religiously, since the +bounty is actually created by the mysterious forces +of nature which man may guide but never quite +control.</p> + +<p>All that is different in an industrial civilization +in which so much wealth is piled up by the +ingenuity of the machine, and, at least seemingly, +by the diligence of man. Thanksgiving becomes +increasingly the business of congratulating the Almighty +upon his most excellent coworkers, ourselves. +I have had that feeling about the Thanksgiving +proclamations of our Presidents for some +years. An individual, living in an industrial community +might still celebrate a Thanksgiving day +uncorrupted by pride, because he does benefit from +processes and forces which he does not create or +even guide. But a national Thanksgiving, particularly +if it is meant to express gratitude for material +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[148]</span>bounty, becomes increasingly a pharisaic +rite.</p> + +<p>The union Thanksgiving service we attended +this morning was full of the kind of self-righteous +bunk which made it quite impossible for me to worship. +There was indeed a faint odor of contrition +in one of the prayers and in an aside of the sermon, +but it did not spring from the heart. The +Lord who was worshiped was not the Lord of Hosts, +but the spirit of Uncle Sam, given a cosmic eminence +for the moment which the dear old gentleman +does not deserve.</p> + +<p>It is a bad thing when religion is used as a +vehicle of pride. It would be better to strut unashamedly +down the boardwalk of nations than to +go through the business of bowing humbly before +God while we say, “We thank thee Lord that we +are not as other men.”</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[149]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1927_12"> + <i>1927</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Mother and I visited at the home of —— today +where the husband is sick and was out of employment +before he became sick. The folks have +few connections in the city. They belong to no +church. What a miserable existence it is to be +friendless in a large city. And to be dependent +upon a heartless industry. The man is about 55 +or 57 I should judge, and he is going to have a +desperate time securing employment after he gets +well. These modern factories are not meant for +old men. They want young men and they use +them up pretty quickly. Your modern worker, +with no skill but what is in the machine, is a sorry +individual. After he loses the stamina of youth, +he has nothing to sell.</p> + +<p>I promised —— I would try to find him a job. +I did it to relieve the despair of that family, but I +will have a hard time making good on my promise. +According to the ethics of our modern industrialism +men over fifty, without special training, are so +much junk. It is a pleasure to see how such an +ethic is qualified as soon as the industrial unit is +smaller and the owner has a personal interest in his +men. I could mention quite a few such instances. +But unfortunately the units are getting larger and +larger and more inhuman.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[150]</span></p> + +<p>I think I had better get in contact with more +of these victims of our modern industrialism and +not leave that end of our work to mother alone. A +little such personal experience will help much to +save you from sentimentality.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[151]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1927_13"> + <i>1927</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Have just returned from the student conference +at ——. A smart young professor told the +students that all social customs are based upon +irrational taboos. Our generation is the first with +the opportunity to build a rational social order. +The way to build a rational society, according to +this savant, is to regard every relationship, custom, +convention and law as irrational until it has proved +itself rational by experience.</p> + +<p>A sample of the kind of society he would build +by his reason was given in his discussion of sex +relations. He thinks the highest kind of family +life would result from the love of one woman for +one man while both indulged in promiscuous relations. +Thus would the values of both freedom and +love be maintained. The smart young man seems +never to have heard that you cannot have your +cake and eat it too.</p> + +<p>If you want love and cooperation in any kind +of society, and most of all in the family, it is necessary +to sacrifice some freedom for its sake. What +strange fanatics these moderns are! Imagining +themselves dispassionate in their evaluation of all +values, they are really bigoted protagonists of the +one value of freedom. Every other value must be +subordinated to it.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[152]</span></p> + +<p>It is true that every convention, custom, law +and usage contains an irrational element. Some +were unreasonable from the beginning and others +have become so by shifting circumstance. It is +necessary, therefore, that we approach the facts of +life experimentally and scientifically, rather than +traditionally. However, it seems to me quite unreasonable +to proceed upon the assumption that +all traditions are wholly unreasonable. Most of +the moderns who think so are significantly defective +in the knowledge of history.</p> + +<p>There is at the heart of almost every tradition +an element of reasonableness and around its circumference +a whole series of irrationalities. Our +business must be to destroy the latter and restore +the former by fitting it to contemporaneous circumstances +and conditions.</p> + +<p>I doubt whether it is wise for every person to +be extremely critical of all traditions in every field +of thought and life. I imagine we ought to specialize +a little in this matter and let various people +experiment in various areas. This seems to me a +wise policy for the simple reason that it does not +make for happiness for one person to do the experimenting +in every field. At any rate most of +the intellectuals I know who try to do it are miserable +souls. I am always glad to escape their company +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[153]</span>and consort with folks who take some things +for granted. There is an unnatural strain in their +lives and, having made a virtue of the critical temper, +they usually discount virtue and achievement +even where it is indubitable.</p> + +<p>Since there are many more traditionalists than +experimentalists, all this may be bad advice. But +I doubt whether the lethargy of the many justifies +the few in spoiling their tempers and their judgment. +Let every reformer find at least one field +of interest and life where he can be happily conventional. +If he is trying to remake the economic +order, let him accept family life and be happy in +it without too many scruples about its alleged imperfections. +On second thought I don’t like this +advice. At any rate it is inconsistent with my +scorn for the liberal theologians who are so preoccupied +with the task of reforming religion that +they have no interest in the iniquities of society +which ought to challenge their conscience.</p> + +<p>Let us have reformers, then, who try to reform +everything at the same time! But I am going to +keep my distance from them.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[154]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1927_14"> + <i>1927</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>The new Ford car is out. The town is full of +talk about it. Newspaper reports reveal that it is +the topic of the day in all world centers. Crowds +storm every exhibit to get the first glimpse of this +new creation. Mr. Ford has given out an interview +saying that the car has cost him about a hundred +million dollars and that after finishing it he still has +about a quarter of a billion dollars in the bank.</p> + +<p>I have been doing a little arithmetic and have +come to the conclusion that the car cost Ford workers +at least fifty million in lost wages during the +past year. No one knows how many hundreds lost +their homes in the period of unemployment, and +how many children were taken out of school to +help fill the depleted family exchequer, and how +many more children lived on short rations during +this period. Mr. Ford refuses to concede that he +made a mistake in bringing the car out so late. He +has a way of impressing the public even with his +mistakes. We are now asked to believe that the +whole idea of waiting a year after the old car +stopped selling before bringing out a new one was +a great advertising scheme which reveals the perspicacity +of this industrial genius. But no one +asks about the toll in human lives.</p> + +<p>What a civilization this is! Naïve gentlemen +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[155]</span>with a genius for mechanics suddenly become the +arbiters over the lives and fortunes of hundreds of +thousands. Their moral pretensions are credulously +accepted at full value. No one bothers to +ask whether an industry which can maintain a cash +reserve of a quarter of a billion ought not make +some provision for its unemployed. It is enough +that the new car is a good one. Here is a work of +art in the only realm of art which we can understand. +We will therefore refrain from making undue +ethical demands upon the artist. Artists of all +the ages have been notoriously unamenable to +moral discipline. The cry of the hungry is drowned +in the song, “Henry has made a lady out of +Lizzy.”</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[156]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1927_15"> + <i>1927</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>This prayer book controversy in the Church +of England ought to give us liberals who make so +much of tolerance a pause. What are the limits of +tolerance? Does not tolerance of a theological position +which one knows or believes to be untrue become +a betrayal of the truth? How can one be +tolerant of medievalism without playing traitor to +the best in the modern day?</p> + +<p>Here is the Episcopal church which many of +us have counted blessed because it was the one +bridge over the chasm which separates Catholicism +and Protestantism. But the chasm is now revealed +as too wide for any bridge. Cooperation with the +Catholic demands connivance with religious practices +which reduce religion to magic. No wonder +the Protestant laymen in Parliament threw the revised +prayer book out. How can anyone in the +year of our Lord 1927 be seriously exercised over +the problem of the “real presence” in the Eucharist? +Think of the spiritual leaders of a torn +and bleeding world debating learnedly on whether +and how God can be magically localized and salvation +be confined in a capsule. To read the arguments +of the sacerdotalists is enough to drive one +into the arms of the unrepentent rationalists who +regard all religion as dangerous.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[157]</span></p> + +<p>The weaknesses of Catholicism ought not +prompt one to disregard all the finer spiritual and +moral values which still live in this ancient church. +But there can be no final unity between an institution +which reduces religion to magic and a fellowship +of the spirit which tries to subdue the chaos +of life under the ideal of faith.</p> + +<p>Magic is an enemy of all morality. It offers a +short cut to all prizes of the spirit which can be won +only by heroic effort.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[158]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1927_16"> + <i>1927</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>After speaking at —— University today Professor +—— said he objected to my assumption that +the family is the root of human societies. He said +he believed that most forms of human cooperation +were formed by men who had to resist the special +interests of the family, as typified particularly by +the narrow loyalty of the mother to her own offspring, +before they could establish wider fellowships. +That was a new idea to me and one that +seems to be not without merit. Of course it does +not invalidate the thesis that the family is the first +unit of society; for the first fighting unit was probably +composed of a group of fathers and sons and +sons’ sons. That is, not the family in the narrowest +but in the widest sense, the family as it develops +into the clan is the first real society.</p> + +<p>The idea that the family is frequently opposed +to ventures in wider fellowship is justified by more +than one present fact. The family is still essentially +selfish, and many a man is beguiled from +ideal ventures by a false sense of obligation to his +family. Think of the number of men who sell +their souls merely that their wives and children +may enjoy higher standards of living than other +families. Think of the number of mothers whose +interest in life never goes beyond the ambition to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[159]</span>secure special advantages for their children. The +mother of the sons of Zebedee is a good example. +In her you have motherhood in its tragic limitations +as well as in its sublime beauty.</p> + +<p>The family is not inevitably selfish or invariably +opposed to larger ventures in fellowship, but +it may easily become so. Jesus’ ruthless words, +“He who loveth father or mother more than me is +not worthy of me, he who loveth son and daughter +more than me is not worthy of me,” have more +meaning than most Christians have realized. Celibacy +may be wrong because it escapes rather than +solves this problem. But the invariable tendency +of religious movements of great moral sensitiveness +to experiment with celibacy is significant. +Thus speaks a bachelor. Let the cynic make the +most of the private prejudice which colors this +judgment.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[160]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1928"> + <i>1928</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>This conference on religious education seems +to your humble servant the last word in absurdity. +We are told by a delightful “expert” that we ought +not really teach our children about God lest we rob +them of the opportunity of making their own discovery +of God, and lest we corrupt their young +minds by our own superstitions. If we continue +along these lines the day will come when some +expert will advise us not to teach our children +the English language, since we rob them thereby +of the possibility of choosing the German, +French or Japanese languages as possible alternatives. +Don’t these good people realize that +they are reducing the principle of freedom to an +absurdity?</p> + +<p>Religion, like language, is a social product. +The potentialities for both are in the child, but +their highest articulations are the result of ages of +cultural and spiritual experience, and in the right +kind of religious education the experience of the +race is joined with the inclinations of the individual. +We do not get a higher type of religious idealism +from children merely by withholding our own +religious ideas from them (however they may be +filled with error), any more than we would get a +higher type of civilization by letting some group +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[161]</span>of youngsters shift for themselves upon a desert +island.</p> + +<p>A wise architect observed that you could +break the laws of architectural art provided you +had mastered them first. That would apply to religion +as well as to art. Ignorance of the past does +not guarantee freedom from its imperfections. +More probably it assures the repetition of past +errors. We ought of course to cultivate a wholesome +scepticism in our young people so that they +will not accept the ideas of the past too slavishly. +But appreciation must come before criticism.</p> + +<p>We do not teach a child the limitations of +Beethoven before we have helped it to appreciate +him; nor do we withhold any appreciation of the +classics in order that the child might be free to +prefer Stravinsky to Beethoven. What some of +these moderns are doing is simply to destroy the +organs of religious insight and the atmosphere in +which religious attitudes may flourish, ostensibly +for the sake of freedom, but really at its expense.</p> + +<p>I have a dark suspicion that some of these +modern religious educators do not really know +what religion is about. They want a completely +rational faith and do not realize that they are +killing religion by a complete rationalization. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[162]</span>With all their pious phraseology and supposedly +modern pedagogy they really are decadent forces.</p> + +<p>Life is a battle between faith and reason in +which each feeds upon the other, drawing sustenance +from it and destroying it. Nature has wisely +ordained that faith shall have an early advantage +in the life of the child to compensate for its later +difficulties. If we imagine that we help the progress +of the race by inoculating children with a +premature sophistication we are of all men most +miserable. Reason, without the balance of faith, +destroys a civilization soon enough, without giving +it this advantage among the young. I wonder +if any of these modern religious pedagogues have +ever read Unamuno’s “The Tragic Sense of +Life”?</p> + +<p>Here I am talking like a fundamentalist. But +why not? If we must choose between types of +fanaticism is there any particular reason why we +should prefer the fanatics who destroy a vital culture +in the name of freedom and reason to those +who try to strangle a new culture at birth in the +name of authority and dogma? The latter type of +fanaticism is bound to end in futility. The growth +of reason cannot be stopped by dogma. But the +former type is dangerous because it easily enervates +a rational culture with ennui and despair.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[163]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1928_1"> + <i>1928</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>This Federal Council meeting is an interesting +study in the geography of morals. The race +commission presented a report today in which it +tried to place the council on record as favoring the +enforcement of the fifteenth amendment as well +as the eighteenth. It was obviously an effort to +exploit the strong prohibition sentiment of the +churches for the sake of committing them to the +espousal of the interests of the disfranchised Negroes +in the south. That is not a bad political +strategy. But it did not quite work.</p> + +<p>A good brother from the southern Presbyterian +church warned that to interfere with this +“political issue” would “soil the garments of the +bride of Christ.” To him the eighteenth amendment +represented a “moral” issue but the fifteenth +was a “political” one. I have a sneaking suspicion +that the fifteenth amendment expresses more +of the genius of the gospel than the eighteenth, but +that is neither here nor there. What was interesting +was the way in which various church leaders +tried to rescue us from the embarrassment into +which the council was brought by this proposal.</p> + +<p>A good brother who was raised in the south +and now lives in the north tried to act as mediator. +He introduced his remarks with the usual nice story +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[164]</span>about how much he loved his negro mammy. Some +day he ought to have a lesson in ethics and learn +how much easier it is to love those who acknowledge +their inferiority than those who challenge our +superiority. It is indeed a virtuous woman who +can love her social competitor as sincerely as she +loves her faithful maid.</p> + +<p>Another mediator was a southern bishop who +has many northern connections. He made much +of the fact that the south disregards only the spirit +and not the letter of the enfranchising amendments +to the constitution. The bishop is really a +man of some courage who has spoken out bravely +on the industrial conditions in the south. But he +was evidently afraid in this instance either to accept +or to reject a Christian view of race relations. +So he stuck to casuistry about the letter of the law. +He has probably preached many a sermon on the +text about the letter killing and the spirit making +alive. At any rate everyone who spoke revealed +how geographic and historical circumstance had +qualified Christian conviction.</p> + +<p>That was as true of those of us who took an +uncompromising position as the southern equivocators +and the semi-southern mediators. To the +southerners we are not Christian idealists but +merely “Yankee” meddlers. And perhaps we are. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[165]</span>At any rate it was easy to see from the debate that +the north cannot help the south much in solving +its race problem. If it is solved the solution must +come out of the conscience and heart of the south.</p> + +<p>After all, the problem, as every moral problem, +is not merely conditioned by geography but +by mathematics. Contact between races when the +one race is almost as numerous as the other is quite +a different story from a relationship in which the +subject race is numerically very much weaker than +the dominant group. Therefore let us not judge, +lest we be judged. It is so easy to repent of other +people’s sins.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless it does not make one feel very +comfortable to have a great church body seek +some politic solution for a problem in which the +ideal of Christian brotherhood leaves little room +for equivocation.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[166]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1928_2"> + <i>1928</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>There is a discouraging pettiness about human +nature which makes me hate myself each time +I make an analysis of my inner motives and springs +of action. Here I am prodding and criticizing people +continually because they have made too many +compromises with the necessities of life and adjusted +the Christian ideal until it has completely +lost its original meaning. Yet I make my own +compromises all the time.</p> + +<p>It is Christian to trust people, and my trust is +carefully qualified by mistrust and caution.</p> + +<p>It is Christian to love, and to trust in the +potency of love rather than in physical coercion. +Logically that means non-resistance. Yet I believe +that a minimum of coercion is necessary in all social +tasks, or in most of them.</p> + +<p>It is Christian to forgive rather than to punish; +yet I do little by way of experimenting in the +redemptive power of forgiveness.</p> + +<p>I am not really a Christian. In me, as in +many others, “the native hue of resolution is +sicklied o’er by a pale cast of thought.” I am too +cautious to be a Christian. I can justify my caution, +but so can the other fellow who is more cautious +than I am.</p> + +<p>The whole Christian adventure is frustrated +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[167]</span>continually not so much by malice as by cowardice +and reasonableness. Of course everyone must decide +for himself just where he is going to put his +peg; where he is going to arrive at some stable +equilibrium between moral adventure and necessary +caution. And perhaps everyone is justified if +he tries to prove that there is a particular reasonableness +about the type of compromise which he +has reached. But he might well learn, better than +I have learned, to be charitable with those who +have made their adjustments to the right and to +the left of his position. If I do not watch myself I +will regard all who make their adjustments to my +right as fanatics and all who make them to the left +as cowards. There is a silly egotism about such an +attitude. But it is difficult to be pedagogically effective +if you do not hold pretty resolutely to some +position.</p> + +<p>A reasonable person adjusts his moral goal +somewhere between Christ and Aristotle, between +an ethic of love and an ethic of moderation. I hope +there is more of Christ than of Aristotle in my +position. But I would not be too sure of it.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[168]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1928_3"> + <i>1928</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Jack Hyde came up today for a chat. These +newspaper men are always interesting company. +As religious editor of the Daily ——, he has been +following the preachers of the town pretty closely. +Of course he is a cynic, though a gentle one. He +tells many an interesting story on how the preachers +try to get free publicity.</p> + +<p>I think there ought to be a club in which +preachers and journalists could come together and +have the sentimentalism of the one matched with +the cynicism of the other. That ought to bring +them pretty close to the truth. The interesting +part of the contrast is that the newspaper is officially +as optimistic about contemporary life as the +pulpit. The difference between the two is that the +preacher is ensnared by his own sentimentality and +optimism while the newspaper man has two views, +one for official and one for private consumption.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[169]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1928_4"> + <i>1928</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>My good friend —— has sent me his church +calendar. Among other things he reports “Last +Sunday almost as many strangers as members were +present. The weather was a bit cold. Was your +loyalty chilly too? You cannot fight battles with +half the soldiers in their tents. Lent is here. Give +your church the right of way. Do your duty next +Sunday.”</p> + +<p>Here we see how easily even the Protestant +minister gravitates to the viewpoint of the priest. +He thinks people ought to regard it as a duty to +hear him preach. What is still worse is that he +identifies church attendance with moral heroism. +Does he not realize that faithful church attendance +develops and reveals the virtue of patience much +more than the virtue of courage?</p> + +<p>I must admit that I have urged people to come +to church myself as a matter of duty. But I can +do so no longer. The church service is not an end +in itself. Not even religion is an end in itself. If +the church service does not attract people by the +comfort and challenge it brings to them, we only +postpone the evil day if we compel attendance by +appealing to their sense of duty. It may not be +wrong to appeal to their sense of loyalty to the institution +and tell them that if they have identified +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[170]</span>themselves with the institution as members they +owe it to the strangers to be there. But even that +is dangerous. The church is already too much an +end in itself.</p> + +<p>These appeals make it appear that we regard +religious devotion as a service to God, a very dangerous +idea. Of course a modern preacher doesn’t +really believe that. What is really in his mind, +consciously or unconsciously, is that the people owe +him the duty to hear him preach. That is perhaps +a natural glorification of his own function but it +cannot be denied that there is something pathetic +about it.</p> + +<p>I can see, of course, that all good things depend +in part upon right habits. Customs, attitudes +and actions which are desirable cannot always depend +upon impulse and will. It may be a good +thing that people attend church as a matter of +habit and because of a general sense of obligation +to the institution. If churches depended only upon +people who must make up their minds each +Sunday whether or no they will attend church, +our attendance would be even smaller than +it is.</p> + +<p>Yet habitual actions easily become meaningless, +and institutions which depend upon them lose +their vitality. If habitual actions are not continually +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[171]</span>revitalized by the compulsion of ideals and the +attraction of the values involved in them, they may +easily become useless.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[172]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1928_5"> + <i>1928</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Detroit observed Good Friday today as never +before. Sixteen theatres and many churches besides +were filled to capacity during the three-hour +period. I wonder how one is to understand this +tremendous devotion of this pagan city. How +little place the real spirit of Christ has in the industrial +drive of this city. And yet men and women +flock by the thousands to meditate upon the cross. +Perhaps we are all like the centurian who helped to +crucify Jesus and then was so impressed by the +whole drama of the cross that the confession was +forced from his lips “Surely this was the son of +God.”</p> + +<p>Before going to the theatre service I passed a +Methodist church with a message on its bulletin +board that explains many chapters in American +church history. It was: “Good Friday service this +afternoon. Snappy song service.” So we combine +the somber notes of religion with the jazz of +the age.</p> + +<p>I wonder if anyone who needs a snappy song +service can really appreciate the meaning of the +cross. But perhaps that is just a Lutheran prejudice +of mine.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[173]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1928_6"> + <i>1928</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>A very sophisticated young man assured me +in our discussion today (student discussion at a +middle western university) that no intelligent person +would enter the ministry today. He was sure +that the ministry was impossible as a vocation not +only because too many irrationalities were still enmeshed +with religion but also because there +was no real opportunity for usefulness in the +church. I tried to enlighten this sophomoric wise +man.</p> + +<p>Granted all the weaknesses of the church and +the limitations of the ministry as a profession, +where can one invest one’s life where it can be +made more effective in as many directions?</p> + +<p>You can deal with children and young people +and help them to set their life goals and organize +their personalities around just and reasonable +values.</p> + +<p>You can help the imperiled family shape the +standards and the values by which the institution +of family life may be saved and adjusted to the new +conditions of an industrial civilization.</p> + +<p>You can awaken a complacent civilization to +the injustices which modern industrialism is developing. +While ministers fail most at this point there +is nothing to prevent a courageous man from making +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[174]</span>a real contribution to his society in this +field.</p> + +<p>You can soften the asperities of racial conflict +and aid the various groups of a polyglot city to +understand one another and themselves.</p> + +<p>You can direct the thoughts and the hopes of +men to those facts and those truths which mitigate +the cruelty of the natural world and give men the +opportunity to assert the dignity of human life in +the face of the contempt of nature.</p> + +<p>You can help them to shape and to direct their +hopes and aspirations until their lives are determined +and molded by the ideal objects of their +devotion. While it is true that magic and superstition +are still entwined, seemingly inextricably +intertwined, with the highest hopes and assurances +of mankind, you may find real joy as a skillful +craftsman in separating hopes from illusions so +that the one need not perish with the other.</p> + +<p>Here is a task which requires the knowledge +of a social scientist and the insight and imagination +of a poet, the executive talents of a business man +and the mental discipline of a philosopher. Of +course none of us meets all the demands made upon +us. It is not easy to be all things to all men. Perhaps +that is why people are so critical of us. Our +task is not specific enough to make a high degree +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[175]</span>of skill possible or to result in tangible and easily +measured results. People can find fault with us +easily enough and we have no statistics to overawe +them and to negate their criticisms.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[176]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1928_7"> + <i>1928</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>I spoke today at the “Victory dinner” of one +of our civic organizations which had been conducting +a financial campaign in the interest of its worthy +objects. Not being well prepared I animadverted +disconnectedly upon the lack of culture in Detroit +and expressed the hope that the dawn of a new day +was breaking.</p> + +<p>Mr. —— who sat close to me was so angry +about what I said that he confessed that he had +been tempted to interrupt me in the middle of my +address. He cited a large benefaction of his in the +interest of a religious organization as proof of +Detroit’s culture and insisted that the “old families,” +to which he belonged, had real culture, whatever +might be said about the newer crowd. I told +him his contribution was in the interest of righteousness +rather than culture. Inasmuch as it is +generally known that he made a fortune by rigging +the stock market, he was a little nonplussed by my +answer. We finally came to an amicable agreement +upon the proposition that the streets of Detroit are +cleaner than those of Chicago.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[177]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1928_8"> + <i>1928</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>I believe every preacher ought to take several +radical journals, preferably the ones which are +extremely inimical to religion. The ethical ideals +of Christianity are so high and the compromises +which the average church and the average minister +has made between these ideals and the economic +necessities of society are so great, and self-deception +is so easy, that we need the corrective of +a critical and perhaps cynical evaluation of religion +in modern life.</p> + +<p>I should like to recommend this kind of reading +particularly to successful ministers who are so +easily obsessed by a messianic complex because of +the compliments they receive. Let them remind +themselves that there are astute observers who +think that all their preaching is superficial and +never touches the fundamental defects of modern +society, and that these critics are at least as near +the truth as their too generous devotees.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[178]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1928_9"> + <i>1928</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>I think I ought to repent of the many unkind +things I have said about various ministers. We +liberal preachers (I am thinking of social liberalism +now) are too ready to attribute conventional +opinions to cowardice. What we don’t realize is +that the great majority of parsons simply don’t +share our radical convictions. If they get along +very handsomely in the kind of a civilization in +which we live, that is simply because they are in +sincere general agreement with the prevailing ideas +of our day. Of course I think we have a right to +wonder a little how one can claim discipleship to +one who disturbed history so much and yet be such +a thorough conformist. Yet it is usually not cowardice +but mental inertia which creates the conformity; +and sometimes the conformity is the +honest fruit of a finely poised rather than a daring +mind. After all most of us are conformists in some +sense, and it is rather presumptuous on our part to +condemn every type of conformity except our own.</p> + +<p>I am moved to this reflection by the insistence +of such men as the editor of the Christian Register +that every liberal who remains in an evangelical +communion and does not immediately join the +Unitarian church must be prompted by cowardice. +When it is theological rather than social liberalism +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[179]</span>that is made the test of conformity or radicalism, +it is my ox that is gored, and I begin to recant my +previous harsh opinions. If the editor of the Register +can go so far wrong in gauging the motives of +evangelical liberals we social radicals may be wrong +in explaining why parsons fail to be thoroughgoing +pacifists. Great achievement! I learn how to be +tolerant when I become the victim of somebody +else’s spiritual pride.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[180]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1928_10"> + <i>1928</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Had a profitable talk with a Jewish friend +in the east. He said the only Christian church +that he could ever join would be that of the Quakers. +Of course he would not join the Quakers in +the kind of a world in which we are living, where +Christians practice social ostracism against Jews +and thereby force every Jew to regard such a transfer +of religious loyalty in the light of treason to +his racial community. He felt that if he were free +to choose his religious group he would choose the +Quakers because they have no professional ministry. +He dabbles in psychiatry and thinks he has +looked through the professional minister.</p> + +<p>I would like to have him talk to a group of +preachers sometime. Like all realists he barely +escapes the kind of cynicism which destroys wholesome +human relations. But he does escape it and +is not at all bitter in his analysis of human nature. +That is why his reaction to the ministry disquiets +me. He has his hands on considerable truth.</p> + +<p>There is something very artificial about the +professional ministry. When religion deals with +magic the professional priests can dispense the +magic and be quite happy. But when religion becomes +a search for all of life’s highest values there +is something incongruous about making your living +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[181]</span>in the business of helping people to discover +and develop these values. I don’t think this consideration +invalidates the ministry as a profession. +In a day of specialists and experts there ought to +be room for a specialist in moral and spiritual +values. But think of commanding a large salary +because you are a better preacher than someone +else! Isn’t that putting a market value on the +ability of a man to help people find God? Fortunately +it is the rhetorical rather than the spiritual +gift that usually creates the different prices in the +preacher market.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[182]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1928_11"> + <i>1928</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Passing one of our big churches today I ran +across this significant slogan, calculated to impress +the passing wayfarer: “We Will Go Out of Business. +When? When Every Man in Detroit Has +Been Won to Christ.” Of course it is just a slogan +and not to be taken too seriously, but the whole +weakness of Protestantism is in it. Here we are +living in a complex world in which thousands who +have been “won to Christ” haven’t the slightest +notion how to live a happy life or how to live together +with other people without making each other +miserable.</p> + +<p>Yet the church goes about the business of winning +people to Christ—that is, pulling them +through some kind of emotional or social experience +in which they are made to commit themselves, +or in which they really do commit themselves, to +the good life as it is symbolized in Christ, and imagining +that this is the end of the task. I do not +say that such commitments do not have their value. +But surely one must be very blind to live under +the illusion that the desire or even the will to live a +Christ-life is automatically fulfilled in present-day +society or in any society.</p> + +<p>The church which conceived that slogan is +really better than the silly advertisement might +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[183]</span>lead one to suppose. I think people receive some +light and leading there. Nevertheless, most of its +energies go into the business of “winning others.” +The saddest part about these highly evangelistic +churches who put everything into the recruiting +task is that they generally tempt those who are +already “won” to imagine themselves perfect, or +at least “saved.” I know one lawyer in that +church, and not a bad man either, who needs to be +“won” to several ideas in the gospel of Christ +about which he hasn’t the faintest glimmer of light. +But he is too sure of himself to get a new idea.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[184]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1928_12"> + <i>1928</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Here is a minister making a confession in his +weekly paper: “Last Sunday night,” he writes, “I +was at my worst and unfortunately there were +many strangers in the audience. I tried, but I +could not get the ball over the plate. I had taught +a Sunday-school class, preached over the radio, +gone out to dinner, entertained a guest at supper, +met the —— committee and failed to get rest after +Easter. I will try to do better next Sunday, so +come then.”</p> + +<p>It is all very nice and humble, but there is an +implication of professionalism in the whole thing +that is appalling. The idea is that he didn’t put +on a good performance, “didn’t get the ball over +the plate.” There you have the whole weakness +of a professional ministry, striving each Sunday to +make an interesting speech. It simply can’t be +denied that the business of furnishing inspiration +twice each week, on a regular schedule, by a person +who is paid to do just that and whose success is +judged by the amount of “pep” he can concentrate +in his homilies, is full of moral and spiritual +dangers. To follow such a program without running +into spiritual bankruptcy requires the resources +of a saint.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[185]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1928_13"> + <i>1928</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Arriving at —— today, I was put up at the +luxurious home of a very charming potentate of +the local pulpit. I was driven to my meeting in +a big Packard car (a gift of the congregation, my +host informed me) with a liveried chauffeur at the +wheel. I don’t think I would have reacted so +strongly against this kind of life if I hadn’t been +reading Savotorelli’s Life of St. Francis on the way +down and was inclined to look at the world through +the little brother’s rather than my own eyes.</p> + +<p>To object to this kind of luxury for ministers, +and not voice the same objection in regard to the +standards of living among laymen, may seem to involve +us in a moral dualism. But I am no longer +afraid of dualism. We might well have more of it. +It will be long while before we can convince laymen +of the spiritual implications in standards of living +in a civilization which knows of no other way to +give a man a sense of achievement than to let him +advertise it by outward show. But ministers ought +to know better.</p> + +<p>Furthermore there is a moral peril in accepting +the largess of men to whom you are trying to minister. +It is not that they try to take conscious advantage +of your sense of gratitude, but that such +dependence upon their generosity creates a psychological +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[186]</span>hazard against honest presentation of the +truth. Of course it is probably true that men who +receive these excessive benefactions are usually too +tame to need taming. Innocuous virtue is always +more charming and more liable to prompt a generous +affection than the kind which raises disquieting +questions.</p> + +<p>Then too, ministers who can preach the gospel +of Jesus in our kind of civilization without making +anyone uncomfortable deserve an automobile for +the difficult feat. And they need one to compensate +them for that lack of spiritual vitality which makes +the performance of the feat possible. Most of these +modern appurtenances are toys which appeal to +childlike people. When we sacrifice the adventure +of trying to maintain an inner moral integrity, we +are bound to seek for compensating thrills and to +find them in our mechanical toys.</p> + +<p>But all this may be the voice of jealousy. I +love nothing so much in the realm of physical pleasures +as the sense of power which comes from “stepping +on the gas” when ensconsed in a big car.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[187]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1928_14"> + <i>1928</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Spoke today at the Jewish temple in ——. +The more I make contact with the Jews the more +I am impressed with the superior sensitiveness of +the Jewish conscience in social problems. I have +yet to find a Christian men’s group that can surpass +and few to equal the intelligent interest of a +Hebrew group in the economic and social issues of +the day. I do not say that there is not in privileged +Jewish groups more moral complacency than +is compatible with their avowed devotion to the +Hebrew prophets, but there is at least a considerable +appreciation of the genius of prophetic religion +and some honest effort to apply the prophetic +ideal to life.</p> + +<p>I am afraid that the individualistic traditions +of Protestantism, and perhaps also the strong +Pauline strain in Protestant theology, have obscured +the social implications of Jesus’ gospel much +more than is the case in Jewish religion. I am not +sure that the religious life in the Jewish temple is +always as obviously vital as it is in many Christian +churches, but what there is of it seems to me to be +directed much more astutely, at least from the social +viewpoint, than in our groups.</p> + +<p>The Jews are after all a messianic people, and +they have never escaped the influence of their messianic, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[188]</span>or if you will, their utopian dreams. The +glory of their religion is that they are really not +thinking so much of “salvation” as of a saved +society.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[189]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1928_15"> + <i>1928</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>The way Mrs. —— bears her pains and +awaits her ultimate and certain dissolution with +childlike faith and inner serenity is an achievement +which philosophers might well envy. I declare that +there is a quality in the lives of unschooled people, +if they have made good use of the school of life and +pain, which wins my admiration much more than +anything you can find in effete circles. There is +less of that whining rebellion against life’s fortunes, +less morbid introspection and more faith in +the goodness of God. And that faith is, whatever +the little cynics may say, really ultimate wisdom.</p> + +<p>Mrs. —— has had a hard life, raised a large +family under great difficulties, is revered by her +children, respected by her friends, and she has +learned to view the difficult future with quiet courage +as she surveys the painful and yet happy past +with sincere gratitude. She thanks me for praying +with her and imagines that I am doing her a favor +to come to see her. But I really come for selfish +reasons—because I leave that home with a more +radiant faith of my own. My confidence in both +man and God is strengthened.</p> + +<p>It is the quality in that woman’s life that +seems to me to be dissipated in the modern day, +for all our progress. Perhaps we will work out +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[190]</span>something comparable to it some day in a highly +disciplined culture. But as we lose the moral fibre +of the generation of pioneers and wait for the discipline +of a generation of moral aristocracy, it is +ordained that we should wander through this present +world where life is too comfortable to have the +tragic nobility which our fathers had and too +chaotic to disclose the charms which come from a +great cultural and moral tradition.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[191]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1928_16"> + <i>1928</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Here is a pastor singing himself to sleep. He +writes: “Business men who attend church have +sense enough to go out and run their business as +Christians without the minister interfering with +the technique. Many of the most spiritual and influential +ministers I know never deal directly with +politics, industry or reform.” It is true of course +that a minister can’t offer expert advice on the detailed +application of Christian principles to specific +fields. But neither can he assume that principles +get themselves automatically applied in the +world’s complexities.</p> + +<p>One of the most fruitful sources of self-deception +in the ministry is the proclamation of +great ideals and principles without any clue to their +relation to the controversial issues of the day. +The minister feels very heroic in uttering the ideals +because he knows that some rather dangerous immediate +consequences are involved in their application. +But he doesn’t make the application clear, +and those who hear his words are either unable to +see the immediate issue involved or they are unconsciously +grateful to the preacher for not belaboring +a contemporaneous issue which they know to be +involved but would rather not face.</p> + +<p>I have myself too frequently avoided the specific +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[192]</span>application of general principles to controversial +situations to be able to deny what really goes +on in the mind of the preacher when he is doing +this. I don’t think I have always avoided it, and +when I haven’t I have invariably gotten into some +difficulty. Nobody challenges principles.</p> + +<p>Like the diplomats, the average man always +accepts the gospel “in principle,” and then proceeds +to emasculate it by a thousand reservations. +I know we can’t be expert on every technical problem +involved in modern industrial and national +civilization. But the ministers who make a virtue +of their pious generalities are either self-deceived +or conscious deceivers.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[193]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1928_17"> + <i>1928</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>I am glad to hear of the new honors which +have come to Bishop M——. He seems to me to +be the most glorious figure in American church life. +To have a philosopher, prophet and statesman all +rolled into one, and to have that one achieve a +peculiar eminence in our religious life is a clear +illustration of how the richest character is achieved +when various, seemingly incompatible, tendencies +and functions are fused in one personality.</p> + +<p>Philosophers are not usually prophets. They +are too reasonable and circumspect to create or +preserve the prophetic vision. The wise man is too +capable of balancing the truth, to which he ought to +be loyal, with some other truth with which it is in +conflict. Thus he involves himself in the endless +antinomies of intellectualism.</p> + +<p>This philosopher is enough of a Christian to +escape this fate. But he has another hazard to +overcome; for he is a statesman. For years he has +carried heavy responsibilities as a church leader; +and it is always more difficult for a responsible +leader, tied to an organization, to speak bravely +than an irresponsible prophet. Yet he has accomplished +it. Here is a vindication of the power of +the Christian life. Here is a Thomas Aquinas and +an Innocent III and something of a Francis all +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[194]</span>under one hat. He is not as much of an absolutist +as Francis, of course; and his power is not as great +as that of Innocent. But his learning would compare +favorably with that of Aquinas, and like the +great medieval philosopher, he has combined the +study of metaphysics with that of social economy.</p> + +<p>Strange that while I am so critical of bishops +my greatest hero should be a bishop and that, while +I call myself an anti-puritan, that hero should be +a Methodist bishop. So life defies our prejudices +and generalizations.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[195]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="1928_18"> + <i>1928</i> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>I always thought I was a fairly brutal realist, +but I am beginning to suspect that the whole thing +is a pose to hide the sentimental preacher. At any +rate now that the time has come to sever my connections +with the church I find it almost impossible +to take the step. There is nothing quite like the +pastoral relationship. I would almost be willing +to sacrifice the future for the sake of staying +here and watching the lovely little kiddies grow +up, and see the young boys and girls that I have +confirmed blossoming into manhood and womanhood. +There must be something bogus about me. +Here I have been preaching the gospel for thirteen +years and crying, “Woe unto you if all +men speak well of you,” and yet I leave without +a serious controversy in the whole thirteen +years.</p> + +<p>It is almost impossible to be sane and Christian +at the same time, and on the whole I have been +more sane than Christian. I have said what I believe, +but in my creed the divine madness of a +gospel of love is qualified by considerations of +moderation which I have called Aristotelian, but +which an unfriendly critic might call opportunistic. +I have made these qualifications because it seems +to me that without them the Christian ethic degenerates +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[196]</span>into asceticism and becomes useless for +any direction of the affairs of a larger society.</p> + +<p>I do not say that some one ought not to undertake +an ascetic revolt against civilization. Certainly +there would be a peace in it which no one +can find who tries to adapt the principles of love +to a civilization built upon the drive of power and +greed. Those of us who make adjustments between +the absolute ideal of our devotion and the +necessities of the immediate situation lack peace, +because we can never be sure that we have our adjustment +at the right place.</p> + +<p>Every moral position which has left the absolute +basis is in danger of becoming a rationalization +of some selfish purpose. I am not unconscious +of the fact that my tendency to criticise others +so severely for their alleged rationalizations +and hypocrisies springs from my own sense of +insecurity.</p> + +<p>I persevere in the effort to combine the ethic +of Jesus with what might be called Greek caution +because I see no great gain in ascetic experiments. +I might claim for such a strategy the full authority +of the gospel except that it seems to me more likely +to avoid dishonesty if one admits that the principle +of love is not qualified in the gospel and that it must +be qualified in other than the most intimate human +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[197]</span>associations. When one deals with the affairs of +a civilization, one is trying to make the principle +of love effective as far as possible, but one cannot +escape the conclusion that society as such is brutal, +and that the Christian principle may never be more +than a leaven in it.</p> + +<p>There has never been a time when I have not +been really happy in the relationships of the parish +ministry. The church can really be a community +of love and can give one new confidence in the efficacy +of the principles of brotherhood outside of the +family relation. The questions and qualms of conscience +arise when one measures the church in its +relationships to society, particularly to the facts +of modern industry. It is at this point where +it seems to me that we had better admit failure +than to claim any victory. The admission of +failure may yet lead to some kind of triumph, +while any premature confidence in the victory +of a Christian ethic will merely obfuscate the +conscience.</p> + +<p>Modern industry, particularly American industry, +is not Christian. The economic forces +which move it are hardly qualified at a single point +by really ethical considerations. If, while it is in +the flush of its early triumphs, it may seem impossible +to bring it under the restraint of moral law, it +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[198]</span>may strengthen faith to know that life without law +destroys itself. If the church can do nothing else, +it can bear witness to the truth until such a day as +bitter experience will force a recalcitrant civilization +to a humility which it does not now possess.</p> + + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78238 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/78238-h/images/cover.jpg b/78238-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e8708d9 --- /dev/null +++ b/78238-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6c72794 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This book, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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