On October 5, 1930, the newly built Riverside Church in NYC was dedicated. The church had been built by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. for Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick.
Few people of this generation have heard of Dr. Fosdick except for perhaps noting he had written a few hymns they may have sung in church. But during Dr. Fosdick's lifetime he was known as the principal leader of the liberal, progressive Christian movement. It was his sermon entitled "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?" on May 12, 1922 that caused him to be removed from the pulpit of the First Presbyterian Church in New York and caused Rockefeller to offer to build him a church. This sermon has stood the test of eighty-four years and is excerpted below. If only Dr. Fosdick were here today delivering it as he did that May.
After his opening, Dr. Fosdick states:
Already all of us must have heard about the people who call themselves the Fundamentalists. Their apparent intention is to drive out of the evangelical churches men and women of liberal opinions. I speak of them the more freely because there are no two denominations more affected by them than the Baptist and the Presbyterian. We should not identify the Fundamentalists with the conservatives. All Fundamentalists are conservatives, but not all conservatives are Fundamentalists. The best conservatives can often give lessons to the liberals in true liberality of spirit, but the Fundamentalist program is essentially illiberal and intolerant.
Dr. Fosdick goes on to explain that the beginning of the 20th century had brought masses of new knowledge about our universe, other peoples, and our beginnings. The liberal Christians welcomed this onslaught and felt it broadened and deepened their spirituality, but the Fundamentalists' reaction was antagonistic.
There is nothing new about the situation. It has happened again and again in history, as, for example, when the stationary earth suddenly began to move and the universe that had been centered in this planet was centered in the sun around which the planets whirled. Whenever such a situation has arisen, there has been only one way out - the new knowledge and the old faith had to be blended in a new combination. Now, the people in this generation who are trying to do this are the liberals, and the Fundamentalists are out on a campaign to shut against them the doors of the Christian fellowship. Shall they be allowed to succeed?
Dr. Fosdick points out that Fundamentalists require of all Christians to believe in the literal virgin birth of Jesus, all scripture being the absolute, inerrant word of God, and the second coming of our Lord upon "the clouds of heaven" to bring in the new millennium.
The question is - Has anybody a right to deny the Christian name to those who differ with him on such points and to shut against them the doors of the Christian fellowship? The Fundamentalists say that this must be done. In this country and on the foreign field they are trying to do it. They have actually endeavored to put on the statute books of a whole state binding laws against teaching modern biology. If they had their way, within the church, they would set up in Protestantism a doctrinal tribunal more rigid than the pope's.
And as Fosdick sees the fracturing of the Christian Church, he sees in its healing two necessary elements, "a spirit of tolerance and Christian liberty", and "a clear insight into the main issues of modern Christianity and a sense of penitent shame that the Christian Church should be quarreling over little matters when the world is dying of great needs."
The present world situation smells to heaven! And now, in the presence of colossal problems, which must be solved in Christ's name and for Christ's sake, the Fundamentalists propose to drive out from the Christian churches all the consecrated souls who do not agree with their theory of inspiration. What immeasurable folly!
Dr. Fosdick concludes his sermon calling for true Christian fellowship -
Intellectually hospitable, open-minded, liberty-loving, fair, tolerant, not with the tolerance of indifference, as though we did not care about the faith, but because always our major emphasis is upon the weightier matters of the law.
For the dedication of Riverside Church 10/5/30, Dr. Fosdick wrote the hymn "God of Grace and God of Glory" containing these words:
"Grant us wisdom, grant us courage
For the facing of this hour,
For the facing of this hour,"
Thirty-nine years later, to the day, Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick died. When I was little, I only knew him as Uncle Harry, a good family friend. It wasn't until I was an adult that I understood who he was. And it wasn't until recently that I read this whole sermon and realized that this great man needs to be remembered and his works reread with the new, fresh eyes of this millennium.
Happy Anniversary Riverside Church and, Uncle Harry, rest in peace. We need true wisdom and great courage for the facing of this hour. You are truly missed.