Henry Emerson Fosdick

It has been interesting to me to read about the author of "God of Grace and God of Glory." (Since this is a blog and not an academic paper, I'm relying on internet sources for biographical information.)   It's really been thought-provoking to discover the man that wrote one of my favorite hymns was apparently in serious opposition to the school of Christian thought in which I was raised.


My paternal grandfather was not particularly religious as a younger man.  I'm not quite sure how he attracted my grandmother, who was, but such things have certainly been heard of both before and since.  He continued in slightly hard-living ways until, in the mid-1920s, the aftermath of a freak accident took the life of his first child, a little four year old boy. As my grandparents walked through the grieving process, a local preacher walked with them, and his ministry persuaded my grandfather to turn to the Savior.  Both he and my grandmother were convinced of God's love and followed Him until the end of their lives. The preacher was from the local Missionary Baptist church, a movement very much a part of fundamentalism.  It was the church for those who found the Southern Baptist church too liberal. 


Henry Emerson Fosdick was a very prominent preacher in the first half of the twentieth century. While my grandfather was coming to know the Lord through the influences of a fundamentalist preacher in a small Texas Panhandle town, Harry Fosdick was proclaiming liberal theology in the great cities and churches of the northeast. He became widely known for a sermon titled "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?" which was mailed out to thousands of churches across the nation.  His liberal views and the aftermath of this sermon led to his resignation of the pastorate at a Presbyterian church and to his taking a post at Park Avenue Baptist Church in New York.  He was apparently uncomfortable with baptism by immersion being the only accepted mode of baptism, and one of his congregants, John D. Rockefeller, built a new church, Riverside Church, so that Mr. Fosdick might be able to do things his way. "God of Grace and God of Glory" was the dedicatory hymn for the new church.


Sources indicate that Mr. Fosdick was opposed to certain concepts that many evangelicals would consider deal-breakers: He held that "belief in the virgin birth was unnecessary; the inerrancy of Scripture, untenable; and the doctrine of the Second Coming, absurd." Nonetheless, he also said, "I believe in the personal God revealed in Christ, in his omnipresent activity and endless resources to achieve his purposes for us and for all men."


But while his famous sermon certainly does contain points of contention with fundamentalist teaching, his real concern was the inclination of fundamentalists to be confident that their way was the only possible way to understand scripture.  Read this outtake:

If a man is a genuine liberal, his primary protest is not against holding these opinions, although he may well protest against their being considered the fundamentals of Christianity. This is a free country and anybody has a right to hold these opinions or any others if he is sincerely convinced of them. 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.

In such an hour, delicate and dangerous, when feelings are bound to run high, I plead this morning the cause of magnanimity and liberality and tolerance of spirit. I would, if I could reach their ears, say to the Fundamentalists about the liberals what Gamaliel said to the Jews, “Refrain from these men and let them alone; for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will be everthrown; but if it is of God ye will not be able to overthrow them; lest haply ye be found even to be fighting against God.

Though I think it's unlikely I would ever embrace liberal theology, I can certainly embrace the rejection (well, if one can embrace a rejection) of doctrinal tribunals that do more harm to the cause of Christ than variations in eschatological understanding ever could. Liberal, fundamentalist, or in-between, let us make sure that nothing about our speech, writing, conduct, or thought lands us in the camp of those who "scorn Thy Christ, assail his ways."


Sources: 


Bio of Henry Emerson Fosdick at Christianity Today's Christian History site


Tribute to Fosdick by dean of chapel at Mt. Holyoke


Wikipedia