The protestant has his pew,- which of course is only the first step to a church for every individual citizen-a church apiece."5
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The protestant has his pew,- which of course is only the first step to a church for every individual citizen-a church apiece."5 Alongside such tolerance of Catholicism, Emerson's indictment of Unitarianism and its cool, complacent rationalism stands out sharply. In I842 he had referred to the "icehouse of Unitarianism,"6
Ralph Waldo Emerson caught the free religious spirit of the nation when he wrote, “The Protestant has his pew, which of course is only the first step to a church for every individual citizen—... CONTRIBUTORS
The Protestant has his pew, which of course is only the first step to a church for every individual citizen—a church apiece”: Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson, ed. Emerson, Edward W. and Forbes, Waldo E., 10 vols. (Boston 1911), 7: 341 –42Google Scholar, as quoted by Birdsell, Richard D., “ Emerson and the Church of Rome,” American Literature 31 (11 1959): 273 –81, 274.
Nov 24, 2009 · I am looking forward to your responses, for, as a Protestant currently, I truly want to know. Michael O. Emerson is the Cline Professor of Sociology and the Director of the Center on Race, Religion, and Urban Life at Rice University in Houston, Texas. He is the co-author of “Divided by Faith” and “United by Faith.”.
Like his British Romantic contemporaries, Emerson saw a direct connection between man, nature and God. Historian Grant Wacker describes Emerson's belief: "God was best understood as a spirit, an ideal, a breath of life; everywhere and always filling the world with the inexhaustible power of the divine presence.
Protestantism originated in the Reformation of the 16th century in Christian Europe, and Protestants have been said to share 3 basic convictions: 1) the Bible is the ultimate authority in matters of religious truth; 2) human beings are saved only by God's "grace" (ie, unearned gift); and 3) all Christians are priests; ...Feb 7, 2006
Transcendentalism is an American literary, philosophical, religious, and political movement of the early nineteenth century, centered around Ralph Waldo Emerson.Feb 6, 2003
They emphasize the priesthood of all believers; justification by faith alone (sola fide) rather than by faith with good works; the teaching that salvation comes by divine grace or "unmerited favor" only, not as something merited (sola gratia); and either affirm the Bible as being the sole highest authority (sola ...
The Protestant Heritage, Protestantism originated in the 16th-century Reformation, and its basic doctrines, in addition to those of the ancient Christian creeds, are justification by grace alone through faith, the priesthood of all believers, and the supremacy of Holy Scripture in matters of faith and order.
The Protestant Reformation was a religious reform movement that swept through Europe in the 1500s. It resulted in the creation of a branch of Christianity called Protestantism, a name used collectively to refer to the many religious groups that separated from the Roman Catholic Church due to differences in doctrine.Apr 7, 2021
In 1821, Ralph Waldo Emerson took over as director of his brother's school for girls. In 1823, he wrote the poem "Good-Bye.” In 1832, he became a Transcendentalist, leading to the later essays "Self-Reliance" and "The American Scholar." Emerson continued to write and lecture into the late 1870s.Apr 2, 2014
An American essayist, poet, and popular philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) began his career as a Unitarian minister in Boston, but achieved worldwide fame as a lecturer and the author of such essays as “Self-Reliance,” “History,” “The Over-Soul,” and “Fate.” Drawing on English and German Romanticism, ...Jan 3, 2002
Emerson believed that an ideal government, aside from a nonexistent one dissolved when improvements in human character through love and wisdom could abolish the state, was one that advocated for the growth of the individual, and be able to protect one's individual rights.
The Crucifix, a cross with corpus, a symbol used in the Catholic Church, Lutheranism, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and Anglicanism, in contrast with some other Protestant denominations, Church of the East, and Armenian Apostolic Church, which use only a bare cross.
The essential tenets of the Reformation are that the Bible is the sole authority for all matters of faith and conduct and that salvation is by God's grace and by faith in Jesus Christ.
Protestantism, Christian religious movement that began in northern Europe in the early 16th century as a reaction to medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices. Along with Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, Protestantism became one of three major forces in Christianity.Mar 7, 2022
While the Protestant Reformation began in Germany, in 2o10, nearly nine-in-ten (87%) of the world’s Protestants lived outside of Europe, particularly in countries that make up the “global south,” that is, developing nations mostly in the Southern Hemisphere.
While the exact date of the anniversary is debated, it’s conventionally commemorated on Oct. 31, when Martin Luther publicly posted his criticisms of the Roman Catholic Church in Wittenberg, Germany, precipitating an eventual schism ...
A statue of Martin Luther in Market Square in Wittenberg, Germany. In 1517 Luther nailed his 95 theses to a door of the nearby Schlosskirche, helping to spark the Protestant Reformation. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
Beginning in the fall of 1833, and on into the spring of 1834, Emerson preached quite regularly in the pulpit of his distant relative, Dr. Orville Dewey, in the Unitarian Church of New Bedford, Massachusetts .
“On board the boat in Delaware Bay,” he met an old and honored Friend, Edward Stabler (1769-1831). [1] . The meeting was an important one for Emerson.
See below Chapter V. William Logan Fisher was the leader of one group of Quakers who called themselves "Progressive Friends.". In the "Account of the Fourth Annual Meeting", he set forth the aims and ideals of the members: "the highest degree of individual liberty consistent with an organized body".
A sermon that resonates with listeners will move them to reflect, act, change, and seek further information and assistance. Fosdick clearly states that clergy who understand their “people, their problems, troubles, motives, failures and desires” and then address those issues in sermons will see transformation take place in their lives. “People habitually come up after the sermon, not to offer some bland compliment, but to say, ‘How did you know I was facing that problem only this week?’ or ‘We were discussing that very matter at dinner last night,’ or, best of all, ‘I think you would understand my case—may I have a personal interview with you?’ This, I take it, is the final test of a sermon’s worth: how many individuals wish to see their preacher alone?” 16
“The result is that folks less and less come to church at all,” he adds. 10 Fosdick is critical of expository preaching because it rests on a faulty premise: “Many preachers indulge habitually in what they call expository sermons. They take a passage from Scripture and, proceeding on the assumption that people attending church that morning are deeply concerned about what the passage means, they spend their half hour or more on historical application to the auditors. Could any procedure be more surely predestined to dullness and futility. Who seriously supposes that one in a hundred of the congregation cares what Moses, Isaiah, Paul, or John meant in those special verses, or came to church deeply concerned about it?” 11
The goal of preaching is transformation . The goal of transforming the listener should be paramount in the mind of every person preparing a sermon. Sadly, according to Fosdick, that is not the case. “One often reads modern sermons with amazement.
While we hear much criticism today of “self-help” sermons, Fosdick advocated helping parishioners with daily issues. “Every sermon should have for its main business the solving of some problem—a vital, important problem, puzzling minds, burdening consciences.” 5 Preachers who do this will never lack an audience. “Any sermon which thus does tackle a real problem, throw even a little light on it, and help some individuals practically to find their way through it cannot be altogether uninteresting.” 6
Fosdick believes that listeners have the right to know in its opening statements what issues a sermon seeks to address. “Within a paragraph or two after a sermon has started, wide areas of any congregation ought to begin recognizing that the preacher is tackling something of vital concern to them,” he declares. They need to know that the preacher is “handling a subject they are puzzled about, or a way of living they have dangerously experimented with, or an experience that has bewildered them, or a sin that has come perilously near to wrecking them, or an ideal they have been trying to make real, or a need they have not known how to meet.” 7 One way or another, they should see that the preacher is engaged in a serious and practical endeavor to state fairly a problem that actually exists in their lives and then to throw what light on it he or she can.
It is essential that sermons be well-prepared and prayed for so that they address the real needs of the listeners, enabling them to transform, grow, and be empowered. That will allow God and His Word to reach them with biblical truths. Good preaching influences not only the church as a whole but also the families and the individuals that hear the message.
Though Fosdick disdains some types of expository preaching, he still believes the Bible has great power to guide moderns in their daily life. “It has light to shed on all sorts of human problems now and always,” he states. “What all the great writers of Scriptures were interested in was human living, and the modern preacher who honors them should start with that, should clearly visualize some real need, perplexity, sin, or desire in his auditors, and then should throw on the problem all the light he can find in the Scripture or anywhere else. No matter what one’s theory about the Bible is, this is the effective approach to preaching. The Bible is a searchlight, not so much intended to be looked at as to be thrown upon a shadowed spot.” 12
Although I disagree in principle with Richard Sipes, a former Benedictine monk who left the Catholic priesthood to marry, on Sipe’s distortion of Roman Catholic moral teaching on sodomy, I do find his list factual. There are others, after the death of Sipe who are not on this important list.
Homosexual orientation is NOT an objective disorder. Likewise, this concept is theologically meaningless; it is insincere, untruthful, and perverted. The doctrine of Original Sin is sufficient to take care of all humans whatever their sexual orientation. I am not dealing here with homosexual acts.
Reality is blurred just as it is when we fail to make the distinction between “celibacy” as a designation and celibacy as an actual practice. So at the heart of the matter are fairness in regard to sexual orientation and its clear operational distinction from sexual behavior.