Theology – The Lloyd C Douglas Page

From Lloyd C. Douglas, “Mr. Bryan’s New Crusade,” published in The Christian Century on 11/25/1920.

[The following is a continuation from Lloyd Douglas’s essay, “Mr. Bryan’s New Crusade,” published in The Christian Century on November 25, 1920. He writes:]

“The total result of the Bryan address to his university audience was disgust on the part of religious people – both faculty and students – disgust over the speaker’s intellectual immorality, to say nothing of the crass impudence displayed by such an exhibition of ignorance before an audience of that character. But the really serious fact about the performance resided in the effect produced upon the students who never go to church, manifest no interest in religion, and who think of Christian faith with as little knowledge of its present-day claims as Mr. Bryan has of biology – which is next to nothing. This type of student understands that Mr. Bryan is a widely known and generally recognized religious leader in the country – frequent spokesman before ecclesiastical conclaves, and a general defender of the faith. The student is informed, from this respected quarter, that, to be a Christian, he must repudiate that which his own eyes have seen in the laboratory and believe certain ancient dogmas which he cannot hold without the sacrifice of his intellectual self-regard. It is extremely doubtful if Mr. Bryan will ever be invited to speak before this group again. But the damage is done!

“While we are on the subject – how much truth is there, after all, about the deplorable loss of religious faith which Mr. Bryan notices in academic circles? Let us see. Many people who do not know the facts are persuaded to believe that the typical freshman comes to the university firm in the faith of his fathers, fresh from Sunday School, convinced that the Bible is to be accepted as a textbook on geology, anthropology, astronomy, and all the rest of the natural sciences. After he has been here for a year or two, he loses his faith, becomes a cynic and a scoffer, flaunts his atheism or his infidelity, and repudiates religion as of no further use to him. What are the facts about this matter?”

[Douglas, having spent the past decade on major Midwestern college campuses, will give his answer in my next post.]

by Ronald R Johnson

A page from the sermon “Personality (Third Phase),” preached by Lloyd C Douglas at the First Congregational Church of Ann Arbor on 2/1/1920. In Sermons [5], Box 3, Lloyd C. Douglas Papers, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. © University of Michigan.

This excerpt is from the sermon, “Personality (Third Phase),” preached by Lloyd C. Douglas at the First Congregational Church of Ann Arbor on February 1, 1920. (In Sermons [5], Box 3, Lloyd C. Douglas Papers, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. © University of Michigan.):

“…we are rapidly tending toward a much more satisfactory and reasonable attitude toward God. Men began their thinking of Him by contemplating Him in fear. He was always angry, and they were always afraid. They, then, emphasized their awe of Him and gave themselves over to the invention of poor little superlatives concerning His greatness, thinking that He might be flattered by their praise into favoring them. Their only process of making Him great was to debase themselves, on the ground that the smaller they were, the greater He became.

“Then they began speaking of their love for Him; but it was rather difficult to associate the love-idea with the old fear-concept. Even today, when we fancy ourselves quite freed from most of the crude old terrors once indigenous to theological considerations, we still speak of Him with much reserve, and in hushed voices, usually adopting a tone employed solely for this purpose. And many an admonitory ‘Tut, tut!’ is directed toward small children by their parents when, out of their simple-hearted acceptance of the parental instructions that God is indeed their Father, they venture to play with Him a bit, or invite His interest in their small concerns.

“No, we think, that will not do. God is far too great to be spoken of in the same terms with our work or our play, or to be merry with us, though we do not find it at all incongruous to solicit His attendance upon our dismay, or a witness to our tears. We seem to have a notion that there is something inevitably sad about God.

“Of course, our better judgment tells us, when we stop to think about this matter calmly, that God is apparently much interested in the things we consider small, judging by the growing importance of the infinitesimally little things which only lately have come into being for us by the aid of the high-powered microscopes. And of course He must be interested in the forces and facts of life which make us merry and happy, else He would not have endowed us with the capacity for appreciating them and turning them to account.

“But it is hard to overcome race-memory of a God-concept — age-old — based on fear.

“Now, if this God-consciousness is ever to aid us in the discovery of ‘personality,’ we must leave off the old groveling relationship and stand erect, head up, confident and unafraid, when we contemplate Him; thus

[Douglas indents the following and puts it in quotes:]

“‘If He thought my life valuable enough to endow me with divine aspirations and longings that I cannot myself understand, the best that I can do by way of showing my appreciation is to act up to the part, and be His son, insofar as my capacities and my faith permit.’

“I do not flatter the artist by telling him that his best picture is a hopeless daub. Nor do I honor God by protesting that I, one of His human creatures, am a worthless worm of the dust. It is only as I glory in my heritage and express devout thanks for the supernal, that I find [Him] within me, that I realize what His Fatherhood means to the discovery of my own personality.”

Now, we can argue that Douglas didn’t fully appreciate the complexities of the idea of “fearing” God — and I don’t think he did fully appreciate them — but we mustn’t let that prevent us from grasping the very important point he is trying to make: that the idea of “fearing” God was never meant to prevent us from having a closer relationship with Him. That’s what Douglas is trying to convey. I’ll tell you more about his sermon in my next post.

Tag: Theology

Mr. Bryan’s New Crusade, Part 4

Personality III: Getting Past the Fear of God