Fosdick on Faith

Harry Emerson Fosdick, was a key figure in the religious life of America in the mid 1900s. He was a polarizing force in that he adamantly combated the fundamentalists that had risen up in response to the cresting tide of theological Liberalism, yet he later in life criticized many of the shortcomings of Liberalism and embraced a form of Neo-Orthodoxy.

I have always heard or read his name either in high regard or complete contempt. Having never read anything by him I chose a book that has been on my shelf for years to read entitled A Faith for Tough Times. Fosdick was definitely someone who marched to his own beat not giving a care as to what others may think. Still in the book I found some nuggets of wisdom and insight.

Here is one:
When on undertakes to find the permanent in this transitory world one naturally turns to huge things, powerful things, which ostentatiously loom large and dominate the scene. But the Christian faith lights on an obscure Galilean, whose family thought him demented, whose church thought him a heretic and excommunicated him, whose friends thought him a failure and disowned him, whose nation thought him a traitor and crucified him. (40-41)