Religion: Fosdick

For five years the First Presbyterian Church of New York City has had a queue of people waiting at its doors long before church time. For five years its pews have been jammed, its aisles utilized wherever possible. Yet not for five years has a Presbyterian preacher been the regular occupant of this popular Presbyterian pulpit. The occupant has been a Baptist all this time, a member of the Faculty of Union Theological Seminary, Manhattan, whom the church invited in 1919 to serve as special preacher. The Baptist’s name is Dr. Henry Emerson Fosdick. Vigorous, vauntless, straightforward, this man is as eminent and respected a teacher of men as might well be found today in any church of Christendom.

Last week Dr. Fosdick returned from a five-months’ vacation to find his congregation huger than ever. There were the usual faithful flock and in addition newspaper men, noted theologians, a visiting Bishop. Aside from being glad to have Dr. Fosdick back, these attentive hundreds were keen to hear what he was going to say upon a situation that arose last May between him and the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, a situation that might render this sermon his last in the First Presbyterian Church of New York.

The situation was this: In May, the Presbyterian General Assembly (at Grand Rapids) pointed out to the Presbytery of New York that, while he remained a Baptist, Dr. Fosdick “ought not to continue in a Presbyterian pulpit.” The Assembly indicated that the logical way to remove “the cause of irritation” was for Dr. Fosdick to enter the New York Presbytery. Whether or not the Assembly expected Dr. Fosdick to do this, could not be guessed, but the Assembly well knew that no such assertions as those Dr. Fosdick made two years ago in the Modernist-Fundamentalist controversy could be held compatible with the Presbyterian Confession of Faith. One of these assertions was that a belief in the virgin birth was not essential to Christianity.

Since being informed of the Assembly’s message, Dr. Fosdick, away, had had no opportunity of replying. In his sermon this first Sunday home, he referred to the question not at all.

His answer, a letter to the New York Presbytery, appeared in the October issue of that body’s monthly publication.

Said Dr. Fosdick: “… I must in all honesty set my longstanding and assured conviction that creedal subscription to ancient confessions of faith is a practice dangerous to the welfare of the Church and to the integrity of the individual conscience … I sincerely regret … so much uproar … I am sending . . . my resignation.

“I must not do what for me would be a disingenuous and fictitious thing, under the guise of taking solemn rows. I am sure you would not have me do it.”