Harry Emerson Fosdick

Already all of us must have heard about the people who call themselves the Fundamentalists. Their apparent intention is to drive out of the evangelical churches men and women of liberal opinions. I speak of them the more freely because there are no two denominations more affected by them than the Baptist and the Presbyterian. We should not identify the Fundamentalists with the conservatives. All Fundamentalists are conservatives, but not all conservatives are Fundamentalists. The best conservatives can often give lessons to the liberals in true liberality of spirit, but the Fundamentalist program is essentially illiberal and intolerant.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick women

The present world situation smells to heaven! And now, in the presence of colossal problems, which must be solved in ’s name and for Christ’s sake, the Fundamentalists propose to drive out from the Christian churches all the consecrated souls who do not agree with their theory of inspiration. What immeasurable folly! Well, they are not going to do it; certainly not in this vicinity. I do not even know in this congregation whether anybody has been tempted to be a Fundamentalist. Never in this church have I caught one accent of intolerance. God keep us always so and ever increasing areas of the Christian fellowship; intellectually hospitable, open-minded, liberty-loving, fair, tolerant, not with the tolerance of indifference, as though we did not care about the faith, but because always our major emphasis is upon the weightier matters of the law.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick faith

Some Christians carry their religion on their backs. It is a packet of beliefs and practices which they must bear. At times it grows heavy and they would willingly lay it down, but that would mean a break with old traditions, so they shoulder it again. But real Christians do not carry their religion, their religion carries them. It is not weight, it is wings. It lifts them up, it sees them over hard places. It makes the universe seem friendly, life purposeful, hope real, sacrifice worthwhile. It sets them free from fear, futility, discouragement, and sin — the great enslaver of men's souls. You can know a real Christian when you see him, by his bouyancy.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick life

The Church offers comradeship with Jesus in all the affairs of life. It gives men a clearer understanding of the mind of Christ. It is through Christ that they come to know God. The steady discipline of intimate friendship withresults in men becoming like Him.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick life

I renounce war for its consequences, for the lies it lives on and propagates, for the undying hatred it arouses, for the dictatorships it puts in place of democracy, for the starvation that stalks after it. I renounce war, and never again, directly or indirectly, will I sanction or support another.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick war

Democracy is based upon the conviction that there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick people

Hold a picture of yourself long and steadily enough in your mind's eye and you will be drawn toward it. Picture yourself vividly as defeated and that alone will make victory impossible. Picture yourself vividly as winning, and that alone will contribute immeasurably to success. Do not picture yourself as anything and you will drift like a derelict.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick success

Rebellion against your handicaps gets you nowhere. Self-pity gets you nowhere. One must have the adventurous daring to accept oneself as a bundle of possibilities and undertake the most interesting game in the world — making the most of one's best.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick world

Peace is an awareness of reserves from beyond ourselves, so that our power is not so much in us as through us. Peace is the gift, not of volitional struggle, but of spiritual hospitality.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick war

Don't simply retire from something; have something to retire to.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick

The process has now run full circle: Preaching originates in personal counseling; preaching is personal counseling on a group basis; personal counseling originates in preaching. Personal counseling imparts to the preacher a practical familiarity with human nature which he would not otherwise obtain.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick art

He who knows no hardships will know no hardihood. He who faces no calamity will need no courage. Mysterious though it is, the characteristics in human nature which we love best grow in a soil with a strong mixture of troubles.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick love

Christians are supposed not merely to endure change, nor even to profit by it, but to cause it.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick change

To keep the Golden Rule we must put ourselves in other people's places, but to do that consists in and depends upon picturing ourselves in their places.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick people

God of grace and God of glory, On Thy people pour Thy power.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick people

Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, For the facing of this hour.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick wisdom

God of grace and God of glory, On Thy people pour Thy power. Crown Thine ancient church’s story, Bring her bud to glorious flower.Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, For the facing of this hour, For the facing of this hour.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick wisdom

Lo! the hosts of evil ’round us, Scorn Thy , assail His ways.From the fears that long have bound us, Free our hearts to faith and praise. Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, For the living of these days, For the living of these days.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick wisdom

Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, Lest we miss Thy kingdom’s goal, Lest we miss Thy kingdom’s goal.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick wisdom

Life consists not simply in what heredity and environment do to us but in what we make out of what they do to us.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick men

God is not a cosmic bell-boy for whom we can press a button to get things done.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick god

Hating people is like burning down your own home to get rid of a rat.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick people

The men of faith might claim for their positions ancient tradition, practical usefulness, and spiritual desirability, but one query could prick all such bubbles: Is it scientific? That question has searched religion for contraband goods, stripped it of old superstitions, forced it to change its categories of thought and methods of work, and in general has so cowed and scared religion that many modern-minded believers... instinctively throw up their hands at the mere whisper of it... When a prominent scientist comes out strongly for religion, all the churches thank Heaven and take courage, as though it were the highest possible compliment to God to havebelieve in Him. Science has become the arbiter of this generation's thought, until to call even a prophet and a seer "scientific" is to cap the climax of praise.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick faith

Living Under Tension : Sermons on Christianity Today (1941)

— Harry Emerson Fosdick day

He who chooses the beginning of a road chooses the place it leads to. It is the means that determine the end.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick end

No horse gets anywhere until he is harnessed. No stream or gas drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled. No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined. One of the widest gaps in human experience is the gap between what we say we want to be and our willingness to discipline ourselves to get there.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick life

Every human life involves an unfathomable mystery, for man is the riddle of the universe, and the riddle of man is his endowment with personal capacities. The stars are not so strange as the mind that studies them, analyzes their light, and measures their distances.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick life

At very best, a person wrapped up in himself makes a small package.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick self

The Living of These Days : An Autobiography (1956)

— Harry Emerson Fosdick biography

No existent theology can be a final formulation of spiritual truth.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick truth

The fact that astronomies change while the stars abide is a true analogy of every realm of human life and thought, religion not least of all. No existent theology can be a final formulation of spiritual truth.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick life

A good sermon is an engineering operation by which a chasm is bridged so that the spiritual goods on one side — the "unsearchable riches of " — are actually transported into personal lives upon the other. Here lies the difference between a sermon and a lecture.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick spiritual

I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick life

Bitterness imprisons life; love releases it. Bitterness paralyzes life; love empowers it. Bitterness sours life; love sweetens it. Bitterness sickens life; love heals it. Bitterness blinds life; love anoints its eyes.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick love

He who cannot rest, cannot work; he who cannot let go, cannot hold on; he who cannot find footing, cannot go forward.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick war

Bitterness imprisons life; love releases it.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick love

— Harry Emerson Fosdick life

Hating people is like burning down your own house to get rid of a rat.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick people

Every human life involves an unfathomable mystery, for man is the riddle of the universe, and the riddle of man in his endowment with personal capacities.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick life

Don't simply retire from something; have something to retire to.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick

Life asks not merely what you can do; it asks how much can you endure and not be spoiled.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick you

Picture yourself vividly as winning, and that alone will contribute immeasurably to success.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick success

God is not a cosmic bellboy for whom we can press a button to get things.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick god

The steady discipline of intimate friendship with Jesus results in men becoming like Him.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick friendship

The world is moving so fast these days that the one who says it can't be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick world

A person wrapped up in himself makes a small package.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick self

To keep the Golden Rule we must put ourselves in other people's places, but to do that consists in and depends upon picturing ourselves in their places.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick people

God has put within our lives meanings and possibilities that quite outrun the limits of mortality.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick meaning

We cannot all be great, but we can always attach ourselves to something that it great.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick great

Religion is not a burden, not a weight, it is wings.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick win

He who chooses the beginning of the road chooses the place it leads to. It is the means that determines the end.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick end

I hate war for its consequences, for the lies it lives on and propagates, for the undying hatreds it arouses.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick war

Preaching is personal counseling on a group basis.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick person

When a man retires, he has to retire to something.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick man

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