Fosdick's Last Year

When he was a fuzzy-haired sophomore at Colgate, Harry Emerson Fosdick wrote to his parents: "I am throwing over my old idea of the universe. I am building another--and leaving God out." Something went wrong with that creation--but Fosdick never lost his dislike of "old ideas" or his fondness for asking "Why?" These' qualities, backed by a quick mind and a gift for forceful expression, made "Fuzzy" Fosdick one of the most influential Protestants in the U.S. and the foremost popularizer of religious liberalism. Last week, after 41 years of service to the church, Harry Emerson Fosdick, 67, announced that he would retire next May from Manhattan's famed Riverside ("Rockefeller") Church, of which he was the first pastor.

Accept or Get Out? Ordained a Baptist, Fosdick showed his opinion of denominationalism by becoming (in 1919) the associate minister of Manhattan's wealthy First Presbyterian Church. There he touched off a controversy between Modernists and Fundamentalists which made Page-One news and rocked U.S. Protestantism to its foundations. One Sunday morning in 1922, Fosdick delivered a blistering sermon, in which he said: "Just now, the Fundamentalists are giving us one of the worst exhibitions of bitter intolerance that the churches of this country have ever seen." He proceeded to state his own Modernist position by questioning the Virgin Birth, the literal inspiration of the Scriptures, the belief that Christ will return "upon a heap of blazing clouds." He concluded: "If people must accept these interpretations or get out, then out of the Christian church would go some of the best Christian life and consecration of this generation."

The Modernist position had seldom been stated so bluntly. A Fundamentalist Presbyterian group in Philadelphia accepted Fosdick's challenge and objected so insistently and so violently that the Presbyterian General Assembly was forced to ask Fosdick to become a Presbyterian. He refused, on the grounds that the ministry should not be a denominationally "closed shop."

Never Mind the Creed. At this point, good Baptist John D. Rockefeller Jr., who had admired Fosdick's fight, offered him the pastorate of the Park Avenue Baptist Church. Fosdick accepted-- with conditions. The church must: 1) no longer require immersion; 2) grant membership to all Christians, regardless of creed; 3) build a new church in a less swank district; 4) pay the minister no more than $5,000. (Later, when the pressure of church work began to cut down his out side income, his salary was boosted close to $10,000.

Dr. Fosdick held his first service at the skyscraper-Gothic Riverside Church on Oct. 5, 1930. It had cost some $5,000,000 (largely donated by the Rockefellers), and is one of Manhattan's sightseeing land marks. Fosdick's Sunday morning sermons, delivered from a marble pulpit, attracted capacity (2,500) congregations. Millions more heard his Sunday afternoon sermons, broadcast over a national hookup from his 18th-floor tower study. He received 125,000 letters a year from his radio talks alone. Meanwhile, he continued to teach at Union Theological Seminary, continued to turn out popular books (A Guide to Understanding the Bible, On Being a Real Person, etc.).

Harry Fosdick had planned to leave the Riverside Church at 65--when he was entitled to, under its retirement plan. In March 1943, he handed in his resignation. The trustees, weighing "the spiritual needs of these war days," persuaded him to stay on for a while by limiting his duties to preaching.

Last week he said firmly that he could not be persuaded further and would retire next May 24--on his 68th birthday. Then he slipped out of town for a rest at his Boothbay Harbor, Me. summer home.

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