Abner Kneeland’s Passion and an Invitation to Cross the River

On this day in 1833 Abner Kneeland published a letter which was published in both the Universalist journal, the Trumpet and the Boston Inquirer. In it he officially repudiated the Universalist orthodoxy, following his earlier voluntary leaving of the Universalist ministry. The letter was simple enough. It was addressed to Thomas Whittemore, editor of the Trumpet and read:

Dear Sir: You observed to me the other day, that people still consider me a Universalist, and said to me “If you will acknowledge that you are not, I will publish it.” I told you, in substance, that in some respects I am still a Universalists; but that in others, I am not. I shall now answer you more at large, which I hope you will publish in full, and thereby redeem your pledge. I still hold to universal philanthropy, universal benevolence, and universal charity. In these respects, I am still a Universalist. Neither do I believe in punishment after death; so in this also I agree with the Universalists. But as it respects all other of their religious notions in relation to another world or a supposed other state of conscious existence, I do not believe in any of them; to that in this respect, I am no more a Universalist than I am an orthodox Christian. As for instance:

1. Universalists believe in a god, which I do not; but believe that their god, with all his moral attribures, (aside from nature itself,) is nothing more than a chimera of their own imagination.

2. Universalists believe in Christ, which I do not; but believe that whole story concerning him is as much a fable and a fiction, as that of the god Prometheus, the tragedy of whose death is said to have been acted on the stage in the theatre in Athens, 500 years before the Christian era.

3. Universalists believe in miracles, which I do not; but believe that every pretension to them can either be accounted for on natural principles, or else is to be attributed to mere trick and imposture.

4. Universalists believe in the resurrection of the dead, in immortality and eternal life, which I do not; but believe that all life is mortal, that death is an eternal extinction of life to the individual who possesses it, and that no individual life is, ever was, or ever will be eternal.

Hence, as Universalists no longer wish to consider me as being of their faith, and I no longer wish to be considered as belonging to their order, as it relates to a belief in things unseen, I hope the above four articles will be sufficient to distinguish me from them and them from me. I profess to believe in all realities of which I can form any rational conception, while they believe in what I believe to be mere ideal nothings to which they give both a “location and a name.”

In giving the above a place in the Trumpet you will let me tell your readers, in my own language, what I do, as well as what I do not, believe and thereby oblige your once brother of the same faith with yourself, and still your personal friend.

Abner Kneeland

For this and two other articles originally published in a Freethought journal, but reprinted elsewhere as well, Kneeland found himself tried, five times, and eventually convicted of blasphemy. A paper by Gale Alexander and Stephan Papa would call him the “last man jailed for Blasphemy.” At least in the United States…

The whole affair was aired in the papers of the day as a major scandal. Other liberal thinkers, mostly Unitarians, including Ralph Waldo Emerson and Theodore Parker tried to intervene but to no avail. Kneeland served sixty days in jail.

Among the ironies in this, and there are many ironies in this, today a significant number of contemporary Unitarian Universalists, heirs to the institution from which he was excluded and for which he was imprisoned, hold views very similar to those expressed in that letter.

And I’m quite interested in his thinking. Now that letter was meant to express what he did not believe. Elsewhere he published what he called his “Philosopher’s Creed.” It expressed his views in more positive terms.

I believe in the existence of a universe of suns and planets, among which there is one sun belonging to our planetary system; and that other suns being more remote, are called stars; but that they are indeed suns to other planetary systems. I believe that the whole universe is NATURE, and that the word NATURE embraces the whole universe; that GOD and NATURE, so far as we can attach any rational idea to either, are synonymous terms. Hence, I am not an Atheist, but a Pantheist; that is, instead of believing there is no God, I believe that in the abstract, all is God; and that all power that is, is in God, and that there is no power except that which proceeds from God is all in all; and that it is in God we live, move, and have our being; and that the whole duty of man consists in living as long as he can, and in promoting as much happiness as he can while he lives.

I’m just fascinated with how much I am in agreement with the former reverend Kneeland’s sentiments expressed in 1833 some hundred and sixty six years ago.

Now I’m not in complete agreement. In particular the notion that there was no historical Jesus is not part of the mainstream of contemporary thinking. That is I have no doubt Jesus existed, although I reject the “orthodox” view of who and what he was, which of course, is Kneeland’s real point.

I’m also not completely comfortable with the part of his assertion about our purpose being to live as long as we can. But that’s something I need to think about more. I’m certainly in agreement with him that we have some sort of duty to further the project of happiness for all during our time on this planet.

But what most intrigues me is his pantheism.

For me the problem with contemporary atheism is its bare materialism.

It misses, I believe, something about what we really are.

Of course there is another view that is equally off the mark for me. And that’s anti-materialist spiritual assertions. We get a lot of this in various religions. Just as wrong.

For me the material and the spiritual are two ways of perceiving one thing. Each word fails as we approach the reality of what is.

Like all words at some point material and spiritual fail…

But Kneeland tries to put words to it. A noble if doomed effort.

And there’s another point here, the real point for us as we live in this poor, beautiful and hurting world.

I’m of the opinion that Abner Kneeland posits a view of reality that is about as close to what is as one can get by thinking about the great matter.

I’m unaware of what actual experiences he may have had that brought him to this place. What I have read suggests his vehicle was reason.

One wild spiritual teacher I once knew like to recite a little ditty.

You can get more stinking from thinking than you can from drinking, but the feel is for real.

Now that’s not completely right, either. Thinking and feeling are the two ways we perceive. In fact they’re not two but facets of one thing. So one without the other is, of course, incomplete. In fact to follow one without the other is to invite much tragedy.

And so, Mr Kneeland’s dilemma. As I see it reason alone only takes us to a view of the promised land, like Moses standing above the river Jordan gazing across to the Holy Land, to which he could not go.

He saw it. I’m sure Kneeland saw it. But I’m not so sure he made it to the farther shore.

Seeing through a glass darkly, he gets it, and he points.

But to cross the river and to walk into that land we need both mind and heart.

I cannot pretend to read Abner Kneeland’s heart. Maybe he made it. There is no doubt in my mind there is much heart about him and his life. Just as there is much wisdom in the teachings of our ancestors. And who knows how many of the ancestors made it, as well.

We only get partial stories.

Still, partial or not…

The stories our ancestor’s tell in fact point to how to do this. The analysis of Kneeland and other’s point to how we can do this.

But the key to building the boat or the bridge is bringing heart and mind together. Actually if you look at the picture of the river posted above, sometimes, all you have to do is roll up your pants and wade across. When we bring heart and mind together it is as easy as pie…

The good news is that’s all we need.

All we need do is open our hearts and minds

and the vastness that is will be there.

Always has been…