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<\/a><\/p>\nWhat is now many years ago when Jan & I first moved to New England\u2019s rocky and lovely soil, Jan wanted to go to the Cambridge cemetery to put a rose on Henry James\u2019 grave. I was more than happy to join her as I wanted to put a flower on William\u2019s grave. You know the brothers, one wrote like a psychologist, the other like a novelist\u2026<\/p>\n
After consulting some guides we bought a small bouquet of roses and drove out to the cemetery which turns out to be just east of the more famous Mt Auburn cemetery. We had a little difficulty finding the James family site, but eventually we did find it. As we set single roses down for each Henry & William, I was glad we had extras, as everyone tells me their sister Alice was the smart one in the family. And she definitely deserved a flower of her own.<\/p>\n
Then as we stepped back to admire the scene, I turned slightly and saw a large tombstone featuring that most common symbol of Unitarian Universalism, a \u201cflaming chalice.\u201d We walked over and saw it was James Luther Adams\u2018 grave. I thought this a most wonderful accident. Adams is without a doubt the most significant theologian that Unitarian Universalism produced during the twentieth century.<\/p>\n
I mean to note his birthday every year as it rolls around. Sadly, I\u2019m not as consistent as I would like. But today, especially, I remember. As the world seems to be turning toward its baser impulses, reminding ourselves of our nobler spirits, our better angels, feels even more important to recall him.<\/p>\n
Adams was one of our trustworthy guides, very much one of those exemplars who show the way.<\/p>\n
James Luther Adams was born in Washington state on the 12th of November, in 1901.<\/p>\n
At first his course was not very clear. He dropped out of school at sixteen to help support his family, going to work for the railroad. But it was clear to all he had more to offer. Encouraged to continue his education he returned to school earning an undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota. From there he attended Harvard Divinity school, after which he was ordained a Unitarian minister.<\/p>\n
In 1937 he began teaching at Meadville Lombard, the Unitarian seminary in Chicago. He spent twenty-one years there, and another eleven at Harvard Divinity School. In \u201cretirement\u201d he continued to teach for a few years at Andover Newton.<\/p>\n
His influence was wide, extending beyond Unitarian and later Unitarian Universalist circles, particularly in his exploration of ethics. Adams\u2019 spiritual journey took him from Christian fundamentalism, to a rationalist humanism, and finally to liberal Christianity. From that vantage he became one of the foremost exponents of liberal Christianity<\/a>, a spirituality informed by the twin currents of the Christian tradition and the rationalist spirit that began in the Eighteenth century Enlightenment.<\/p>\n While I am perhaps more a liberal Buddhist<\/a> than Christian, I find his approach, and especially his cautions very important.<\/p>\n What I find particularly important was Adam\u2019s lover\u2019s critique of liberal Christianity and indeed liberal religion\u2019s sometimes too easy optimism. Adams spent several years studying in Germany in the years running up to the Second World War and there he met Nazi \u201cGerman Christians\u201d as well as leaders of the \u201cConfessing Church\u201d resistance. He was deeply concerned with the vulnerabilities of the liberal church when confronted with such stark dangers.<\/p>\n Lessons that so sadly we need to relearn and then relearn again\u2026<\/p>\n Something we children of the west, informed as we are by the currents of rationality and its bone deep optimism in human possibility, whether we are conscious of it or not, of whatever spiritual tradition we might be, can, I believe all profit from knowing a little more about. As a small aside, if you\u2019re interested a good introduction to Adams\u2019 work, I recommend George Kimmich Beach\u2019s Transforming Liberalism<\/a><\/em>. (Here is a good review<\/a>)<\/p>\n Adams shows us a way through.<\/p>\n So. And. When Jan and I were there standing in front of his grave, we laid the rest of our roses there.<\/p>\n I remain grateful for his work.<\/p>\n His heart. And, his mind.<\/p>\n And most of all his great reminder that even in these hardest of times, we do not walk alone\u2026<\/p>\n