Harry Emerson Fosdick
That name is not exactly a household word, though once its owner was a rather well-known character, and not that long ago.
If you collect the children’s Landmark book series, you may have one or more of his books on your shelves. Written by well-known authors of the day, Landmarks are usually quite well-written living books for teaching children about history. But if you own any written by Harry Emerson Fosdick, I wouldn’t give them to your young children to read.
He wrote the Landmark biographies with “Christian” subject matter: Jesus of Nazareth, The Life of Saint Paul, and The Life of Martin Luther. I can imagine a homeschooling mom at a book sale running across run of those titles and thinking she had found a real treasure. I’m afraid it’s just fool’s gold. Valerie Jacobsen has this to say about Fosdick and his writing:
Harry Emerson Fosdick denied the Resurrection, Special Creation, and Jesus Christ’s Deity and worked to teach and promote these unorthodox views. His mission is plainly evidenced in his books, including his Landmark books for children…
Fosdick’s Landmarks are beautifully written–his technical skill as an author is impressive–but they were written to teach children a modernist/liberal interpretation of Scripture. The result is biographies that simply are not true to the historical record.
Valerie also lists many much more suitable books about the same subjects and time periods.
Gary North, whose ability to retain an impressive amount of minutia in that big head of is always astounds me, had some trivial information about Fosdick in an article last year. During the tumultuous years of communist concerns as well as the liberal take-over of many church denomination, Harry Emerson Fosdick and hiss brother were in the middle of many important events on both fronts:
Note: For all you hard-core conspiracy buffs, [John Foster] Dulles served as the ecclesiastical defense counsel for Harry Emerson Fosdick in 1924 when Fosdick was brought to trial for liberalism. Fosdick was the brother of Raymond Fosdick, who by 1924 had been running the Rockefeller Foundation for three years. Harry was on the Foundation’s Board. John D. Jr. built the Riverside Church for Fosdick after Fosdick resigned from the Presbyterian Church in 1924, because, as a Baptist minister in a Presbyterian pulpit, Fosdick at last had decided that he could not affirm the Presbyterians’ 1646 Westminster Confession of Faith, which nobody had previously asked him to do.
Which brings me to the post which inspired this post. The Pyromaniacs posted an article by John MacArthur about Harry Emerson Fosdick and the Emerging Theology of Early Liberalism. It’s an interesting history lesson as well as a warning to the church today, which Pastor MacArthur thinks is poised on the brink of the same liberal plunge.
He looks like such a nice man, don’t you think? Even a little like John MacArthur?
March 22nd, 2006 at 4:53 am
Excellent post! I love the way North ties together historical events and people. Makes me feel *ignorant* Will be checking the *pyromaniac* site more often. What a great name!
March 22nd, 2006 at 8:24 pm
Carmon
Congrats on Pieter’s post on LewRockwell.com!
You must be so proud … he makes you look good on several different levels, girl.
Again, Congrats!
Robin
(Haven’t been by in about a year, but just had to say hi after seeing P’s triumph!)
March 23rd, 2006 at 8:21 am
Thanks, Robin…going to post something about it today. I thought it was neat
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March 24th, 2006 at 11:27 am
[...] Did you know that Harry Emerson Fosdick wrote some of the Landmark history books? Of course, this liberal preacher wrote the Landmark books on Jesus, Paul, and Martin Luther. Caveat emptor. [...]
March 25th, 2006 at 6:40 am
Did you know that Fosdick wrote the hymn “God of Grace and God of Glory”? I am perplexed each time I sing that hymn. The man and the message of his hymn seem a paradox.