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“We Unitarian Universalists have been living off the intellectual capital of James Luther Adams for half a century now.” It was in the 1980s. The speaker was a respected older UU minister. His assertion surprised me at first, since he was a self-declared religious humanist, while JLA was clearly a UU Christian. After serving for forty years as both UUA President and as an historian, my sense of the depth of our indebtedness to JLA […]
The 2020 Forum has been rescheduled to 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. New Date and Location: Friday, April 23, 2021, 3-5 p.m. Minor Hall 110, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia The Forum was postponed from the previously announced date in November, 2020. The above date is the new date, due to the Covid 19 pandemic. Directions to Minor Hall will be posted later.
Fathers’ Day, June 21, 2020 With deep sadness we mark the death of the Reverend Dr. David Boynton Parke, on June 6, 2020. He fell while walking to the nearby home of his daughter, Robin, in Boston, Massachusetts, and died from his head injury a few days later. David had a long career in parish and interim ministry for Unitarian Universalist churches. During his retirement he became a member of the Board of Trustees and, […]
Peter Iver Kaufman: IF MEMORY SERVES “David doesn’t email,” Kim Beach emailed me. I had hoped to offer David Parke a partnership: he would respond to the Dialog prompt about JLA, and I would append my getting to know him through David’s admiration many years ago. That won’t be possible–at least the first part–but i suspect the Dialog series has room for a revised second part. If memory serves, Kim and I were waiting for […]
by the Reverend Judith Deutsch Professor Farley, in his excellent address, has told us many things about Adams’ approach to religion. but Id like you to know that Adams, a Christian and a theist, said: “… If we discover what persons really…will cling to as the principle or reality without which life would lose its meaning, we shall have discovered their religion, their god.” And I want you to know that James Luther Adams was […]
How James Luther Adams Became Important to Me and Why He Still Is by Judith Deutsch I first met JLA in 1975 in the home of Max Stackhouse (a theologian and socialist ethicist who was then a professor at Andover Newton Theological School) when Max invited some of his students to meet and talk with Jim. Other than Jim, I was the only Unitarian Universalist present. Max was my adviser and professor and, when he […]
Jared A. Farley, Ph.D. New Mexico Military Institute Presented at the University of New Mexico, November 10, 2019 Respondents: The Reverend Angela Herrera and the Reverend Judith Deutsch The Political Life, Influence and Philosophy of James Luther Adams Read the response by Angela Herrera. Read the response by Judith Deutsch. Introduction Scholars regard James Luther Adams as the most influential Unitarian theologian of the 20th century (Adams, Not Without Dust & Heat 1995, 2). […]
James Luther Adams—Luther to his family, JLA to his colleagues and students, Jim to his friends—profoundly influenced countless others. How and why this was so can best be known by what they say about him—his stories, his intellectual probes and moral passions. Here’s the first in an occasional series—statements by those who may or may not have known him personally– on his importance to them. We look forward to more installments in the series. […]
This is one of two responses to Professor Jared Aaron Farley’s 2019 James Luther Adams Forum on Religion and Society, presented at the University of New Mexico. —GKB Response to the James Luther Adams Forum Lecture The Rev. Angela Herrera, Senior Minister, First Unitarian Church of Albuquerque November 10, 2019 University of New Mexico Thank you so much to Dr. Farley for his thoughtful presentation. I’m honored to be invited as a respondent this […]
James Luther Adams noted that “the quality of Jesus’ words was matched only by the quality of his life. Indeed, if he had not possessed his power with words, we would not now know about the power of his life.” The Gospels of the New Testament are the primary source of what we know of Jesus’ life and words. My personal commentary on the Gospel of Mark, The Seminal Gospel: Forty Days with Mark, was […]
The Trump regime has brought us to the brink of disastrous war. Facing this crisis, will we as a religious community give witness to peace? The following address is as timely and challenging today as it was when first presented by John Howard Yoder in 1984. The text is transcribed from Yoder’s James Luther Adams Lecture at the General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association, in Columbus, Ohio. Yoder (1927-1997), held professorships at the University […]
The liberal Christian outlook is directed to a Power that is living, that is active in love seeking concrete manifestation, and that finds decisive response in the living posture and gesture of Jesus of Nazareth.” — James Luther Adams I have asked myself, what do I make of the story of Jesus? What does it mean, and what does he mean to me? Seeking answers, not only about Jesus but about myself, I set out […]
Who was James Luther Adams and why is he important for those who care about the fate of liberalism—liberal religion and liberal democracy alike—in this age of anxiety? For an answer there is no better place to begin than Adams’s own dialogues at a gathering of the Collegium Association, at Craigville, Massachusetts, in 1986. We have selected the text of “A Time to Speak: Conversations at Collegium” to inaugurate an ongoing series of conversations on […]
“The Soul of Democracy” Dr. Sharon D. Welch, Meadville Lombard Theological School Unity Church—Unitarian, St. Paul, Minnesota, October 3 Respondent, Prof. Wilson Yates, United Theological Seminary The thought and example of James Luther Adams carries significant lessons for countering the rise of authoritarianism today. To be effective “creative builders of community” liberals need to be self-critical with respect to individualism and other biases. _____________ “The Soul of Democracy” Dr. Sharon D. Welch […]
Journalist and author Chris Hedges will deliver the twenty-first James Luther Adams Forum on Religion and Society on February 18, 2017, at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Princeton, New Jersey, at 7:00 p.m. Hedges, who studied social ethics with James Luther Adams at Harvard Divinity School, quotes Adams at length in American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America (2007). He is also the author of Way of Rebellion: The Moral Imperative of Revolt (2015) and other books. […]
The Rev. Dr. Gary Dorrien, the Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary and Professor of Religion at Columbia University, delivered the 2015-2016 James Luther Adams Forum on Religion and Society on November 11, 2015, at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. In his essay, “James Luther Adams and the Spirit of Liberal Theology–Then and Now,” Dorrien showed that Adams drew upon liberal thought from Kant to Henry Wieman that develops […]
Rev. Dr. Gary Dorrien Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary and Professor of Religion at Columbia University Presented on November 11, 2015, at Union Theological Seminary in New York City James Luther Adams and the Spirit of Liberal Theology Watch the presentation and read the full text of lecture below. This occasion is beautiful, and rare, because very few theologians inspire a society that keeps alive their name and […]
The 2014–2015 James Luther Adams Forum on Religion and Society will be held on August 23, 2014, at Gould Farm in Monterey, Massachusetts. The program will begin with a tour at 11:00 a.m., followed by lunch at the nearby Monterey United Church of Christwith produce from the farm, followed by the Forum itself. Gould Farm is a residential therapeutic community. James Luther Adams shared in its leadership and spent his summers there. The two speakers, Virgil Stucker and […]
The eighteenth annual James Luther Adams Forum on Religion and Society will be given March 18, 2014, by Michael Hogue, associate professor of Theology at Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago. He will speak on “Towards a Deeper Democracy: James Luther Adams and the Aesthetics of Solidarity.” In the spirit of James Luther Adams, he will critically compare American philosophies of community and advance the idea of aesthetic solidarities as a model for the culturing of […]
DATE AND TIME November 10, 2011, at 7:00 p.m. at Wilson Chapel, Andover Newton Theological School, 210 Herrick Rd., Newton, Massachusetts. RESPONDENTS Prof. Michael Hogue, Rev. Thomas R. Schade ____________________ LECTURE TEXT “What’s Past Is Prologue”: James Luther Adams and the Unitarian Universalists James Luther Adams Forum on Religion and Society, November 10, 2011, expanded version including footnotes and an appendix on Adams’s engagements with Unitarian Universalist institutions and an appendix on the publication of […]
The James Luther Adams Foundation announces the fifteenth annual James Luther Adams Forum on Religion and Society. Dr. John R. Wilcox, vice president for mission at Manhattan College, will speak on the topic “Together and by Association: The Legacy of James Luther Adams and the Future of Religious Colleges and Universities.” Dr. Wilcox, a former Marist brother, joined the religious studies faculty of Manhattan College in 1974 and chaired the department for eight years. As vice […]
The James Luther Adams Foundation announces the fourteenth annual James Luther Adams Forum on Religion and Society. The lecture will be given this year by the well-known Christian ethicist Don S. Browning, the Alexander Campbell Professor Emeritus of Ethics and the Social Sciences at the University of Chicago Divinity School. The title of his lecture is, “Religion and Civil Society in James Luther Adams, Reformed Theology, and Catholicism.” Professor Browning was a long-time friend of Adams […]
Patrick D. Miller Professor of Old Testament theology at Princeton Theological Seminary from 1984 to 2005. Presented at Princeton Theological Seminary, January 12, 2009. James Luther Adams as Biblical Theologian Read the Patrick Miller Forum Lecture.
The 2009 James Luther Adams Forum on Religion and Society will be held Monday, January 12, at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, N.J. The forum will take place at 1:15 p.m. in the Erdman Center. The speaker is Dr. Patrick D. Miller, Charles T. Haley Professor of Old Testament Theology Emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary, who will address Adams’s use of the Bible.
The 2007-2008 James Luther Adams Foundation Forum on Religion and Society will be held on April 6, 2008, at 7:00 p.m. at the Emerson Unitarian Universalist Church in Houston, Texas. The lecture will be given by Michelle Campagnolo Bouvier, Secretary General of the Société Européenne de Culture in Venice, Italy. She will discuss her own contacts with Adams as well as his significant relationships with her father, André Bouvier, and her husband, Umberto Campagnolo. She will be setting her […]
This year’s James Luther Adams Forum on Religion and Society will be held on Tuesday, March 13, 2007, at 5:15 p.m. in the Sperry Lecture Hall of Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The lecture will be given this year by Dr. Harvey G. Cox, Jr., Hollis Professor of Divinity, at the Divinity School. His topic will be “James Luther Adams: Evangelical Unitarian or Unitarian Evangelical?” Professor Cox is eminently qualified to speak on this topic as a […]
Rosemary Radford Reuther Pacific School of Religion Response by Zayn Kassam, Claremont School of Theology Presented at Claremont School of Theology, Claremont CA, April 20, 2006 Read Rosemary Radford Reuther Forum Lecture with Response.
Howard J. Berman Professor of Law, Emory University School of Law and Harvard Law School Presented on February 6, 2002, at Emory University Faith and Law in a Multicultural World It is an honor to be asked to give the 2002 annual lecture in honor of James Luther Adams, a great scholar, a great teacher, a great man. I remember him well, and miss his wisdom and his wit. He lives on, not only in […]
1998: “Civitas in Horto: Toward a Public Theology for the Chicago Region” Professor J. Ronald Engel Unitarian Church of Hinsdale, Hinsdale, Illinois, May 21 Introduction to Civitas in Horto: Toward a Public Theology for the Chicago Region Ronald Engel, James Luther Adams Forum Lecture, 1998 This lecture, sponsored by Meadville Lombard Theological School and delivered at the Unitarian Church of Hinsdale, Illinois, on May 21, 1998, provided Ron with the opportunity to bring together the […]
Max L. Stackhouse Professor of Reformed Theology and Public Life Emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary Presented at House of the Redeemer, St.Peter’s Lutheran Church. New York, NY, November 2, 1996 Graceful Prophecy: James Luther Adams’s Theology of Art and Ethics He was, above all, a social ethicist. He drew deeply from the Christian tradition, and believed it was the surest basis for reason and for morality, but he did so with a profoundly liberal sensibility, and with […]