Reply by author George Kimmich Beach to Rev. Dr. Nancy McDonald Ladd’s commentary “By Their Groups You Still Know Them.” Nancy Ladd’s searching commentary on James Luther Adams and his “prophetic theology” brings the discussion into the practical arena of the church as a dedicated community and the ways it is changing under the pressures or preferences of contemporary society. Herself a parish minister in an active congregation, Ladd reminds us of the centrality of […]
Contributor Profile: George Kimmich Beach
13 posts
Reply by author George Kimmich Beach to Jerome Ross’s commentary “Is Such a ‘Prophetic Theology’ What We Need Today?” George Kimmich Beach In his response to “The Prophetic Theology of James Luther Adams,” Jerome Ross delineates six features of a “prophetic” as distinct from a “liberal” theology. He also invites us to consider that Adams’s thought is “ideologically akin to my theological mentor, Martin Buber.” Ross provides, then, several avenues for a fuller development of prophetic […]
Reply by author George Kimmich Beach to Norman Faramelli’s commentary on The Prophetic Theology of James Luther Adams. We invite all of readers to enter into the conversation by commenting below – no registration required. The purpose of these Kairos/Conversations is to initiate threads of theological conversation around topics of interest and concern, and to encourage broad participation. In these follow-on comments I want to note particular points that others may want to pursue in […]
Commentaries on the essay below: Dr. Norman Faramelli: “Response to Beach on Adams’s Prophetic Theology” | reply by Beach Rev. Dr. Jerome C. Ross: “Is Such a ‘Prophetic Theology’ What We Need Today?” | reply by Beach Rev. Nancy McDonald Ladd: “By Their Groups You Still Know Them” | reply by Beach The Prophetic Theology of James Luther Adams [1] by George Kimmich Beach [Bio] For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against […]
The Prophetic Theology of James Luther Adams[1] by George Kimmich Beach April 18, 2022, Easter Sunday For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Ephesians 6: 12 [2] “Liberalism is dead, long live liberalism!” James Luther Adams arrested attention with this opener to a mid-life essay, playing off the ancient announcement of the monarch’s demise […]
James Luther Adams and the Transformation of Liberalism A talk at the UUA General Assembly, Fort Worth, Texas, June 24, 2005 by George Kimmich Beach I want to thank Robin Lovin and John Buehrens for agreeing to comment on Jim Adams and my treatment of his thought in my book, Transforming Liberalism: The Theology of James Luther Adams. Adams deeply influenced students for the ministry (myself and John Buehrens, among them) and countless others who […]
“An unexamined faith is not worth having,” said James Luther Adams. What, then, is a faith worth having? The essay below links three sermons on transcendence, a foundational element in any faith tradition and for this reason, central to theology—that is, critical and creative reflection on religion. This work had its origin in theme talks presented at The Point, a Unitarian Universalist family conference in Oklahoma in 2018. The three sermons here reproduced were presented […]
In his mid-life autobiographical essay, “Taking Time Seriously,” James Luther Adams notes the profound effect that singing in the chorus for a performance of Bach’s Mass in B Minor had on him. Recounting the experience a decade later, he speaks of being emotionally overwhelmed—at once both humbled and exalted: “In the language of Kierkegaard, I was forced out of the spectator into the existential attitude.”[1] Here follows the Preface and Table of Contents to the […]
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, […]
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 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 […]
What’s in a name? Good and evil we know in the field of this world grow up together almost inseparably; and the knowledge of good is so involved and interwoven with the knowledge of evil, and in so many cunning resemblances hardly to be discerned, that those confused seeds which were imposed on Psyche as an incessant labor to cull out, and sort asunder, were not more intermixed. It was from out the rind 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 […]