JLA and the Lure of Process Like many who attended Harvard Divinity School, I had the pleasure of visiting with James Luther Adams at his home in Cambridge. He customarily invited all the Unitarian Universalist students on an annual basis for an evening of conversation. Jim was a gracious host and renowned scholar nearing the age of eighty and I was a twenty-seven year old in search of a philosophy and vocation. I appreciate all […]
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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 […]
“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 […]
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 […]
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.
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 […]