Lyman Abbott (1835–1922)

"It has grown increasingly clear to me with the passing years that the most radical difference between the teaching of Jesus Christ and that of the churches is this: Jesus taught men how to live; the churches have taught men what to think: Jesus tested men by their lives; the churches have tested them by their beliefs."

While I was reading Starlight Man, a biography of Algernon Blackwood, I saw it mentioned that when Blackwood was living in New York, for a while he transcribed the sermons of Lyman Abbott, a popular Congregationalist minister of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Blackwood, who wasn't religious but had an intense sense of Nature spirituality, greatly admired Abbott.

Abbott was apparently sometimes criticized for not being enough of a fundamentalist or whatnot, so I thought, "here's a Christian leader I would like to know more about."

I found this public domain book on Google Books for free.

Abbott wrote it towards the end of his life. I could really identify with a lot of his theology, to the point that this may be worth a re-reading someday when I don't have a small kid anymore and have time to think about it more deeply.

I haven't believed in the idea of penal substitutionary atonement for a long time--the idea that there is a stain of sin on humanity for which God requires a punishment, and Jesus "saved" people from their sins by taking the punishment.

Abbott writes that he could not find anything in what Jesus said to support this idea that humanity is totally depraved in a sin state and that God requires some kind of magical punishment.

Rather, Jesus only ever talked about saving people from their sins, i.e. the thoughts/behaviors that keep them in broken cycles and unable to experience the forgiveness, compassion, and love of God.

Jesus didn't ask people to be perfect, he just asked them to follow him in self-sacrificially loving humankind. That's a pretty big "just" for me--it begs the hard question of how to really follow Jesus in our modern capitalist society, but that would be the subject of a different book.

I liked Abbott's comments about the church in the quote I opened with. He acknowledges that churches as organizations have often been corrupt and been more about controlling minds than winning hearts. Nevertheless, because of the good that many churches have done, he advocates being part of a church community despite its imperfections. Someday I would like to read his book about reasons why to go to church. Hubby and I are still kind of in church limbo.

There were a few cringeworthy Eurocentric comments in the book about white people bringing enlightenment to Africa, etc., which felt somewhat redeemed by Abbott's anti-slavery and pro-immigrant stances.

He also expressed an odd mix of nationalism/militarism and pro-immigration, or at least it was odd to me in this time with our modern political divisions. He waxed poetic about what makes America "great," concluding that it's the citizens (including immigrants!) who make it so with their service and self-sacrifice rather than its leaders or its wealth. On the surface, this felt kind of refreshing considering that today "making America great again" seems to have some racial connotation, or even if you don't agree that it does, some connotation that America used to be wealthy/prosperous and now that is threatened somehow, even some connotation that whom we elect makes it "great" rather than its diverse citizens.

However, it still didn't totally sit right with me that Abbott was also saying Americans were "great" because of their bravery in warfare and essentially, because of how hard they sacrifice themselves on the altar of economic productivity. I think he was trying to relate this idea to followers of Christ being self-sacrificial, but it fell a little flat to me due to how much it smacked of modern Christian Nationalism. It sounds like Abbott faced criticism from some contemporary Pacifist Christian groups for his support of war.

Also, typical of the time, there was no acknowledgement that whatever greatness the United States developed was built upon the resources that it stripped from Indigenous people.

Despite these modern criticisms, however, I did really appreciate Abbott's thoughts on theology and the church. He was a well-known liberal Christian thinker of his day, a crystal-clear communicator, and someone worth revisiting.… (more)

As a Yelp Elite I will not consider this a review but, more of share words from the book. this excerpt hails from Asa Don Dickinson's Guide to Daily Reading, found on page 112. I feel it conveys a feeling that any book owner/lover can truly appreciate:

Sitting last winter among my books, and walled around with all the comfort and protection which they and my fireside could afford me—to wit, a table of higher piles books at my back, my writing desk on one side of me, some shelves on the other, and the feeling of the warm fire at my feet—I began to consider how I loved the author of those books.
—Leigh Hunt

Wow! That encasuplated a moment where i could almost smell the fire and feel the warmth of the room. You either get that or you don't. If you do, then you and I are cut from the same stock and I could consider you a friend. My money says that you have also either made a friend, had someone completely agree with you or had someone roll their eyes (in front of you or behind your back) when you mentioned how much you like the smell of a bookstore. You may have even pointed out that your books don't take batteries and never need to be charged.… (more)