March 20-March 22

This week I dedicated my time to compiling metadata. It appears that in 1960 Reverend Fuller began to deliver more sermons than usual. For example, in October of that year three sermons were delivered in October. This is remarkable because last year only one or two sermons were delivered per month. Of course, this could be a misunderstanding of mine based on present material. Maybe Reverend Fuller was constantly delivering plenty of sermons but maybe some of the sermons in the past years were not recorded. Which meant that in the present day I got the impression that less sermons were delivered those years. Reading the 1960 sermons was a very educational experience because in these sermons Reverend Fuller referenced the teachings of other protestant thinkers. That is why I would like to dedicate some of this entry to the descriptions of these various protestant thinkers.

The first thinker that is mentioned in numerous sermons is Dr. Albert Schweitzer. He was born in the Alsace region of France and was brought up in a family that prized education. He received his theological education at Strasbourg University in 1893 where he graduated in 1899. He not only received a religious education at Strasbourg but also a philosophical one as well. Having done his dissertation on Kant. He immediately began preaching an served in several high profile posts at the Theological College of St. Thomas. It was there, in 1906, that he wrote his famous book, The Quest for the Historical Jesus. It was this book that earned him his fame as a religious scholar and the book that no doubt gained Reverend Fuller's attention. As I have stated in a previous blog post, Reverend Fuller believed that Jesus was not divine and that he was a mortal Jewish man with remarkable insight who lived in the Levant. In his book, Albert Schweitzer argued the same thing, saying that Jesus was a religious teacher of the late Jewish tradition that preached of an incoming apocalyptic event. These similarities make it clear that Reverend Fuller was highly influenced by the European thinker's views on Jesus. Another important thing to note about Dr. Albert Schweitzer is that towards the end of his life he joined the International Unitarian Association, making him a Unitarian, showing that the influence went both ways. With Unitarians being interested in Dr. Schweitzer and and doctor being interested in Unitarianism. Another important thinker mentioned in many of Fuller's sermons was William Ellery Channing, the famous Unitarian ancestor of his. While Unitarianism first developed in Europe, it was Reverend Channing who was responsible for its spread in America. During the early 1800's when Calvinist teaching spread across the United States, Reverend Channing most daringly preached against them. Calvinism states that mankind is destined to be punished by God and only the ones destined to be saved will go to heaven. In contrast, Reverend Channing taught that God was all loving and that surely a loving God would be unable to send anyone to hell. In 1820, Reverend Fuller formed a group of liberal ministers and in 1825 they would be recognized as the American Unitarian Association. It is no wonder why Reverend Fuller mentions Reverend Channing on so many occasions. In many ways, his ancestor was the founding father of American Unitarianism.