Young Felix Adler in 1876.
Felix
Adler, a man destined for the Rabbinate,
took an unexpected left turn at Emanuel
Kant and ended up founding a secular
humanist religion. The son of Rabbi Samuel Adler, a leading figure in
the liberal 19th Century Reform movement
among European Jews, Felix was born
on August 13, 1851 in Alzey, Hesse, Germany.
When he was six years old his father
moved the family to New York City to
become the Rabbi of Temple Emanu-El,
the cradle of Reform in America and the largest and most influential synagogue in New York. The
congregation then conducted its services in German, the language of its founders in 1847, and was the first in
the nation to do away with sex segregation in
worship allowing families to
sit together, introduce music,
and revise many Orthodox rituals.
Although his highly cultured father
had some grave doubts about his son’s ability, he educated the boy grooming him
as a successor. He attended the
prestigious private Columbia Grammar
School and Preparatory Academy then went on to Columbia University where despite his father’s misgivings he
graduated with Honors in 1870.
Then it was off to Europe for graduate education in preparation for
the Rabbinate. He was enrolled at Heidelberg University,
the high temple of German culture.
There he fell in with bad
influences—Neo-Kantian philosophers who posited that the existence or non-existence of God could never be proven either way
and that morality could be developed independently of theology. The experience shook
him to his core and caused him to re-evaluate Judaism and all religion.
A post card of the handsome Temple Emanu-El erected in 1868 at the
fashionable corner of 5th Avenue and 43rd Street in Manhattan. It was
served by Adler's father and he was the heir apparent as Rabbi until
Felix gave his fateful lecture.
Back in New York in 1873 he was
invited to give a sermon at Temple Emanu-El, an obvious audition for
being anointed his father’s successor.
His lecture electrified—and
shocked—the congregation. Judaism of the Future neglected to
mention God even once. It was not a rumination
on the Torah, the Talmud, the wisdom of great
teachers. Instead it was a bold, forward looking manifesto presenting
Judaism as a secular religion of morality for all humanity, not just the
closely guarded privilege of a Chosen People.
The sermon destroyed any chances of
succeeding his father. In fact, he was
never again even asked to speak before the entire congregation. This must have been no surprise to him and may have even lifted a burden from his shoulders.
But his speech did have its admirers
and defenders in the congregation, including some of its wealthiest and
most influential members. Some of them
endowed a non-residency Professorship of
Hebrew and Oriental Literature at Cornell
University in 1874. There Adler thrived
in his natural academic environment. He was adored by his students with whom he
was glad to engage in back-and-forth intellectual exploration. More dangerously, he tied ethics and morality to contemporary issues, particularly the concentration of
wealth by the Capitalist class, the subjugation of labor, and the
emerging open class warfare of the era. His lectures were widely attended and reported
in the press.
But his ideas were far too radical for the Board of Trustees when faced by unhappy
and powerful alumni who accused
him of atheism. They
refused to extend tenure and
turned down a renewal of the endowment that paid his salary in 1876. Adler was out of his job.
He turned his attention to pursuing
the religious ideas outlined in his old sermon, which continued to generate
controversy due to the widespread distribution of printed copies. On May 16,
1876 Adler delivered a major lecture more fully outlining his philosophy. He once again urged the creation of a
religious movement that could not be divided by theology, creed, or ritual but
that allowed theists, atheists, agnostics, and Deists to act cooperatively on a moral basis for the improvement and
enrichment of the human condition.
The lecture was widely reported and
stirred up both indignation and interest. Within a few
weeks with the aid of supporters from Temple Emanu-EL including its President Joseph Seligman, lent him
support. In February of 1877 he
incorporated the Society of Ethical
Culture. Although
he dreamed of a wider movement, Ethical Humanism remained mostly a movement of
culturally sophisticated Ashkenazi Jews,
but through his widespread lecturing and publication also had impact far beyond
his religious society and the others that it spawned in Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Chicago.
The principles of Ethical Culture were simple but profoundly
revolutionary:
- The belief that morality is independent of theology;
- The affirmation that new moral problems have arisen in
modern industrial society which have not been adequately dealt with by the
world’s religions;
- The duty to engage in philanthropy in the advancement
of morality;
- The belief that self-reform should go in lock step with
social reform;
- The establishment of republican rather than monarchical
governance of Ethical societies
- The agreement that educating the young is the most
important aim.
It was, in Adler’s oft repeated maxim, to be a religion of “Deeds
not Creeds.” Living up to that
standard the New York Society under Adler’s personal leadership was quickly
involved in multiple projects including a kindergarten, district nursing service, and a hygienic
tenement-house building company.
The Society for Ethical Culture in New York City before the turn of the 20th Century. The building is still in use.
Most significant was the creation of
the Workingman’s
School, a Sunday school and
a summer home for children which
would eventually become the Ethical
Culture School which Adler served as Rector
until his death. It became a school
whose liberal curriculum
inspired generations of leaders
in the worlds of the arts, law and government, and science. Among the graduates of the School and/or its high school prep division Fieldston School were photographer Diane Arbus, Red buster lawyer Roy Cohn (an anomaly), film maker Sophia Coppola, mogul/producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, activist
and sociologist Staughton Lynd, New
York District Attorney Robert M.
Morgenthau, Poet Lauriat of the
United States Howard Nemerov, Father of the Atomic Bomb J. Robert Oppenheimer,
novelist Belva Plain, musician/poet
Gil Scott-Herron, composer and lyricist Stephen
Sondheim, and journalist broadcaster Barbara Walters.
That is indicative of the wide
influence of Ethical Culture and it founder far beyond the few thousand members
belonging to societies at any one time.
In 1892 the existing societies formed a loose federation, The American Ethical Union, but each
society remained sometimes fiercely independent.
Adler’s impact as a moral
philosopher was wide. There was a small,
but voracious, Free Thought movement
in the United States in the late 19th
Century of which the Great Agnostic, Robert Ingersoll was
the most prominent spokesman. A movement of agnostics, Deists, and open atheists, it was characterized by open
hostility to organized religion and often consumed in fruitless debate with its
partisans.
Adler offered a new vision of humanism. He took
no position on the existence of God, salvation,
or eternal life. For him these were unknowable and best left to individual consciences. In
fact, he strove to overcome the bitter divisions of partisans of all religions and
anti-religious philosophies by concentrating on moral service. For that he and his movement were bitterly
attacked by some, especially the take-no-prisoners atheists. On the other hand, this vision greatly
appealed to new generations of humanists.
By the way, the recent renaissance of the New Atheism has renewed this same debate.
Of course, Adler continued to be a
great influence in the development of the American Reform movement among Jews
despite his separation from them. His
ideas helped shape new generations of Rabbis and lay leaders which were
reflected in Congregations. Only since
the end of World War II, has there
been somewhat of a retreat from the Adler tradition to incorporating
more traditional Jewish ritual.
Adler collaborated with Unitarian Jenkin Lloyd Jones's Unity Movement.
Adler also appealed to liberal Protestants, especially those in the
emerging Social Gospel movement. But nowhere was his influence felt more deeply
than among the most socially advanced Unitarians. Adler became a collaborator with Jenkin Lloyd Jones, head of the quasi-independent
Western Unitarian Conference and the
denomination’s leading liberal voice. He
contributed regularly to Jones’s Unity Magazine and was a frequent
speaker Unity Club meetings,
mid-week educational lectures hosted by many Mid-Western congregations.
The vision of a post-creedal religion with an emphasis on social justice and action was
shared by the two men. Together they
helped infuse sometimes stuffy 19th
and early 20th Century Unitarianism
with the genetic religious humanism that came to dominate the faith.
As Humanism rose to dominance in
American Unitarianism there was talk of merger or consolidation with Ethical
Culture in the 1930s and again in the 1950’s.
In the end the different cultural roots, not to say lingering anti-Semitism in some of the Unitarianism’s older New England congregations prevented further action. However, the two movements remain close and
ordained Unitarian Universalist ministers have sometimes been called to serve Ethical Culture
Societies.
In 1902 Adler
was able to return to academia as the Chair
of Political and Social Ethics at Columbia University, where he
taught until his death in 1933. The
position elevated his public profile even more and he greatly influenced
two generations of student.
After years of concentrating on
domestic justice issues, the Spanish
American War aroused a new interest in world affairs for Adler.
Initially he had supported the war as a way to liberate the peoples of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. But when it quickly became apparent the
United States was actually more interested in acquiring its own empire, Adler
became a voracious critic and
leading anti-imperialist.
The “supreme worth of the person”—a
construction that sounds familiar to Unitarian Universalist ears—was the basis
of Ethical Culture and Adler’s overarching principle in world affairs, that no
single country, faith, political or economic philosophy could lay claim to superior
institutions and lifestyle choices of other peoples.
When for
similar reasons Adler opposed American entry into World War I his German birth was used to attack him as an agent of
the Kaiser and he attracted the unwanted attention of Federal Authorities. He may have only escaped prosecution for his
anti-war writings and speeches because powerful friends in New York politics interceded on his
behalf. His opinions also caused rifts
in Ethical Culture Societies, especially after the war when he surprised many
by also speaking out against the League
of Nations as an imperialist club of the winners of that war. Instead, he proposed an international Parliament of Parliaments elected by
the legislative bodies of all nations and representing various classes
of people, rather than just
the economic and social elite, so that common interests and not national
differences would prevail.
Adler in 1926.
Over his long
career Adler published prodigiously, a seemingly endless stream of articles,
pamphlets, published lectures and sermons, and academic papers. Among his books which were deeply influential
were Creed and Deed (1878), Moral Instruction of Children
(1892), Life and Destiny
(1905), The Religion of Duty
(1906), Essentials of Spirituality
(1908), An Ethical Philosophy of Life
(1918), The Reconstruction of the
Spiritual Ideal (1925), and Our
Part in this World. A collection of his The
Ethics of Marriage for the Lowell
Institute in 1896–97 was also widely read.
Adler acted on
his belief by service to many worthy causes. He the founding chairman of the National Child Labor Committee in 1904 which hired his student Lewis Hine to record conditions
many child laborers suffered in a series of searing documentary photographs. In 1917 Adler served on the Civil Liberties Bureau which was
speaking out for war-time dissident. The
Bureau later became the American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU) with
which he remained active. In 1928 he became President of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association. He
also served on the first Executive Board
of the National Urban League.
After Adler died
in New York City on April 24, 1933 at the age of 81, his Ethical Cultural
movement struggled. There was a post-war revival of sorts with new societies springing up in suburban enclaves and university towns, often focused around
the Sunday schools for children.
Societies have tended to become somewhat
more conventional in their religious practices so that
many Sunday services closely parallel church services without the mention of
God.
The logo used by many Ethical Culture
societies evokes a man with out-stretched arms inscribed in a circle as
in Leonardo Di Vinci's famous sketch, but also the ban-the-bomb peace
symbol and even an earlier version of the UUA's flaming chalice in a
circle.
Today Ethical
Humanism is a small, but influential voice for rational humanism with
about 24 congregations and a few thousand members. But as always, Felix Adler’s influence
extends far beyond that to generations of humanists who may never have heard
his name.
