Sublime

The household of ministry will raise its voice when those in the world are kept from experiencing rest and peace. It is not ideology that should motivate this household of ministry but the spotting of inhumanity, seen concretely as a person’s inability to discover, in rest, his or her humanity.

But preaching the Gospel is a function of trying to reach the human heart, whether people are poor or rich or middle class. And the bad breaks and tragic mysteries of life exist in plenitude in a city parish.

Soon enough, the most central question for both mainline and evangelical pastors was, How can we reach more and more people? They did not ask how they could testify to God’s eternity breaking into time. They asked how they could keep from losing pace up against the threat of secular 2.

in Fosdick’s time, after the Industrial Revolution, the elite rich bore the duty of providing libraries, museums, and parks—which, of course, you put your name on.10 But the point was to provide for the public good. That was your responsibility. It was the pastor’s job to remind people of this responsibility, participating in practical actions that

Edwards saw himself as the first, or lead, priest amongst a priesthood of all believers. The stick was there to raise all up to the speed of priesthood, giving them direct access (an awakening) to the sacred.