"I am not orthodox about anything. I am thoroughly, completely, adequately, gloriously and triumphantly a heretic."
Superb third-person diary of extensive notes of in excess of a hundred sermons, books, and articles by Chicago's arch-heretic, Rev. Preston Bradley [1888-1983].
Bradley was quite the character. He had been a Presbyterian, but was ejected for not believing in infant damnation. He then went to Moody, where he was given the boot for being seen leaving a movie theater with a sizable stogie protruding from his lips. It was then he realized was not an "evangelical" or "orthodox" in any way.
He joined in with the Unitarians and began to preach a much "earthier" message. As a follower of Henry George, he believed that ministers must be concerned with social justice, poverty, and civic wrongs. From there, he was viewed as a forceful liberal voice and a reformer.
He was the founder and pastor of the Peoples Church in the Uptown Neighborhood of Chicago. Bradley was a civic leader who was active in Chicago in many areas, such as conservation, arts, racial issues, and education. His sermons, at his peak, were listened to by millions no his weekly radio broadcast.
Bradley was on the Chicago Public Library Board for over 25 years. Preston Bradley Hall, in the former main location of the Chicago Public Library, now the Chicago Cultural Center, is named for him.
As an historical document, Bradley's interest in Jesus' interaction with real-time events help make the sermons here preserved of particular value. He addresses the Presidency and Death of Calvin Coolidge; Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal;" on the Legacy and Prescience of Abraham Lincoln; Declaration of Independence and the Constitution; The Role of Government; Freedom of the Press; on Women's Suffrage and Rights; Review of "Why not Try God?" by Mary Pickford [rev by Bradley]; etc. etc.
Also quotes by Booker T. Washington, Helen Keller, Frances Willard, Sigmund Freud, etc.
384pp of largely sermons from Preston Bradley, the majority dated from 1933 to 1939 with a few added at the end extending into the period of the Second World War. All very legible.
A good + copy, bound in cloth, shaken.
