Religion and Religious Motives
In fact, the co-founders of Toynbee Hall, Samuel and Henrietta Barnett, shared Addams's desire to bring Christianity back to its roots. Part of what was called the "social Christian" movement, the Barnetts had no interest in converting anyone to Christianity, but they did feel that Christians should be more engaged with the world, and, in the words of one of the leaders of the movement in England, W.H. Fremantle, "imbue all human relations with the spirit of Christ's self-renouncing love." Addams learned about social Christianity from them, soon considered herself one, and soon made friends among the leaders of the "social Christian" movement in the United States.
Jane Addams's religious faith was thus a central motive in co-founding Hull House with Starr, but the settlement was never religious. It did not seek to convert others to Christianity. A brief experiment in weekly prayer among the residents of the settlement house, requested by some of them, was so ecumenical in its approach that it soon fizzled. (However, other settlements in both Great Britain and the United States would be religious and seek conversions).
Addams's own religious beliefs were shaped by her wide reading and life experience. By the time she had graduated from Rockford Seminary, she knew the Bible and especially the New Testament, thoroughly, having studied it throughout her young life, including in college courses. She had also been required to memorize a verse from the Bible every day at Rockford, and listen to a short sermon on the daily verse by the school's principal. Evidence of this deep familiarity with Scripture can be found throughout her later writings.
While she remained a member of a Presbyterian Church, Addams regularly attended a Unitarian Church and Ethical Society in Chicago. At one point, she was appointed "interim lecturer" at the Ethical Society. Addams also established a close relationship with members of the established Jewish community, notably with the rabbi of Chicago Sinai Congregation, Emil G. Hirsch, and several so Sinai's congregants, among them Judge Julian Mack and Julius Rosenwald.
Read more about this topic: Jane Addams
Famous quotes containing the words religion and, religion, religious and/or motives:
“Your honesty is not to be based either on religion or policy. Both your religion and policy must be based on it. Your honesty must be based, as the sun is, in vacant heaven; poised, as the lights in the firmament, which have rule over the day and over the night.”
—John Ruskin (1819–1900)
“It’s almost impossible to deal with a crazy man, except that he does have religious beliefs, and the world of Islam will be damaged if a fanatic like him should commit murder in the name of religion against 60 innocent people.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“In an age robbed of religious symbols, going to the shops replaces going to the church.... We have a free choice, but at a price. We can win experience, but never achieve innocence. Marx knew that the epic activities of the modern world involve not lance and sword but dry goods.”
—Stephen Bayley (b. 1951)
“We have done scant justice to the reasonableness of cannibalism. There are in fact so many and such excellent motives possible to it that mankind has never been able to fit all of them into one universal scheme, and has accordingly contrived various diverse and contradictory systems the better to display its virtues.”
—Ruth Benedict (1887–1948)