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:
“Religion and art spring from the same root and are close kin. Economics and art are strangers.”
—Willa Cather (1876–1947)
“Men are like plants; the goodness and flavor of the fruit proceeds from the peculiar soil and exposition in which they grow. We are nothing but what we derive from the air we breathe, the climate we inhabit, the government we obey, the system of religion we profess, and the nature of our employment.”
—Michel Guillaume Jean De Crevecoeur (1735–1813)
“And when religious sects ran mad,
He held, in spite of all his learning,
That if a man’s belief is bad,
It will not be improved by burning.”
—Winthrop Mackworth Praed (1802–1839)
“The proper office of religion is to regulate the heart of men, humanize their conduct, infuse the spirit of temperance, order, and obedience; and as its operation is silent, and only enforces the motives of morality and justice, it is in danger of being overlooked, and confounded with these other motives.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)