Ralph Sanger: 1812-1858

Ralph Sanger – 1812-1858

In 1812, when the leaders of the Fourth Parish of Dedham called Ralph Sanger, a top scholar recently graduated from Harvard, to be this church's second pastor, they had been living and breathing a steady diet of Calvinist Christianity for 50 years. This morning, I want to briefly explain Calvinism, so that we have some understanding of the shift which came with Sanger. I apologize for the lecture style this morning, as opposed to a sermon, but this is our DNA. We cannot truly understand who we are and why we do what we do if we don't know our past.
Calvinism was one of two original Protest or Reform Movements against Catholicism in 16th century Europe, the other being Lutheranism. Jean Calvin, a French lawyer who fled to Switzerland, laid out in amazing detail a voluminous systematic theology while simultaneously running a church state in Geneva. Hence the term Calvinist for his offspring, which included the Puritans.
We don't have volumes of time in a sermon, so let's get right to the nitty gritty of Calvinist Christianity, salvation, specifically how one is saved by God in Jesus Christ. Scholars have come up with a mnemonic device to help us remember the main points. TULIP is the device and here's how it goes:
T is for Total Depravity - as in human beings are totally depraved and therefore totally unable to do anything about it. We need God to rescue us from our depravity.
U is for Unconditional Election, which means that God has already chosen who is saved and who is not and there's nothing you can do about that either.
L is for Limited Atonement, which means that Jesus' death on the cross did not atone for everyone's sins, only the limited number of elect whom God had chosen to be atoned for.
I is for Irresistible Grace. You've probably heard me say "God loves you and there's nothing you can do about." That's irresistible grace, but in Calvinism that grace is only for the elect whom God has already chosen to save.
P is for Perseverance of the Saints, which means that those whom God has chosen need to stick with it to the end. Just because you're chosen doesn't mean you can coast across the finish line.
You can see how this all seems to be about a small group and what's next, heaven and hell. Calvin does have a lot to say about how to live in this life, but the salvation piece is huge. That alone ought to interest us. How often do we give serious thought to issues of our salvation?
So the folks of this church had been imbibing Calvinism for 50 years at the feet of Benjamin Caryl, as had most church folks in most churches in New England. There is no judgment in any of my statements here. Calvinism was just the air church folks breathed from 1620 to the late 1700s. Even in Caryl's time, however, things were changing not so very far from here. A radical theological movement called Unitarianism was afoot in Cambridge and Boston.
Until 1809, Harvard College was the only seminary in Massachusetts. Then as now, Harvard was a hotbed of liberal, progressive thinking, thinking that was drastically reevaluating traditional Calvinism during the half century since Caryl had left Harvard in 1760. Essentially, all local church pastors came through Harvard, where they were exposed to this liberalism and matriculated essentially Unitarian in all but name. The most prominent of these men was Jonathan Mayhew, pastor of the West Church in Boston from 1747 to 1766, Charles Chauncy, pastor of the First Church from 1727-1787, and Dr. William Ellery Channing, the foremost Unitarian preacher of his day who served the Federal Street Church from 1803 to 1842. King's Chapel became officially Unitarian in the years 1782-85. I give you these names and places so that if you are interested, you can go on a walking tour the next time you are downtown. I also should point out that if you are curious about what we would be like if we had stayed strictly Calvinist, go to Park Street Congregational Church next to the Common. Those folks have it down pat.
I suspect that Caryl's folks had little idea about the content of what was blowing up churches all over eastern Massachusetts. The ball really got rolling in more rural, non coastal communities when Harvard elected Henry Ware, a local boy from Sherborn, to the Hollis Chair of divinity in 1805, a position he held until 1845. Ware's election was a triumph for the Unitarians over the Calvinists and from then on, most local church pastors emerging from Harvard were Unitarians. Andover Newton Theological School, where Emilia, Ingrid and I studied was founded in 1809 by orthodox Calvinist who had fled Ware at Harvard. Of course, these distinctions are largely past and I don’t think I ever met a Calvinist amongst the dozens of Unitarians at Andover Newton while I was there.
Now to early Unitarian theology, which I can say quite succinctly had a completely different emphasis than TULIP. Unitarianism was originally a Christian theological movement, which it tends not to be now, but it was radically different from Calvinist Christianity as practiced in New England at that time in the following ways: 1) One God and the oneness or unity of God, as opposed to one God in three persons; 2) The life and teachings of Jesus Christ constitute the exemplar model for living one's own life, as opposed to the Cosmic Christ son of God by virgin birth; 3) Reason, rational thought, science, and philosophy coexist with faith in God, as opposed to skepticism of anything but faith; 4) Humans have the ability to exercise free will in a responsible, constructive and ethical manner with the assistance of religion; 5) Human nature in its present condition is neither inherently corrupt nor depraved, but capable of both good and evil, as God intended; 6) No religion can claim an absolute monopoly on the Holy Spirit or theological truth; 7)Though the authors of the Bible were inspired by God, they were humans and therefore subject to human error; 8) Traditional doctrines like doctrines of predestination, eternal damnation, and the vicarious sacrifice or satisfaction theory of the Atonement actually malign God's character or veil the true nature and mission of Jesus Christ. If you ever wondered how we got from being Calvinist Puritans to where we are today, this is one of the main paths, through early Unitarianism. I think most of us would have felt quite at home in an early Unitarian church.
Enter Ralph Sanger, a star pupil at Harvard who comes out to Dover to be our second pastor. I am pretty certain he was a Unitarian right out of the box for two reasons. First, he was one of Ware's star pupils at Harvard and few star pupils totally disagree with their professors. And second, in his notes I have found reference to a move afoot already in 1816 to have him removed, which he survived. Clearly, some of the folks in the pews were missing their Calvinism. Sanger survived another 20 years with Calvinists in the pews. He survived the disestablishment of the Congregational church by the state legislature in 1833. No more taxpayer support. He witnessed the incorporation of the town in 1836. He survived the forming of a Baptist church in town in 1837. He survived the split which seems to have happened when the Second Meetinghouse burned down across the street in 1838. When this meetinghouse was built here in 1839, Sanger and the Unitarians were the occupants. The Calvinist Congregationalists moved across the street, presumably having church in the school house which had been moved from here to there following the fire. He served 46 years, by all accounts a caring pastor who was keenly interested in and involved with education, temperance, agriculture and the ministries of other local churches. I found his relationship with other churches fascinating, considering how most modern Congregationalists think it means stand alone church. That clearly wasn't the case back then.
While all of this might strike us as quaint, historical trivia, I can assure you that these church splits were some of the most tumultuous and long remembered events in many New England towns. In Cohasset where I first served, the Unitarians and the Congregationalists still weren't on good terms after more than 170 years of living apart. I am pretty sure that there were hard feelings here too, based upon two things. First, our church's name, The Dover Church, as opposed to the First Congregational Church of Dover or First Parish Unitarian Dover, or the United Parish or the Federated Church. It was a divorce in 1838. When they came together in 1938, I am almost certain it was more a shotgun wedding out of economic necessity rather than a love match. This is just speculation so far on my part, but I would bet that the cost during the Great Depression of two buildings, two pastors, and two parsonages was the motivator, which is why they ended their new covenant with the promise to "be kindly affectioned to each other" because they didn't really like each other. Just speculation, but it makes sense and the "kindly affectioned" phrase doesn't appear in earlier covenants. Maybe they didn’t want to open old wounds so they left out the whole Unitarian-Congregational-Trinitarian terminology and just named it The Dover Church. There was a Baptist church in town, so some clarifying title would have been in order.
I would like to conclude this morning with a brief sermon about our DNA, about how these seemingly long distant theological disputes still move powerfully in our congregational life. I think our tradition, liberal New England Congregationalism with Unitarian influence is in a period of serious change right now, and my observations are where I think the flash points are. These are just theories of mine, based upon the four churches I have served and not upon actual research. Steve Marini, who does research these things, may well disagree. If so, we'll have to schedule a rebuttal sermon sometime soon.
First, the inclusiveness, welcome, big tent sort of place we are today compared with other churches, not to mention the ditching of Christian triumphalism, as in we're the only true faith, is all to the good and the divorce and remarriage is where that came from. Some people don’t find us Christian enough.
Second, we are heirs to a tradition of progressive and intellectually challenging theological thought and preaching. We have been way out in front of other denominations. That's all good, but the downside is a reality check. I have found that a lot of regular church folks don't enjoy having their world view and assumptions challenged or blown up any more than other folks do. So we have that tension programmed into our tradition: radical challenging preachers in congregations that wish they would give them a break.
Third, once you back off of the salvation piece and the focus moves towards morality and ethics, which is essentially the move from Calvinism to Unitarianism, you lose intensity. It's no longer about ultimate concerns, but about being and doing good. I would argue that salvation is a bigger motivator than morality. What you end up with is lukewarm churches. People claim that we Yankees just don't like being intense, but I know plenty of amped up New England salvation focused churches.
Fourth, once you back off on the divinity of Jesus, you lose the motivational edge for emulating him. If he's just a good guy and teacher as opposed to being a window into the heart and mind of God, well so are any number of other people. From there, it's an easy slide to not even bothering to go and do likewise as Jesus put it. Instead, you tend to think about him in comparison with other teachings.
Which leads into five, the often missing center. Once Jesus is relativized, the vital center becomes mushy. God is a vital center. Some teachings tend not to be. Into that void our churches pour either the cult of the pastor who we like, some crusade or cause, some idolatry like worshipping the building, the communion set, the by-laws and committee structure, the stained glass, or something else, or just being nice, none of which can hold the center and so our churches drift along. In fact, because it's unclear what it's about, there is actually more friction as some people want this and others want that. Without a creed to agree to, sometimes we may be speaking about apples and oranges when we try to talk about faith.
Sixth, while we are heirs to perhaps the strongest social justice theology on both sides, once salvation and a divine Christ are out of the equation, churches find themselves unconsciously wondering, why bother doing justice? Working for peace? Feeding the hungry? Because we ought to? Because its the moral and ethical thing to do? That worked for Emerson and Thoreau, but for the rest of us mere mortals "because God in Jesus Christ insists that we do it...because our salvation will be somehow worked out in the doing..." those are much more motivating.
Sixth...can you tell I think about who, how, and why we are and where we're going a lot? Sixth, once salvation and ultimate concerns are off the plate, most people find themselves aiming for church as comfort, a place where they get a feeling, while they're getting some moral instruction. Once you're there, then church becomes a question of liking the preacher or what it does for you, which can easily lead to all sorts of idolatries.
Seventh, spirituality. When it's Almighty God, a Cosmic Christ, and a wild Holy Spirit, you tend to have a rich, mystical, prayer life. When it's about rational thought, you don't, which is why modern New England Unitarians and Congregationalists tend to be pretty dry when compared with Catholics, Lutherans, Anglicans, Baptists, Mennonites, just about everyone else.
So there you have it. This is some of who we are and it started in 1812.