The Cathedral of the World: A Universalist Theology by Forrest Church

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Synopsis

The culmination of the spiritual thought of a preeminent liberal theologian  In the spring of 2008, Forrest Church wrote what he believed would be his final work, Love & Death. One year and an experimental cancer treatment later, this beloved minister and acclaimed author has been blessed with the opportunity to create one more book.

Choosing as his topic the one loose end in his remarkable oeuvre, Church has drawn from the entire span of his life’s work to hammer out a clear statement of his universalist theology and liberal faith. Recasting public addresses, adapted book chapters, articles, and several previously unpublished pieces into a single argument, The Cathedral of the World is Church’s answer to the divisive global trend toward competing fundamentalisms.

In a society in which religion has been hijacked by the Religious Right and ridiculed by the secular Left, Church gives new voice to the power of liberal religion, openhearted and open-minded, humble and awestruck.  He invites all seekers to enter the Cathedral of the World, where there are many windows but only one Light.

Publishers Weekly

In this collection of sermons, essays and speeches, author and longtime Unitarian minister Church lays out a framework for a 21st-century universalist faith. Contrary to popular opinion, he says, universalism is the most morally rigorous of theologies because of its call to “respect and even embrace otherness, rather than merely to tolerate or, even worse, dismiss it.” The son of a senator, Church makes a nuanced argument for the role of spirituality in politics, and argues that the story of America is a narrative of “gradual moral progress, in which deed begins to approximate creed.” As with many such collections, this volume at times feels too dated (in chapters focused on Terri Schiavo, the Oklahoma City bombing, and Y2K), too local (in sermons given to his congregation) and too oral (in jokes that were surely funnier when spoken aloud). Yet considering that Church has terminal cancer and thought his previous book, Love and Death, would be his last, such imperfections fade. An acclaimed minister’s erudite and perhaps final treatise against theological parochialism, what he calls “our era’s most dangerous dysfunction,” this book is an essential read for anyone interested in liberal religion. (Nov.)

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Biography

Forrest Church served almost three decades as senior minister and is now minister of public theology of All Souls Unitarian Church in New York City. He has written or edited twenty-five books, including Love & Death (Beacon / 7297-4 / $15.00 pb).