Unitarian Universalism has a rich history, and many great thinkers to draw upon, both from within our tradition and outside it. In this sermon from April 6, 2008, the Rev. Dr. Jim Nelson explores several of these voices from the early parts of the 20th century and what they can tell us in today’s world, from Reinhold Niehbuhr to William Ellery Channing to Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. Nelson serves the Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church of Pasadena, California as senior minister.

The Likeness to God

by Rev. Dr. Jim Nelson

Reinhold Niehbuhr was a Methodist minister, theologian, historian and social commentator in the middle part of the 20th Century, and, in his time, one of the more influential religious thinkers in America. He wrote a number of books, and as I mentioned some weeks ago about sermon titles, Niehbuhr was good at titles.

Here are a few:

Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic [about his time as a parish minister in Detroit]
Moral Man and Immoral Society
The Nature and Destiny of Man
The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness
The Irony of American History

He was a realist and warned about the use of power and how too often power combines with arrogance and becomes dangerous. He would have much to say about our times.

(Read on … )