Secularism As the Will of God: Horace Kallen's “Hebraic” Understanding of Pluralism As an Ultimate Concern

Journal for the Study of Christian Culture

Secularism as the Will of God: Horace Kallen’s “Hebraic” Understanding of Pluralism as an Ultimate Concern

[USA] Mark LARRIMORE

Introduction to the author Mark LARRIMORE, Associate Professor of Religion, The New School, USA. Email: [email protected]

2 44 2020 Abstract

Tillich and Frye were at work at a time when religion was being reimagined in secular ways in the west. This essay looks at their contemporary Horace Meyer Kallen (1882-1974), forgotten but recently recovered, who argued for a religious secularism. Kallen’s ideas were couched in the language of American democracy but have deeper roots in his experience as a Jewish American and are anchored in his pioneering celebration of cultural pluralism. Kallen thought it important to recognize the “religious” character of our most important commitments, and ideas about ultimate concern, but perhaps more aware of the dangers of a dominant culture. This essay traces Kallen’s ideas to his formative category of “Hebraism,” an awareness of human existential struggle, finitude and plurality which he thought preeminently articulated in the biblical “Book of Job,” and ends with an assessment of its continued relevance.

Keywords: ultimate concern, pluralism, Hebraism, pragmatism, Horace Kallen

No. 44 Autumn 2020 3

Journal for the Study of Christian Culture

1965 Horace Meyer Kallen 1882–1974 Secularism as the Common Religion of a Free Society

ultimate concern

Paul Tillich, 1886–1965 God above gods

religion of religions

Hebraism

Horace M. Kallen, “Secularism as the Common Religion of a Free Society,” 4, no.2 (Spring, 1965):145-151, 149-150. 1919 1974

4 44 2020 1882

1900 Alain Locke 1885–1954 T. S. T. S. Eliot 1888–1965 George Santayana 1863–1952 Josiah Royce 1855–1916 William James 1842– 1910 John Dewey 1859–1952

1927

Matthew Kaufman, (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2019), 7-8. https://pluralism. org/the-right-to-be-different (Accessed July 7, 2020)

No. 44 Autumn 2020 5

Journal for the Study of Christian Culture

religion of religions 1965

Robert N. Bellah 1927– 2013 Civil Religion in America

priesthood of all believers

David A. Hollinger, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998). Horace M. Kallen, (Boston: Beacon Press, 1951). Robert N. Bellah, “Civil Religion in America,” 96, no.1 (Winter, 1967): 1-21.

Cf. Paul Tillich, “Religion and Secular Culture,” 26, no.2 (Apr., 1946): 79-86. Horace M. Kallen, (New York: Boni& Liveright, 1927).

6 44 2020 worldly otherworldly

Kallen,“Secularism as the Common Religion of a Free Society,” 146. Ibid. Ibid., 147.

No. 44 Autumn 2020 7

Journal for the Study of Christian Culture

working hypotheses

Kallen,“Secularism as the Common Religion of a Free Society,”147. Ibid.148.

8 44 2020 bet on the future

infallible authority

Kallen,“Secularism as the Common Religion of a Free Society,”148.

No. 44 Autumn 2020 9

Journal for the Study of Christian Culture

Kallen,“Secularism as the Common Religion of a Free Society,”148. https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/ (Accessed July 7, 2020). Kallen,“Secularism as the Common Religion of a Free Society,” 149. Ibid.

10 44 2020 1948 common religion of mankind doctrine and discipline

bets indispensability of betting

the truest myths are those known to be broken myths

Horace M. Kallen, “The Predicament of the Tolerant,” , no. 7(1950): 56-61, 57. Kallen, “Secularism as the Common Religion of a Free Society,” 149.

No. 44 Autumn 2020 11

Journal for the Study of Christian Culture

[ ]

the will of God

the symbol of the cross Deus Absconditus

Kallen, “Secularism as the Common Religion of a Free Society,” 149. Ibid., 151.

12 44 2020

Paul Tillich, (NY: HarperOne, 2001 [1957]), 145.

No. 44 Autumn 2020 13

Journal for the Study of Christian Culture

idea

“second-hand”pieties

William James, (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 1980 [1907]). Kallen, “Secularism as the Common Religion of a Free Society,”146. William James, ed. Martin E. Marty (London: Penguin Random House, 1982) William James, (NY: Longmans, Green and Co., 1896)

14 44 2020 not a foregone conclusion

certain knowledge

Henri Bergson 1859–1941 1909 Hebraism and Current Trends in Philosophy

Hellenism 40 Mathew Arnold 1822–1888

Horace M. Kallen, “Hebraism and Current Trends in Philosophy,” in (New York: Bloch, 1932), 7-15. Matthew Arnold, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).

No. 44 Autumn 2020 15

Journal for the Study of Christian Culture

as they ought to be

Kallen, “Hebraism and Current Trends in Philosophy,” 9. Ibid., 8. Ibid., 10-11.

16 44 2020 making the best of a bad job

I know that he will slay me; nevertheless will I maintain my ways before him.

Kallen, “Hebraism and Current Trends in Philosophy,” 8. Ibid.

Behold, he will slay me; I shall not survive; nevertheless will I maintain my ways before him Horace M. Kallen, (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1948), 187 Kaufman , chs. 5-6

No. 44 Autumn 2020 17

Journal for the Study of Christian Culture

though he slay me yet will I maintain my trust in him

1909 1965

Mark Larrimore, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013), 51-52

Kallen, “Hebraism and Current Trends in Philosophy,” 8.

18 44 2020 15 will to believe

i nner h istory of the Jews the experience of divine neglect the experience of the indifference of God a faith despite faith

1918

Kallen, “Hebraism and Current Trends in Philosophy,” 13. Ibid., 13. Horace M. Kallen, (NY: Moffat, Yard, and Co., 1959 [1918]).

No. 44 Autumn 2020 19

Journal for the Study of Christian Culture

1965

Kallen, , 68. Ibid., 70. Ibid., 71. Ibid., 75. Ibid., 77.

20 44 2020 precarious beauty

No. 44 Autumn 2020 21

Journal for the Study of Christian Culture

the experience of not being chosen

pluralism is his ultimate concern

22 44 2020 faith that is courage, humility that is self- respect

dynamics

Introduction to the translator CHEN Long, Lecturer, School of Humanities, University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Email: [email protected]

No. 44 Autumn 2020 23

Journal for the Study of Christian Culture

[Works in Western Languages] Arnold, Matthew. . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Bellah, Robert N. “Civil Religion in America.” 96, no.1 (1967): 1-21. Hollinger, David A. . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998. James, William. . New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1896. ______. . Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 1980 [1907]. Kallen, Horace M. . NY: Moffat, Yard, and Co., 1959[1918]. ______. New York: Boni& Liveright, 1927. ______. “Hebraism and Current Trends in Philosophy.” In . 7-15.New York: Bloch, 1932. ______. . Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1948. ______. “The Predicament of the Tolerant.” , no.7 (1950): 56-61. ______. . Boston: Beacon Press, 1951. ______. “Secularism as the Common Religion of a Free Society.” 4, no.2 (1965): 145-151. Kaufman, Matthew. . Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2019. Larrimore, Mark. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013. Tillich, Paul. “Religion and Secular Culture.” 26, no.2 (1946): 79-86. ______. NY: HarperOne, 2001 [1957].

24 44 2020