Adler Lectures in Series Six

Helen Goldmark Adler

The Sixth Series of Ethical Addresses (1900) includes two platforms by Felix Adler.  The first, "The Spiritual Meaning of Marriage" (pp. 17-36), was originally presented on January 26, 1896, at Carnegie Hall.  As was usual at the time, the New York Times reported the gist of the speech, a lovely paean to the mutual support offered, one to another, by husband and wife, as they live in an Ethical marriage:

Man says to woman, 'Be thou my judge.'  Woman says to man, 'Do thou, by the influence of thy mind and nature upon mine, aid me to ever broader and wiser standards.'

My role here is not to be critical of progressive 19th century standards in the 21st century, but to look at the bibliographic history associated with this text.  In that role, I note that a typescript of this platform exists in the NYSEC-AEU archives and differs slightly from the published text.  I leave it to other scholars to consider the differences as reported and published.

The second Adler lecture, "The Teachings of Jesus in the Modern World" (pp. 105-120), was presented on Easter, April 2, 1899.  This platform fares better in the 21st century as it points to four areas in which the "Modern World" of 1899 also appreciated the teachings of Jesus:  

1. Do not do evil to do good:  " . . . [I]t is wrong in principle and disappointing, so far as the result goes, to fight the devil with fire; to try to defeat the evildoer by using his own weapons; meeting fraud with fraud and violence with violence" (pp. 111-112).
2. All humans have worth:  " . . . [I]n contrast to arguments drawn from so-called Darwinism and aristocratic pride, we shall not forget the moral equality that underlies the diversity of gifts and talents" (p. 116).
3. Love one another:  ". . . [T]he higher and better kind of love, the spiritual love, it is in our power to create in ourselves and ever again to recreate. The desire to help to uplift the other is the indestructible safeguard of that love" (p. 119).
4. In hope is our renewal:  "This is, in effect, what he says: that in the nobler inspirations of man there never is occasion to despair; that in things of the spirit there is no such word as fail; that, however low a human being may sink, it is always within his ability to rise again. There is this invincible power of renewal, of being born again, of beginning at any moment the new and the better life" (p. 120.).

Interestingly, I can find no evidence that the New York Times reported on this platform despite ample coverage of Christian services on the same day.