Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878- 1969)

Harry was an American pastor who became a central figure in the Fundamentalist - Modernist-controversy within American Protestantism in the 1920s and 1930s. He was one of the most prominent liberal ministers in the early 20th century.

He graduated from Colgate University in 1900. He became an ordained Baptist minister in 1903 and left Union Theological Seminary in 1904.

First Baptist Church, Montclair, New Jersey was his first ministry (1904-1915).
In 1917 he volunteered as an Army chaplain serving in France. He also taught at Union Theological Seminary (1908-1946).

In 1918 he moved to the First Presbyterian Church. On May 21st, 1922, he delivered his famous sermon Shall the Fundamentalists Win?. He presented the Bible as a record of the unfolding of God;s will not as the literal ‘Word of God’. This caused an uproar. Fundamentalists regarded it as rank apostasy and a investigation followed. At a formal trial in 1924 he escaped censure.

Harry resigned and was immediately called to Park Avenue Baptist, later renamed Riverside Church. (1925-30, 1930-1946). John D.Rockefeller Jr. funded the building of the famed ecumenical Riverside Church in Morningside heights, Manhattan.

Harry opposed racism and injustice. His sermons won him wide recognition.His 1933 anti-war sermon The Unknown Soldierultimately led to the founding of the Peace Pledge Union His radio addresses were broadcast nationally. Many of his sermon collections are still in print and he wrote many books. (See ‘Works’)

He had a major influence on Martin Luther King Jr. who said Harry was the greatest preacher of the century.