Brainard Gibbons

From Philosopedia

Brainard Frederick Gibbons (1902? - )

The Brooklyn-born Gibbons, who in 1939 graduated from the theological school of St. Lawrence University, became president of the Universalist Church of America in 1951. From 1941 to 1943 and from 1946 to 1953 he was minister of the Universalist Church of Wausau, Wisconsin.

Time (24 October 1949) mentioned him in a story:

For Unitarians (71,419 members) and Universalists (44,349 members), formal creeds have long been an abomination: in matters of faith, every-conscience-for itself is the accepted rule. But last week it seemed as if both churches were feeling the need of a statement of faith - even if it made a creed of creedlessness.

Meeting in Rochester, New York, for their week-long Biennial Assembly, 700 delegates of the Universalist Church of America talked about cutting loose once and for all from "supernatural Christianity" and proclaiming a "truly universal faith." The Universalist Church, said the Rev. Brainard Gibbons of Wausau, Wisconsin, should "proclaim a new type of universalism which is boundless in scope, as broad as humanity, and as infinite as the universe. For a long time, Universalists have been reaching beyond the narrow bounds of Christianity to pluck their grapes of knowledge from the vines growing in the boundless vineyards of truth, and the religious wine pressed from them cannot be contained in the old Christian bottles.

Brainard told the group, "Divine revelation has been replaced by human investigation, ignorance by knowledge, superstition by reason, the closed mind by the open, stagnation by progress, celestial nonsense by common sense, continuing,

• Every Universalist realizes that Universalism has changed considerably since the days of its New England forebears and many Christian dogmas have gradually been supplanted. Even the sketchiest summary reveals

the vast differences between then and now. Divine revelation has been replaced by human investigation, ignorance by knowledge, superstition by reason, the closed mind by the open, stagnation by progress, celestial nonsense by common sense. Hence Universalists today consider all religions, including Christianity, expressions of human spiritual aspirations, not God-founded institutions; the Bible a marvelous work of man, not the miraculous handiwork of God; Jesus, a Spiritual Leader, not a Divine Savior; man's fate in human hands, not superhuman clutches; faith the projection of known facts into the unknown, not blind creedal acceptance; the supernatural merely the natural beyond man's understanding.

At that Rochester meeting, the major subject on the Universalist agenda was the perennial plan for merger with the Unitarians, who were also feeling cramped by Christian creeds. In the current issue then of the Unitarian Christian Register, 127 Unitarian ministers of New England endorsed a five-point statement of faith. Said the Rev. Dilworth Lupton of Waltham, Mass.: "Behind the statement is our conviction that religion resembles art; it is bigger than any of its manifestations. And the conviction, too, that our Unitarian churches should be fellowships where, as in art centers, people holding various theories could come together for common enrichment." Dr. Lupton's five points:

¶ We believe in universal religion which is greater than any of its present organized expressions at their best, greater than Hinduism, Judaism, or Christianity.

¶ We believe in a universal church where theists, humanists, Christians, Jews and all religious truth-seekers may come together, each contributing to the common enrichment of their church.

¶ We believe in the development of this universal religion in order to break down today's tensions and so forward the sense of world community . . . .

¶ We believe in the right of each individual to his own convictions.

¶ We believe that the Unitarian movement should reaffirm its tradition of a creedless church, and begin immediately to create and foster such fellowships of universal religion.

Time again mentioned Gibbons (11 May 1953):

Those hard-working freethinkers, the Universalists, learned last week that they were soon to get a new General Superintendent. After 15 years in the office, the nearest a Universalist can come to being a bishop, Dr. Robert Cummins, 55, announced that he was retiring because "it has always been my custom to leave a church while I am still cherished." His successor: peppy, Brooklyn-born Dr. Brainard Frederick Gibbons.

Universalist Gibbons, 51, began as a Manhattan lawyer, served in the firm of the late Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, and eventually set up his own practice. In 1936 he quit "to do something for society rather than just make money out of its difficulties," and went to St. Lawrence University's theological school. Dr. Gibbons' parish since 1942 has been a small one, the First Universalist Church at Wausau (pop. 30,414), Wisconsin, but he has attracted plenty of attention with the vigorous anti-orthodoxy of his speeches around the country.

Dr. Gibbons will preside over a critical new chapter of Universalist history. By this summer, his 64,000-member church may be ready for a federal union, long discussed, with U.S. Unitarians (membership: 80,000).