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Can The Christian Churches Adjust Themselves To The Coming Age?, Earl Clement Davis

Sermons, 1905-1919

This manuscript has no explicit date. However the paper on which the manuscript is written is identical to paper used for manuscripts that can be dated to this period.

A concise statement of religion and science, the historical trajectory towards knowledge and democracy, and how the various Christian religions, including Unitarianism, fit within these.

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing.

Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.

What Think Ye Of Man?, Earl Clement Davis

Sermons, 1905-1919

A concise statement of the divinity of man -- that Christ was a man and divine, as all men are divine and that it is through experience that each person learns the value of life.

Date refers to Date Given and The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription.

The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing.

Transcription by Davis Baird.Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.

Communion [Sermon Notes], Earl Clement Davis

Sermons, 1933-1953

For the years 1938 through 1947, Davis collected his sermon notes in more-or-less annual hand-bound booklets. Most of these booklets were well-ordered and inclusive of only sermons from one particular year. The exception was the booklet of sermon notes for 1941, which was out of chronological order, and included sermon notes from multiple other years, 1934 through 1945. In all, only 30 of the 41 sermon notes were from 1941. The notes transcribed here were found in that collection. Clearly marked “-2-” for the second page, this is all that was found. The first page is missing.

The primary downloadable …

Booklet Of Sermon Notes For 1942-1943, Earl Clement Davis

Sermons, 1933-1953

For the years 1938 through 1947 Davis collected his sermon notes in more-or-less annual hand-bound booklets. This Booklet contained sermons for two years, 1942 and 1943, 101 different sermon notes in total.

The transcription of these notes have been separated into two shorter—although still long—documents, the first with the notes for sermons given during 1942 and the second for notes given during 1943. The primary document available for download is the full scan of the booklet itself. Supplemental downloads include the two transcription files, and the two sermon list documents for 1942 and 1943, respectively.

Transcription by Davis Baird. Item …

Easter Sermon: A Carpenter In The Face Of Danger, Earl Clement Davis

Sermons, 1905-1919

This is from the bound collection—“bundle #5”—that includes sermons from January 2, 1910 to January 15, 1911.

A brief retelling of the last supper and Jesus' personal struggle in the Garden of Gethsemane. This is a moment Davis revisits repeatedly throughout his life, stating it as a "sublime moment in the life of a man, sublime moment in the history of humanity." Davis is concerned that the conventional ceremony, "the Lord's Supper," does not do justice to the power of that moment in history.

Date refers to Date Given and The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by …

An Unknown Sacrifice, Earl Clement Davis

Education

A seemingly unfinished bit of story about a son leaving home.

This is from a collection of manuscripts—mostly class papers— written while Davis was a student at Harvard Divinity School, 1902-1904. This manuscript is undated and not obviously connected to any specific class.

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing.

Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.

Grounds For Faith In Religious Liberty, Earl Clement Davis

Manuscripts, Undated

A page of notes on this topic. It contains this quote from poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge "He, who begins by loving Christianity better than Truth, will proceed by loving his sect or the Church better than Christianity, and end by loving himself

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing.

Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.

Outline Of Points On English Bible, Earl Clement Davis

Manuscripts, Undated

A list of key dates from early post-Christ times until William Tyndale's execution in 1536; "From that day to this it has been less dangerous to translate the Bible."

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing.

Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.

Notes On Mutual Aid: A Factor In Evolution, By P. Kropotkin, Earl Clement Davis

Manuscripts, Undated

Fairly extensive notes on Peter Kropotkin's 1902 book, Mutual Aid: A Factor in Evolution, a seminal text which argues that communistic or socialistic organization as more natural for human society.

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing.

Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.

"Earl Davis -- An Example To His Fellow Men", Obituary, N/A

Funeral, 1953 and After

An obituary published for Earl Clement Davis, but the who and where is not known for sure. Textual evidence suggests it may come from Billerica, Massachusetts, where Earl got his first post-college job as Principal of the Howe School.

Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.

No Title. Notes On The Ministry, Earl Clement Davis

Manuscripts, 1933-1953

Brief notes on Earl Davis' views on the nature of the ministry. As is consistent with his perspective, he is forward looking. He emphasizes Congregational polity and discovery, not revelation.

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing.

Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.

A New Note In Fiction, Earl Clement Davis

Manuscripts, 1933-1953

This writing is an analysis of fiction's role in showing the human struggle with the changing forces of history, particularly the move away from authoritarianism. Authors mentioned include, Hervey Allen's Anthony Adverse, Honoré de Balzac, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Leo Tolstoy, Knut Hamsun's Growth of the Soil, John Galsworthy's The Forsyte Saga, Mazo de la Roche's Jalna series, and Sinclair Lewis' Main Street and Babbitt.

While this manuscript does not have a date, the fact that it mentions Hervey Allen’s novel Anthony Adverse, published in 1933, and does not mention the award-winning movie of Anthony Adverse that premiered in 1936, …

The Next Step For Our Unitarian Churches, Earl Clement Davis

Manuscripts, 1933-1953

This was a talk that Earl Davis gave at a conference. We have yet to identify the conference or its exact date, but internal evidence – referencing the past “Hoover Administration” and the Roosevelt Administration “brain trust” -- suggests this was presented in 1934 or shortly thereafter.

This writing is a good representation of Davis' core views, drawing from the history of Congregationalism into a discussion of new problems. He ends with a a poem by Jean Untermeyer.

Date refers to Date Given

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item …

Is Protestantism In The Midst Of A Revolution?, Earl Clement Davis

Sermons, 1919-1924

A short but succinct statement of the Christian options -- Catholic, Evangelical, and Liberal -- and the stance of the Liberal option. Davis states that "The purpose of life is not primarily to secure salvation in the world to come, but to so live and so labor that this world may become better for coming generations."

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing.

Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.

Why Cardinal O'Connell Is Wrong! [Three Bound Bundle], Earl Clement Davis

Manuscripts

A long essay responding to a talk by Cardinal O'Connell of Boston. Unfortunately, we are unable to identify which talk Earl Davis is responding to. The piece is Davis' most complete argument against authority religion and in favor of democracy and freedom in religious considerations. He discusses previous failures in "infallible" religion, including Coperincus/Galileo, Darwin, and the morality of earning interest. He states that we will never outgrow religion, but we will outgrow certain religious institutions -- including, in Davis' view, all authority religions.

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each …

The Bible As Literature [Three Bound Bundle], Earl Clement Davis

Manuscripts

Earl Davis surveys the Old Testament and discusses several kinds of literature to be found there. Including: Primative (Song of Deborah, Judges V; Song of Moses, Exodus 15); Folk legends or myths (Moses and the burning bush, Exodus 3:1-6; Jacob's Vision at Bethel, Genesis 28); Wisdom literature, proverbs (Folk song of good husbandry, Proverbs 27:23-27); Minor Prophets (The smiting prophet, Amos 8:4-14; The prophet of disciplined love, Hosea, 14); Poetry of Exile (Psalms 42,43,61,63,137-best); Psalms of Ascent; 120-134; Great Prophecy (Israel's destiny, Isaiah 52:13, 53:12); Lyric Poetry (Song of Songs); The Book of Job -- one of the great literary …

The Relation Of Public Schools To Life, Earl Clement Davis

Manuscripts

This manuscript is very likely a public high school commencement address. Earl Davis discusses three serious issues he finds with public education. (1) The tend to crush the child's innate desire for adventure, a desire Davis sees as seminal to the achievements of history. (2) They do not support a child's interest in doing real work -- because real factories are too dangerous and inhuman, and this undermines the emerging adults appreciation for labor. (3) They do not support the healthy idealism that young adults can bring to clean up the messes of their elders. Through all of this, there …

The Hope For A New Age [Notes], Earl Clement Davis

Sermons, 1905-1919

This manuscript consists of six half-size pages held together with a straight pin. The contents appear to be early attempts to develop a sermon on “The Hope for a New Age.” Each page of the manuscript in individuated in this transcription between horizonal lines. On inspection, the pages as pinned together appeared to be out of order. The scan of the manuscript and the transcription presents the pages in a more sensible order with three parts: (1) an outline sketch (1 page); (2) A first version of the sketch of the sermon (2 pages); (3) A second version of the …

Reformation Without Tarrying For Any, Earl Clement Davis

Sermons, 1905-1919

The advances of history are made by men and women who do not tarry for any. They push forward for their ideals. Thus did Christianity supersede the Roman Empire (and thus did Octavius create the Roman Empire to begin with). But the danger of success comes when calcification and lower drives intercede.

This manuscript has no explicit date. However the reference at the end of the first paragraph to a “great war” suggests that this was written after the US entered World War I and before the conclusion of World War I, between April, 1917 and November, 1918. This is …

Can The Christian Churches Adjust Themselves To The Coming Age?, Earl Clement Davis

Sermons, 1905-1919

A concise statement of religion and science, of the historical trajectory towards knowledge and democracy, and how all the various Christian religions fit in, including Unitarianism. Davis states that "the Unitarian Church is an attempt to leave behind completely the idea of religion as a supernatural revelation, to organize a church without a creed, either stated or implied, and to work our way through into the Coming Age..."

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing.

Transcription by Davis …

What Is The Nature Of Worship And Will It Have A Place In The Coming Age?, Earl Clement Davis

Sermons, 1905-1919

Worship is based in understanding the truths about our world and using the constraints of these truths to figure out how to make a better life. Davis likens it to a garden:

"I have a plot of ground which I call a garden and I have a desire to develop a more beautiful garden than the one that I had last year. I study my garden; I study the laws of flower culture, and I select seeds that I want and then develop a plan for planting the seeds and plants that, during the season, are to constitute the changing …

The Ethical Significance Of The Changing Social Order In Its Bearing On The Institution Of Education, Earl Clement Davis

Sermons, 1905-1919

A sermon centered on the idea that education is fundamentally about learning how to live. It comes in informal ways over centuries -- eons -- the ten commandments were not "revealed" but were the result of "hundreds of thousands of years, and millions of human lives." He laments "some people seem to imagine that God is some kind of an expert head accountant, who spends all his time pouring over balance sheets of individuals and nations", reminding that "we talk and act as if we really imagined God were such a creature as that, but the rain falls upon the …

The Ethical Significance Of The Changing Social Order In Its Bearing On The Institution Of Government, Earl Clement Davis

Sermons, 1905-1919

Davis discusses how the forces of history continue pressing forward in all areas, including the government. Nothing is static or finished, and change is constant: "the impulse of an ever-expanding conception of democracy, have the best of their effort and thought. Today this same unseen spirit, working in the minds of men and women all of the land is changing, the form and broadening the scope of the common efforts of humanity. Through the change is coming greater freedom, higher development, and a sturdier, and nobler generation of men and women."

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed …

The Thirst For A Living God, Earl Clement Davis

Sermons, 1905-1919

In this sermon, Davis discusses God not as a static thing to be worshiped but as a symbolic way of "expressing our conception of the totality and essence of things".

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing.

Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.

Sermon On Labor, Earl Clement Davis

Sermons, 1905-1919

A short and possibly incomplete sermon focusing on the need for "an abundant life," a life that provides for the necessities and speaks to our creative and adventurous impulses to discover more. Davis states that we must respond to those "knocked into the ditch of poverty," and coordinate labor with thought. He includes quotations from John Ruskin's Crown of Wild Olive and The Stones of Venice.

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing.

Transcription by Davis Baird. Item …

Liberty And Responsibilty In Religion, Earl Clement Davis

Sermons, 1905-1919

In some cases, Earl Davis bound together manuscripts in bundles. This manuscript is part of one such bundle of seven, held together by four brass fasteners. Six of the seven can be dated to 1918.

This is another in a series of reflections regarding the meaning of World War I and the change it will prompt. Davis regards Christianity as a way of living while alive, not as a counsel to count on the second coming. He states that though we have given up the idea of a "ready-made Heaven" coming down to earth from above, this false idea …

'Church Fairs And Suppers, Graft And Blackmail, Says Minister', Pittsfield Newspaper Article, Pittsfield Newspaper

Manuscripts

A report of Davis' unhappiness with Church fairs and suppers as fundraisers (for his salary). His issue was that they did not treat people according to need, claiming it was quite the opposite, particularly for the women who organized them. To help fight this, Davis gave up a significant portion of his salary.

The Compelling Power Of The Christ Like Life [Notes], Earl Clement Davis

Sermons, 1905-1919

When Davis Baird was going through his grandfather's materials, he observed that many sermons were pinned together with a straight pin in the upper-left corner. This led him to expect another beginning-to-end sermon here, but it is clear that this sermon was never completed. Furthermore, the notes as they were pinned together are almost certainly out of order, with the last page of what we'll call “Version 3” out of place. We provide both the notes in the original order they were found, and the notes as Davis Baird reordered them. As always, there also a transcription of the reordered …

What Is Christianity? The Letter Killeth But The Spirit Giveth Power, Earl Clement Davis

Sermons, 1905-1919

In this sermon, Davis looks at various answers to this question. He rejects a supernatural answer, an "evolving, but continue with the old language" answer. He rests with the spirit of Jesus's life and these two commandments: "Thou shall love the Lord, thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and "Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself."

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing.

Transcription by Davis Baird. Item …

Why Does No One Go To Church?, Earl Clement Davis

Sermons, 1905-1919

Davis ponders what is the purpose of going to church? It appears to waste a productive day. Most of the contributions of churches in the past -- education, culture, philanthropy -- have been taken by other institutions. Davis "rejoices" in religion's success in prompting other institutions to take on these tasks. But still, then, why go to church? It is important for community making and it is important for prompting us to "see the bigger picture." Nice history of the sabbath in this sermon.

While this sermon is not dates, it is almost certainly from the 1905-1906 period when Earl …