The Church and the Press. The Public Significance of Preaching. (Cont.) (2)

In view of such significance of the Bible, it will become clear why American literature bears such a strong imprint of the biblical and generally religious element. But as for the periodical press in particular, this element is even more noticeable on it by virtue of its, so to speak, origin and conditions of existence. The majority of monthly journals in America owe their origin to colleges. Every college that feels scientific and literary strength in its corporation equips itself with a journal, in which professors share their scientific and literary labors with the public. So matters stand in the majority even to the present time, and with the exception of the journal The North American Review, and a few simple and illustrated journals published by major publishing firms, American journalism is in the hands of professorial corporations. And thus, owing to this, American periodical monthly press fully reflects the serious spirit of American colleges—namely, a strong religious-moral imprint. On the pages of these journals constantly appear articles on various higher theological, philosophical, and religious-moral questions, which in our country can be found only on the pages of little-known ecclesiastical journals. And generally one must say that American educated society relates with a much livelier interest to higher religious-philosophical problems than our society does. This need is naturally met by the periodical press, and it is remarkable that this interest is constantly growing. “Our weekly journals,” says one American writer, “investigate with growing attention and interest the great current religious questions. Our Reviews (that is, our thick journals) devote themselves chiefly to the discussion of religious problems. Now, more than at any other period of our history, our writers make religion the main subject of literature. Even novelists introduce religious questions into the substance of their tales.”[1] Alongside purely religious questions come philosophical ones, and speculative thought enjoys remarkable success on the classical ground of positive or applied knowledge. We have formed a conception of Americans as soulless technicians and practical materialists. And yet for this people so many journals of speculative philosophy are published as can hardly be published in any European country. And these journals all stand out by their character of elevated idealism. Such are, for example, the journals The Platonist in Missouri, Journal of Speculative Philosophy in the famous philosophical town of Concord near Boston, those Athens of American enlightenment; the “Religious-Philosophical Journal” in Chicago, and so forth. And that these journals are not simply products of incorrigible lovers of speculation, do not represent a voice in the wilderness, can be judged by the eloquent fact that, for example, the religious-philosophical journal in Chicago is distributed in 9,000 copies. As for the spread of properly religious journals, it is sufficient in this regard to point to the fact that one weekly newspaper Christian Advocate is distributed in 50,000 copies weekly, and some illustrated religious newspapers are distributed positively in hundreds of thousands of copies. But the influence of the religious element in America on public consciousness does not end even here. Besides literature, preaching in the church has an even more powerful and direct influence, which owing to special circumstances has received high development in America and has become an important public force. The best preachers, such as Beecher, the brother of the famous writer Beecher Stowe, author of the world-famous tale Uncle Tom’s Cabin, are positively the most popular person in the entire country. His sermons are transmitted by telegraph to all the newspapers of the country (and even in England), and the major New York newspapers publish them in large excerpts. Such attention, however, is not limited to Beecher alone; it extends to other preachers as well, and as a result a fine custom has developed according to which Monday editions of newspapers are filled with excerpts from the sermons pronounced on the preceding day. Thanks to this custom, not only is the Gospel of God’s word more widely distributed, but each person can avail himself of the whole sum of religious-moral lessons taught on a given Sunday. Through these accounts one can always follow the state of preaching and religious-theological thought in the country, and these same accounts in turn serve as an important incentive for preachers constantly to maintain the height of their calling. When we first became acquainted with this fine custom, we more than once thought why our newspapers should not follow the example of our transatlantic friends in this regard and place in their Monday and post-holiday issues accounts of sermons pronounced on the preceding day, all the more so since for lack of material they are ordinarily filled with all sorts of old and useless rubbish.

And thus this entire sum of diverse religious influences has as its result that public consciousness and public activity in America bear a strong religious-moral imprint, giving the entire life of the American people a distinctive character of spiritual originality and energetic self-activity. We now turn to characterizing this side, insofar as it manifests itself in the area we are considering.