Spencer Heath Archive

Item 2339

Letter by Heath to Edward McCrady, Chancellor, University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee

May 12, 1953

 

 

 

 

Dear Dr. McCrady:

 

Since my very happy visit with you on April 18, I have many pleasant recollections alike of your hospitality of mind and kind­ness of heart.

 Your essay on Religious Perspectives in Biology I have read repeatedly and with increasing interest. In the preliminary state­ment by the Hazen Foundation Committee: “The creative power of the universe is not an intellectual abstraction but an objective entity, a Divine Being. Although God infinitely transcends our human nature and understanding, He most potently reveals Himself to those who conceive of Him in personal terms.,” is, I think, the most perfect reconciliation of the impersonal and the personal aspects of Divinity I have ever seen. I am happily familiar with Professor Sinnott’s little book, Cell and Psyche, hence all the more pleased to note his membership on the Hazen Committee.

 Your conception and, I think, Dr. Sinnott’s, of an organic society having a specific structure and functions transcending those of its constituent units is, I believe, the crucial generalization looking to a great new surge in social growth and evolution – a kingdom of the Creative Spirit among men. Your pages 21-23, in particular inspire me again and again.

 Through some years, I have indulged myself in a similar if not identical generalization drawn from my observations over a very wide range, including the basic data of physical no less than biological processes, and extending even to the wide field of non-coercive (proprietary and thus contractual) human organization and administra­tion.

 In this wide perspective it begins to appear that the Kingdom of Heaven is indeed in our midst as the growing body of Christ in the evolving and expanding contractual (Golden-Rule) relationships and processes among men, despite the “world” with its “principalities and powers.” — “My kingdom is not of this (political) world.” Your paraphrasing your matter on pages 21 and 22 into purely religious terms and phraseology at the top of page 25 seems to me one of the most illuminating statements ever made. Such unification of the objective with the mystical, of the fact with the dream, wakens know­ledge into understanding — into creative power.

 I enjoyed my brief informal visit with you and greatly appreciate the cordiality with which your gifts to me were autographed and inscribed.

 

Sincerely,