Spencer Heath Archive

Item 2943

Carbon of letter to Shirley Taft (later changed to Sara Taft) from Spencer MacCallum at 5621 University Avenue, Chicago 37, Illinois

October 31, 1963

 

Dear Shirley Taft,

Thanks so much for your fine letter which I found here this morning on getting back from Virginia.

 What do you think of this title for the talks — eliminate the present title and subtitle completely and call them simply, Song and Work of God. The words are taken from the last line of my grandfather’s sonnet to Beauty. He would have liked that. But it seems specially appropriate since a main theme of the talks is the integration of the inspirational side of man’s life and the economic — the song with the work.

 In your letter you stressed the integration of the spiritual and the scientific. I love your charac­terization of science as precision, as opposed to poetry. Would you say it is science which helps bridge the song and the work, the dream and its realization — its ‘pure’ aspect lying in the domain of the inspirational and its ‘applied’ aspect being the engineering (social, i.e. constitutionalism, as well as physical) of the work? Certainly the spiritual and the scientific are united in the work of creation.

 

 I think it was his identification of ultimate reality as events and happenings rather than stasis or being, that enabled my grandfather to synthesize so well the different aspects of life. Life is events, happen­ings. Events must always eventuate in other events, and it’s the possibility of directing the quality of these transformations that presents man with the opportunity for his uniquely human (divine) role. He partakes in­creasingly of the prime attributes of divinity, which are creativity and immortality, as he acts under the influence (in-flowing) of the Spirit, the inspiration of Beauty, and by the exercise of his reason to find out God’s mind, the how of things.

 Your perception this summer that my grandfather seems to use the word, “Christ,” not interchangeably with “Jesus” but to stand for the way, the how of things, was illuminating to me. This equating Christ with the natural law fits in nicely with Joseph’s /Galambos/ saying one time this sum­mer that, to him, God is Natural Law.

 In writing notes to many of my grandfathers friends last week so that they’d know and not be wondering, I men­tioned the manuscript to Henry Regnery, and he wrote back that he’d like to see it when it’s ready. I’ve no idea he would want to take it on, but if he should, what would you think? There’s something to be said for the facilities of a large organization. But enthusiasm of a publisher counts for a lot, and in the long run perhaps more. Well no use in wondering about that, I don’t suppose, until we have actual offers to consider, and the manuscript isn’t ready yet. On that last point, I’m thinking whether it wouldn’t be good to include in the volume the short address, “The Practice of Christian Freedom,” which has never been published. Also it would seem appropriate to repro­duce his sonnet at the close of the book, possibly noting it in the table of contents by the single word, “Epitaph,” with a short explanation where the sonnet appears in the text that he had asked that this be used as his epitaph. The last line of the sonnet echoes the title of the book and would give it a fine closing.

 Thanks again for your fine letter, and with very best wishes to you and Roy,

Sincerely,

Spencer MacCallum