Let This Life Speak: The Legacy of Henry Joel Cadbury Hardcover – Download: Adobe Reader, January 29, 1987
by Margaret Hope Bacon (Author)
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272 pages
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
INTRODUCTION xi
1 Quaker Roots 1
2 Teaching and Learning 15
3 The Anvil of War 32
4 On Quaker Service 50
5 The Life of a Scholar 65
6 The Beloved Community 79
7 A Year Abroad 93
8 Conscience in the Classroom 106
9 War and Darkness 125
10 Translating the New Testament 138
11 Defending Our Liberties 157
12 An Active Retirement 173
13 A Green Old Age 196
14 An Appropriate Farewell 213
NOTES 219
BIBLIOGRAPHY 235
INDEX 245
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WILLIAM D. BARNS
Let This Life Speak: The Legacy of Henry Joel Cadbury. By Margaret Hope
Bacon. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1987. Pp. 253. $27.50.)
According to Mrs. Bacon, a leading authority on the history of the Religious Society of Friends, Henry J. Cadbury ranks with Rufus M. Jones as one of the two most outstanding Quakers of the twentieth century. In this well-written and readable biography, Mrs. Bacon traces Cadbury's life in chronological fashion from his birth in Philadelphia in 1883 to his death in Haverford in 1974. She takes her title from a saying of George Fox, "Let your lives speak." Cadbury's life spoke in three main areas: as a gifted teacher, as an outstanding scholar, and as a social and political activist.
He was born into a prosperous Quaker family with English roots and was related to the Cadburys who developed the chocolate business in England. He was educated at William Penn Charter School, Haverford College (A.B. 1903), and at Harvard (M.A. 1904 and Ph.D. 1913). His teaching career was spent mainly at Haverford, Bryn Mawr, and Harvard, where he was Hollis Professor of Divinity from 1934 to 1954. He used mainly the Socratic method, encouraging his students to think deeply and develop their own philosophies.
He made important contributions to Biblical scholarship, especially in the study of books of Luke and Acts. However, Mrs. Bacon does not develop as fully and explicitly as she might the exact nature of these contributions. He was on the committee which produced the Revised Standard Version of the Bible in 1952.
Another one of his scholarly interests was Quaker history, in which he published significant books on George Fox and John Woolman. A prolific author, he wrote twenty-nine books and pamphlets, fifteen introductions and chapters in books, and more than one hundred articles.
Henry Cadbury was not theologically inclined and apparently kept many of his personal beliefs to himself. One suspects that he was something of a skeptic.
In any case, he believed that actions speak louder than words and that good works are a better measure of one's religion than declarations of faith. Perhaps his greatest achievement was the part he played in the founding of the American Friends Service Committee in 1917. He served as chairman of this distinguished relief agency for much of his later life.
An outspoken pacifist, he was suspended from his teaching position at Haverford on account of a letter he wrote to the Philadelphia Public Ledger decrying the wave of anti-German hatred which swept through the United States during World War I.
He was an ardent defender of civil liberties. He lent his support to young men who refused to serve in the armed forces. While at Harvard he signed a Massachusetts loyalty oath only under protest and with written reservations.
He fought McCarthyism in the 1950s. In the 1960s, when he was over eighty, he look part in a Quaker vigil at the Pentagon to protest American involvement in Vietnam.
Cadbury was much in demand as a public speaker. He had a keen sense of humor, and his addresses were laced with jokes and witticisms. Mrs. Bacon supplies numerous examples of this characteristic. She also includes many anecdotes concerning his private life. Within the limits of a strictly chronological approach, as opposed to topical analysis, Mrs. Bacon has provided all that a scholar might expect. This book is based on extensive research in primary sources, and it has a large section of endnotes as well as an extensive bibliography. Henry J. Cadbury comes alive again in her warmly sympathetic book.
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park Campus IRA V. BROWN
