“If We Agree in Love”
Universalist and Unitarian philosophies have had a lot to do
with shaping the St. Lawrence of today.
By Richard S. Gilbert ’58, Theological School ’61
“If we agree in love, there is no disagreement that can do
us any injury, but if we do not, no other agreement can do us any
good. Let us endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit in the
bonds of peace.”
The words are from Hosea Ballou, early 19th-century Universalist theologian,
to remind his fellow religionists of the importance of religious community
even in the midst of theological diversity. Such generosity of spirit
seems especially needed in times when the nation is polarized along
social, cultural, political and religious lines, as is the case today.
One of the tragedies of our time is that civility in discourse is
increasingly a rarity. Surely the university should be one place where
this civility is modeled.
One slogan of Universalism has been that “we agree to
disagree agreeably”--to be civil in discourse no matter how
sharp our differences. That affirmation of pluralism is grounded
in the essential sanctity of the individual, and a realization that
truth is not the unique possession of any one person or group. Truth,
for Universalists, emerges from the great dialog.
The University is a direct analog of this theological affirmation.
When one claims to have reached ultimate truth, the integrity of the
truth-seeking enterprise collapses. In the University, as
in Universalism, the truth is open-ended. We grow in faith
and in intellect by being open to new truths as they become apparent
to us. That radical openness is what Universalists called “the
authority of truth known or to be known.”
For150 years, St. Lawrence University, candle of conscience
with its respect for differences, has glowed in the North
Country. The Theological School is no longer there, but the original
impulse of unity of spirit with diversity of beliefs remains the overarching
principle of the University in times when civil discourse is needed
more than ever, when the stakes are so high in this troubled world.
