The History of the Riverside Church in the City of New York.

Williams, Peter W.

The History of the Riverside Church in the City of New York. By Peter J. Paris, John W. Cook, James Hundut-Beumler, Lawrence H. Mamiya, Leonora Tubbs Tisdale, and Judith Weisenfeld. New York: New York University Press, 2004. xiv + 350 pp. $29.95 cloth.

Riverside Church in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, seems in the context of today's religious scene to be positively oxymoronic: it is a liberal megachurch. Its history is firmly rooted in the same religious and cultural controversies that have flared up again in our own time. Riverside's founding minister, Harry Emerson Fosdick, was a media celebrity in his time, renowned for his challenges to fundamentalism and having his sermons regularly reprinted in the New York Times on the Mondays following their delivery. Fosdick collaborated with the church's chief patron, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., to transform the erstwhile Park Avenue Baptist Church into a "Protestant cathedral" that was, in its own self-characterization, "interdenominational, international, and interracial." Although its subsequent history has been built on those aspirations, the route to their fulfillment has not always been easy: Riverside's very size and prominence have compounded the difficulties that all churches face.

The history and even the very fabric of Riverside Church have been filled with tensions. Its origins, as noted, lay in the controversy between fundamentalism and modernism, with Fosdick playing a leading role in the national debate. Subsequent clergy, such as former Yale chaplain William Sloan Coffin, similarly held the national spotlight at times for their stances on issues such as the American involvement in various wars. The building itself, which vies with the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine for dominance of a neighborhood rich with religious and educational institutions, is "modern Gothic," another sort of oxymoron: while its design is based on French cathedrals, especially Chartres, its steel-frame construction and tower filled with office space are echt 1920s. The Gothic form, evolved for a distinctly Catholic style of worship, also stands in tension with the dominant (though not central) pulpit and preaching-centered worship in the Reformed tradition. Its attempt to minister simultaneously to a parish, a neighborhood, a giant metropolis, and even to the nation at large has repeatedly raised questions involving priorities and resources.

Riverside's goal of becoming interracial has been achieved over the decades, with a swing from a largely white congregation to a current black majority, and the growth of accompanying tensions over issues such as worship style. Its interdenominationality had until recently been interpreted largely within the Reformed heritage, and the calling of a southern, African American Pentecostal to the post of senior minister not surprisingly generated controversy. The ministers all at one time or another became embroiled in internecine struggles over authority, given the independent church's labyrinthine and dysfunctional organizational scheme. Even its corps of ushers, who traditionally had been white males clad in formal dress, provoked clashes involving gender, race, and social class.

This history of Riverside consists of six chapters, each written by one of an interdisciplinary team of well-known scholars who represent fields such as art history, ethics, homiletics, and sociology as well as religious history per se. The initial chapter by James Hudnut-Beumler provides a brief chronological sketch, while the other authors focus on topics shaped by their own professional interests. While this method leads to some interesting insights, such as a detailed appraisal of the preaching styles and subject matters of the successive head clergy, it also results in some topics receiving rather sketchy treatment, such as James Forman's 1969 choice of Riverside as the venue for his proclamation of a "Black Manifesto" demanding reparations for the legacy of slavery. The fact that Forman's name does not appear in the index is indicative of the rather sketchy character of the latter tool. A brief concluding essay, tying together the themes raised by the various authors, would also have been helpful.

Despite the discontinuities and repetitions that have resulted from the choice of a topical rather than a more traditional chronological approach, this volume is a rewarding one that raises serious questions about the role of the mainline churches in American life, past, present, and future.

Peter W. Williams

Miami University