Fosdick, Henry Emerson

Fosdick, Henry Emerson

(1878–1969) Protestant religious leader; born in Buffalo, N.Y. He graduated from Colgate University (1900) and the Union Theological Seminary and was ordained in 1903. As a professor at Union he opposed credal restrictions; he later helped lead liberal Protestant forces during the conflict with Fundamentalism in the 1920s. As pastor of the interdenominational Riverside Church in New York City from 1925–46 he was the acknowledged spokesman for modern liberal Christianity, and he wrote, lectured, and broadcast widely. He published an autobiography, The Living of These Days, in 1956.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.