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The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2 - Contents
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    VI. Harriet Beecher Stowe-Famous Author in Revolt

    Several members of the famous Beecher family accepted Conditionalism in whole or in part. This even included Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896), famous writer and daughter of Dr. Lyman Beecher, 8989) Harriet’s father, Dr. Lyman Beecher, “spent his days in weathering theological cyclones” in the midst of the great revivals and the new foreign missionary, temperance, and abolition movements, and also in riding out the revolt against, and split over, ultra-Calvinism, as well as the rise of the theolo ical opposites and Deism. Dr. Beecher, who was of the new-school theology an found much in ultra-Calvinism that was untenable, was accused of “heresy” and brought to trial, but was acquitted. president of Lane Theological Seminary. She was the wife of Dr. Calvin Stowe, professor of theology at Lane, Dartmouth, and Andover, as well as sister of the noted Henry Ward Beecher and Edward Beecher, and four other preacher brothers. (Pictured on page 496.)CFF2 512.1

    She is known the world over as the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), which ran through forty editions and was translated into twenty languages. But she was author of some twenty other works. She was acutely sensitive to the theological discussions that characterized the Beechers, some of whom were at that very time “breaking out of the prison house of the traditional orthodoxy,” as one biographer puts it.CFF2 512.2

    1. HARRIET’S ESSAY ON “IMMORTALITY” WHEN ONLY ELEVEN

    Harriet grew up in the vortex of a theological whirlpool of discussion. The dinner table was a religious forum, often in the fatalistic Calvinist tradition. She was acquainted with her father’s Toplady on Predestination, and Jonathan Edwards’. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, which her father had read aloud to the family, and she was used to hearing her brothers argue with her father over Jonathan Edwards. On Sunday mornings she listened, upon occasion, to sermons on damnation. And on Sunday afternoons recited the Assembly Catechism, from which she learned what she must do to “escape eternal punishment” and be in submission to God, whether He chooses to “redeem or damn.” 9090) Catherine Gilbertson, Harriet Beecher Stowe, p. 26. She was also aware of the deepening conflict between Calvinism and Arminianism.CFF2 512.3

    Meanwhile, she was attending the Litchfield Female Seminary, learning to express herself in composition. When only eleven she wrote her first essay. The theme was on the sort of topic they “talked of at home” 9191) Ibid., p. 27. “Can the Immortality of the Soul Be Proved by the Light of Nature?” Her presentation was remarkably mature-logical, succinct, convincing, a premonition of her future writing gifts. She deals with none other than the destiny of the soul, the nature of the mind, the question of destruction, the matter of rewards and punishments, the theory of progress, and the necessity of a revelation. In this essay she states that reasonCFF2 513.1

    “affords no proof that the same omnipotent power which created cannot by another simple exertion of power again reduce it to nothing.... We do not know but the destruction of the soul may, in the government of God, be made to answer such a purpose that its existence would be contrary to the dictates of wisdom.” 9292) Ibid.CFF2 513.2

    And she was only eleven!CFF2 513.3

    2. IN AGONY OVER INVOLVEMENTS OF CALVINISM

    In her youth Harriet was profoundly influenced by her brother Edward, who came to repudiate the dogma of Eternal Torment. 9393) See Edward Beecher, History of Opinions on the Scriptural Doctrine of Retribution. She wrote to him, “You were my earliest religious teacher.” 9494) Charles E. Stowe Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe Compiled From Her Letters and Journals by Her Son, p. 512. In her struggle over the involvements of New England Calvinism that her father had preached, she once wrote to Edward:
    “I feel as job did, that I could curse the day in which I was born. I wonder that Christians who realize the worth of immortal souls should be willing to give life to immortal minds to be placed in such a dreadful world.” 9595) Charles E. and Lyman B. Stowe, Harriet Beecher Stowe, The Story of Her Life, p. 48.
    CFF2 513.4

    3. CONTINUING STRUGGLE OVER ETERNAL TORMENT PROBLEMS

    Harriet reveals her continuing struggle to find the way out of the implications of traditional “orthodoxy,” in her letters to Lady Byron in 1858. They had become fast friends on one of her trips to Europe, corresponding thereafter. She wrote:
    “I think very much on the subject on which you conversed with me once,—the future state of retribution. It is evident to me that the spirit of Christianity has produced in the human spirit a tenderness of love which wholly revolts from the old doctrine on the subject, and I observe the more Christ-like any one becomes, the more impossible it seems for him to accept it; and yet, on the contrary, it was Christ who said, ‘Fear Him that is able to destroy soul and body in hell,’ and the most appalling language on this subject is that of Christ himself. Certain ideas once prevalent certainly must be thrown off. An endless infliction for past sins was once the doctrine that we now generally reject....
    CFF2 514.1

    “Is there any fair way of disposing of the current of assertion, and the still deeper undercurrent of implication, on this subject, without one which loosens all faith in revelation, and throws us on pure naturalism?” 9696) Charles E. Stowe, op. cit., pp. 339, 340. (Italics supplied.)CFF2 514.2

    In her extremity she was even tempted to think of some sort of future probation. In any event, Eternal Torment was unthinkable. Harriet Beecher Stowe was part of the widespread revolt of the times. But she had not yet found the way out.CFF2 514.3

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