PRAIRIE GROUP PROGRAMS/PAPERS
Below is a list of all papers delivered at Prairie Group, since its inception in 1951 through the remainder of the decade. Some papers have links to them and have been saved as a PDF. Other papers may be found in the archives at Meadville Lombard Seminary in Chicago. All papers were delivered except as noted at Pere Marquette Lodge, Grafton, IL.
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Prairie Group Topics
Religion and Art at the 29-31 January 1951 meetings (Thad Clark, Scribe)
“Philosophy of Art” by Jack Hayward; Thad Clark, Responder
Aesthetics: Beethoven’s Third Symphony by Arthur Foote
“Marxist Theory of Art” by Aaron Gilmartin
”Von Ogden Vogt’s Art and Religion“ by Lester Mondale; Robert Raible, Responder
Aesthetics: J. S. Bach’s Protestant music by Max Gaebler
Summary and critique by Leslie Pennington
Myth and Symbol . . . in Religion at the 05-07 November 1951 meetings
“Symbol and Ritual in Culture” by Frank Holmes
“Social Psychology of Symbolism” by Lester Mondale
“Symbolism in Religious Discourse” by Napoleon Lovely
Aesthetics: “The Mass and Its Music” with recordings by G. Richard Kuch
“Practical Applications” byArnold
Westwood
Summary and critique by Robert Sonen
Religious and Social Implications of the Small Group at the 10-12 November 1952 meetings
Religion, Democracy and the Small Group” by Max Gaebler
The Nature of the Small Group in Contemporary America
by Hartley Ray
“The Liberal Church
and the Small Group” each by Leslie Pennington and Robert Raible
Aesthetics: Modern religious music recordings by Jack Hayward
Summation and critique by James Adams
Leadership in Church and State at the 09-11 November 1953 meetings
with a special theme Ministerial Leadership in Principle and Practice
“General Sociological Analysis of the Leadership Role” by Arnold Westwood; Ed Buehrer & Bryan Allin responders
“The Role of the Minister” by Arthur Foote; Randall Hilton & James Hornback responders
“The Role of the Rabbi” [by not noted]
“Abraham Lincoln’s Conception of the Political Leader” [by not noted]
Science as a Source of Verification for Liberal Religion at the 08-10 November 1954 meetings
“A Critical Evaluation of Cohen’s Thesis” by Don Thompson
“Science as a Basis for Values” by Jeff Hornback; John Wolf and Phil Schug responders
“Religion and Architecture” by Jack Hayward and Max Gaebler
Summation and critique by Thad Clark and John Fordon
Democracy as a Source of Verification for Liberal Religion at the 07-09 November 1955 meetings
“The Democratic Faith and Liberal Religion” by Ken Smith; Arthur Foote & Waitstill Sharp responders
“The Democratic View of Man” by Bryan Allin; James Adams & Ed Redman responders
“British Unitarianism, 1955” by Leslie Pennington
Summary and critique by Wallace Robbins and Thad Clark
Jewish/Christian Traditions as a Source for Verification of Liberal Religion: Unitarianism and the Meaning of Christmas at the 12-14 November 1956 meetings
Panel with historical background:
“Non-Christian Origins of Christmas” by Leslie Pennington
“Christmas in the Biblical Story and Its Early Christian Meanings” by Waitstill Sharp
“Christmas and the Reformation” by Chris Moore
“Christmas in Unitarian Preaching and Church Life” by Randall Hilton; Leslie Pennington, Waitstill Sharp & ChrisMoore
responders
“Uses of Myth and History in Liberal Religion” by Jack Hayward; Randall Hilton responder
Aesthetics: “Christmas and the Arts” by Arthur Foote
Is a Metaphysical Basis Necessary to Religion? at the 11-12 November 1957 meetings
“The Relevance of Metaphysics” by Frank Holmes; Lex Crane & Donald Jacobsen responders
“Whitehead’s View of Reality and the Place of Intuition” by John Wolf; Byron Kelham & John Morris responders
“Dewey’s Theory of Knowledge” by Thad Clark; Peter Raible & John Morris responders
“Social Science and the Scientific Method” by Max Gaebler; Homer Jack & Horace Westwood responders
“The Minister’s Responsibility to Interpret to His Congregation What is Happening in Science and Philosophy” by Charles Phillips
Existentialism at the 10-12 November 1958 meetings
“The Meaning of Existentialism for Liberal Theism” by Martin Greenman
“The Meaning of Existentialism for Liberal Humanism” by John Morris
“Existentialism in Picasso” by Jack Hayward
“An Appraisal of Albert Camus” by John Cyrus
“Existentialism in Job and Ecclesiastes” by Arthur Foote
The Meaning of Evil at the 09-11 November 1959 meetings
“The Jewish Tradition” by Napoleon Lovely
“The Christian Tradition” by Alan Deale
“The American Tradition” by Sidney Mead
“The Psychiatric Tradition” by Khoren Arisian
Prairie Group 