Edward Beecher

The Great Debate of the Moral Relations of God and Man

by Edward Beecher, Phillip A. Ross, Editor, 510 pages.

This is a dangerous book, dangerous because it deals with perhaps the most serious conflict in history, and I commend it with some trepidation. That conflict began in Genesis and has continued unabated through history. Many people believe it to be a conflict between believers and unbelievers, and a great many people, traditions and religions have framed the conflict in these terms. The Old Testaments prophets described the conflict as between the one true God and the many false gods, or the true prophet and the false prophets. Both conceptions are equally true, but the latter is to be preferred because the former suggests that those who oppose the God of the Bible don’t believe anything, when in fact they believe as strongly as believers, but believe falsely.

The Individual And Organic Harmony Of God And Man

by Edward Beecher, Phillip A. Ross, Editor, 540 pages.

Edward Beecher (1803-1895), a noted theologian, the son of Lyman Beecher and brother to Harriet Beecher Stowe and Henry Ward Beecher, was senior editor of The Congregationalist (1849—1855), and an associate editor of the Christian Union from 1870.

This book cannot be understood without first reading Beecher’s preceding volume, Conflict of Ages. So, if you have not read that, please do not continue. Conflict traces the problem through the history of Christianity up to the publishing of Concord, 1860. And Concord provides the solution to the problem delineated in Conflict.