heart and head united

James at Monkey Mind is continuing his excellent discussion of the "mind and heart" conversation in Unitarian Universalism. It put me in mind of the "conversion" of William Phillips Tilden. As a young man Tilden, who had been raised a Unitarian, had what he later called "the greatest crisis of his life" when he experienced an "inward awakening" that told him to "Be a man. Live a truer and nobler life". The liberal Arminianism in which he had been raised suddenly seemed thin gruel and he began to attend church with Baptist relatives which stirred him. He soon found, however, that "his heart had been converted, not his head" and that he remained, in principle, a Unitarian. His head and heart were finally united at Medford where he first heard the preaching of Caleb Stetson. Said Tilden of Stetson’s impact, "My soul was awake now, hungry for the bread of heaven, and I found it.”

Here is to the uniting of head and heart. Blessings