Page 70 - The International Journal of the Royal Society of Thailand Vol.XIII-2021

The International Journal of the Royal Society of Thailand
Volume XIII – 2021

light how much Thomas Mann, at that time, actually identified with Unitarianism in
general, and with the California congregation in particular.

Under these circumstances, it comes as no surprise that Thomas Mann himself
should finally climb Fritchman’s pulpit in the First Unitarian Church in Los Angeles
in March 1951. The talk he gave constitutes his most extensive and explicit com
mentary on Unitarianism and warrants closer scrutiny. In his diary, on Sunday,
March 4, 1951, he writes, “[t]he room was crowded … nice choir with solo and
organ, polyglot, Russian, Chinese. … Delivered my speech well. There almost was
applause”.

Which is understandable. The speech leaves no doubt about the speaker’s
serious commitment to the place and occasion. His reminiscences on both his

intellectual and personal connection with the church soon give way to passages
characterised by a surprisingly confessional vehemence:

By no means is it a matter of mere politeness or conventional courtesy, when
I state that I am happy to be with you today. For many years past, Unitarianism has
been close to my heart, and I have, more particularly, been rather intimately
connected with the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles. Last March, its Minister,
the Reverend Stephen H. Fritchman, most movingly conducted the funeral rites
for my dear brother Heinrich. My four grandchildren, native Americans all, were
received into the Unitarian Church by baptism. And rarely, if ever, have I taken so

lively and militant an interest in the activities of any religious group as I keep taking
in the Unitarians’ manifold efforts and doings. Why should this be so? I am a Lutheran,
and owe a great deal to the German Protestant tradition into which I was born, as
it were, and which contributed substantially to my spiritual and cultural make-up.
Even so, and for my own person, I always inclined to see in religion something
rather broader, more generally moral and ethical than that which could, as a rule,
be expected to manifest itself within the confines of any one dogma.

Unitarianism here does not emerge as another denomination but as the
recognition of a human – interdenominational “unity of the human spirit” – which, as

such, became the precondition for exemplary moral actions. Thomas Mann continued:
Today, more urgently, perhaps, than ever before, what is needed is

applied religion, applied Christianity – or, if you prefer, a new, reli-
giously-tainted humanism, aggressively bent on bettering man’s

60 Unitarianism as “Applied Christianity” Thomas Mann and the Unitarian Church in the USA