Ethical Culture

The Society for Ethical Culture is a non-sectarian, ethico-religiousmovement. It was founded in 1876by Felix Adlerin New York City.

The society assumed the motto"Deed before Creed" and adopted as the condition of membership a positive desire to uphold by example and precept the highest ideals of living and to aid the weaker to attain those ideals. The aims of the society are stated as follows:

• "To teach the supremacy of the moral ends above all human ends and interests;
• "To teach that the moral law has an immediate authority not contingent on the truth of religiousbeliefs or of philosophicaltheories;
• "To advance the science and art of right living."

The members of the society are free to follow and profess whatever system of religion they choose, the society confining its attention to the moral problems of life. However, since around 1950 the Ethical Culture movement has been increasingly identified as part of the the modern Humanistmovement. Specifically, in 1952, the American Ethical Union, the national umbrella organization for Ethical Culture societies in the United States, became one of the founding member organizations of the International Humanist and Ethical Union.

Practical expression has been given to the society's aims by establishing the Workingman's School (now the Ethical Culture Fieldston School), a model institution for general and technical education in which the use of the kindergarten method in the higher branches of study is a distinctive feature. Each of its teachers is a specialist as well as an enthusiast in his subject; the Socratic methodis followed. The majority of the pupils are of non-Jewishparentage. Pupils over seven are instructed in the use of tools. The society has also established a system of district-nursing among the poor, and a family home for neglected children.

Branch societies exist in a score or so U.S. cities, including Chicago; Philadelphia; St. Louis; Washington D.C., and Vienna, Virginia. Societies were established in Cambridge and London, United Kingdombut the only remaining society in that country is the South Place Ethical Society, based at ConwayHall, London, and controlled by the British Humanist Association. A similar movement was started in Berlin and today a society exists at Frankfurt am Main.

While originally agnosticin feeling, the society has gradually developed into a simple, human brotherhood, united by ethical purpose and a humanistic outlook, and has to some degree acquired an influence in distinctively Christiancircles in some parts of Europe. But the only approach to a religious service is a Sunday address on topics of the day, preceded and followed by music. Its chief supporters in New York and Philadelphia are Jews, as was its founder and leader, though the society doesn't in any degree bear the stamp of Judaism. It has an elaborate, recently renovated building in New York off of Central Parka large, modern building in St. Louis, Missouri, and other structures of various sizes and ages in other cities.

Article References

• Jewish Encyclopedia

By : Edward William Bennett

External links

• http://www.aeu.orgis the website of the American Ethical Union, umbrella organization for the various Ethical Societies in the United States.

• http://www.ethicalhuman.org/is the website of the Ethical Humanist Society of Chicago, the 2nd oldest Ethical Culture Society.

• http://www.ethicalstl.org/is the website of the Ethical Society of Saint Louis.

• http://www.nysec.orgis the website of the New York Society for Ethical Culture, the original Ethical Society founded by Adler in 1876.

• http://www.noves.org/is the website of the Northern Virginia Ethical Society, in Vienna, Virginia, in the 1980s.

• http://www.ethicalsociety.org/is the website of the Washington Ethical Society, in Washington DC, founded in 1944.

• http://www.ethicalfocus.orgis the website of The Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County, NJ, founded in 1953.

This article incorporates text from the public domain1901-1906 Jewish Encyclopedia.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethical+Culture Wikipedia article Ethical Culture.