Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America NULL

An ecumenical partnership of 37 Christian faith groups in the United States. Its member denominations, churches, conventions, and archdioceses include Mainline Protestant, Orthodox, African American, Evangelical, and historic peace churches. Together, they encompass 100,000 local congregations and 45 million adherents. The present Council was organized in 1950 as a merger of the Federal Council of Churches, formed by the Protestant denominations in 1908, and several other ecumenical organizations including the International Council of Religious Education, formed in 1905, but with origins in the 1830s.

"The principle of competition appears to be nothing more than a partially conventionalized embodiment of primeval selfishness... the supremacy of the motive of self-interest... The Christian conscience can be satisfied with nothing less than the complete substitution of motives of mutual helpfulness and goodwill for the motive of private gain."