Christian Affirmations
by Norman Pittenger

Preface

The first section of this book is the result of a series of Tuesday evening meetings at Trinity Church, New York, during November and December of 1953. On those Tuesdays I gave a number of addresses, answering questions often asked by Christian laymen and inquirers; the answers were taken down by tape-recorder and are here printed with very slight changes. It seemed best to leave them in the somewhat informal and conversational style which was inevitable in an attempt to answer, simply and directly, questions that were proposed to me.

In the second section, the Penick Lectures, given at the Women’s College of the University of North Carolina, are reprinted exactly as they were delivered in November, 1952. I am grateful to the Penick Lectureship Committee for the invitation to deliver these lectures on "The Meaning of Christian Worship"; to Bishop Baker for his kind hospitality; and to others who entertained me during a pleasant week in Greensboro.

The last section, whose purpose is to bring the material into a unity of faith, worship, and Christian life, was originally an address given to the clergy of the Diocese of Connecticut at the annual conference held at Kent School. I have re-worked this material for the present book, in the hope that it will relate the several themes in the earlier sections and summarize the Christian affirmations which are peculiarly relevant to our own time.

W. N. P.