Ethical Culture Movement

The ethical culture movement began as an effort to create an ethical religion that could unite all persons and traditions concerned with improving humans and their world. It remains an enduring expression of socially concerned humanism. Founded in 1876 by Felix Adler, a Reform Jew who remained the public face of ethical culture movement until his death in 1933, the movement reflected the influences of Judaism, German idealism, liberal Protestantism, and the American transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson. A well-known university professor, Adler put particular stress on the value and interdependence of human life in and unto itself. He combined an Enlightenment respect for reason with a Romantic focus on character development, arguing that morality does not require a theistic faith. He upheld the individual over the supernatural and the scientific alike.

From the flagship Society for Ethical Culture, based in New York City, ethical societies soon emerged in Chicago, Philadelphia, and elsewhere. In 1889, they coalesced as the American Ethical Union (AEU), a loose organizing body. Later, they formed tenuous ties with similar movements overseas. Ethical societies function primarily as community forums. They hold Sunday meetings, traditionally centered on a “platform” address often delivered by the society's “Leader,” a clergylike position, or by a guest speaker. As with much of American liberal religion, ethical societies have attracted a largely well-educated, urban, and financially secure member base. Initially, many secular Jews were drawn to the ethical society, whose membership remains small but influential.

From its inception, the ethical culture movement was identified with public service and reform, especially in the area of schooling. An emphasis on innovative forms of education—focusing on both student involvement and a strong classical curriculum—remains one of the most important legacies of ethical culture. In 1878, the New York Ethical Society opened one of the first free kindergartens in the United States. The school expanded and survives as the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, located in the Bronx. [Page 538]Although now a highly competitive, expensive institution, Fieldston School maintains a generous financial aid policy and still emphasizes ethical themes. Overall, the social agenda of ethical society members has paralleled the historical interests of their liberal and civil libertarian contemporaries, whether the issue has been integration, free speech, nuclear disarmament, or feminism. During the 20th century, Adler's ideas became less distinctive as ethical culture grew more comfortable with the labels humanist and secular. Many ethical society members blended ethical religion with the naturalistic philosophies of John Dewey and others.

More than 20 AEU societies, with a total membership of a few thousand, continue to operate in such areas as Saint Louis and northern Virginia. The AEU is affiliated with the International Humanist and Ethical Union, based in London.