The Unitarian Church
of Quincy, Illinois

The Quincy Unitarian Church Home Page.
The list of Selected Sermons.

• June 1, 2008 - Hope.
  There is something about the word "Hope" that is seductively alluring to us. But what rational basis is there for our Hopes? It's a strange word, when you think about it! Isn't it?
  Listen to the live recording: Hope.
  From June 1, 2008. 23:39 min. - 9.47 MB file.
• May 4, 2008 - Creative Advance into Novelty? Whitehead, God and Species Becoming Extinct. Surveying the Religious Philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead, we find a God that must be a being who loves to create, who loves diversity, who loves to open up possibilities for the future of the universe.
  Listen to the live recording: Creative Advance into Novelty?. From May 4, 2008. 26:56 min. - 10.8 MB file.
• April 20, 2008 - Trailing Libyan Donkeys, or The Spirituality of the Way Back Out. Quoting the Talmud, we challenge the wisdom of the American Invasion of Iraq. Understanding that we are the Americans who who started it; we lament the unintended consequences of the Invasion and our moral responsibility for all of the lives lost and disrupted by the events put in motion by U.S. - us.
  Listen to the live recording: The Spirituality of the Way Back Out. From April 20, 2008. 32:40 min. - 13.1 MB file.
• April 6, 2008 - The "News" of Rev. Wright - or How the More Perfect Union Remains a Dream - Rev. Manning shares his thoughts on Barack Obama's "A More Perfect Union" speech and on the way that America's mainstream news media created the controversy over Rev. Wright's remarks.
  Listen to the live recording: The "News" of Rev. Wright. From April 6, 2008. 33:49 min. - 13.5 MB file.
• Easter Sunday, March 23, 2008 - A Thought Experiment in Trinitarianism for Unitarians at Easter.
  Christianity in its popular forms may be responsible for our traditional conception of god as a great Being up in the sky, but the doctrine of the Trinity insists we have to think of God as a system of relation. God is the Father and is the Son and is the Father's relation to the Son and the Son's relation to the Father. "God" becomes intrinsically relational and interesting.
• March 9, 2008 - Emerson and America Today - What does it mean to be Emersonian? Internationally regarded as America's preeminent philosopher; do Ralph Waldo Emerson's writings still have any relevance for our American culture today? The focus here is upon his essays Self-Reliance, Nature, and his Divinity School Address.
  Listen to the live recording: Emerson and America Today. From March 9, 2008. 34:36 min. - 13.9 MB file.
• February 24, 2008 - Antigone and the Politics of Mourning. What parallels can be found between Antigone's predicament and ours, today. The King forbade Antigone to bury her brother. We are forbidden to view the flag-draped coffins of our fallen brothers and sisters. How can we respond when the State is manipulating the depth of public response towards the actions of the State?
  Listen to the live recording: Antigone and the Politics of Mourning. From February 24, 2008. 34:06 min. - 13.7 MB file.
• February 10, 2008 - Abraham Lincoln's Religion Reconsidered. Historians have offerred much speculation about the religious views of Abraham Lincoln. Here, a Philosopher surveys the evidence and comes to his own conclusions.
  Listen to the live recording: Abraham Lincoln's Religion Reconsidered. From February 10, 2008. 40:22 min. - 16.2 MB file.
• January 27, 2008 - Understanding Darfur. A broad and comprehensive survey of the history, the politics, the religious values and the racism of the crimes against humanity that are being perpetrated in the region of the Sudan called Darfur.
  Listen to the live recording: Understanding Darfur. From January 27, 2008. 46:26 min. - 18.6 MB file.
• January 20, 2008 - Martin Luther King on the Holocaust. Recently returned from a seminar at the Holocaust Museum, and marking the coming holiday, Rob surveyed the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for references to the Holocaust.
  Listen to the live recording: Martin Luther King on the Holocaust. From January 20, 2008. 29:13 min. - 11.7 MB file.
• December 9, 2007 - Living the Peace of Advent with Thich Nhat Hahn. When we speak of peace, our first thought is of peace in the world. We look for an absence of violence and conflict, warfare and crime. But there is a more immediate level of peace, the peace within. The Budhist tradition offers us detailed techniques for developing inner peace. And the Vietnamese Budhist writer, Tich Nhat Hahn describes them with a beautiful simplicity.
  Listen to the live recording: Living the Peace of Advent with Thich Nhat Hahn. From December 9, 2007. 31:59 min. - 12.8 MB file.
• December 2, 2007 - Living the Peace of Advent with Catholic Mystic Thomas Merton. American Christianity, even American Catholicism, has lost much of the contemplative meaning of Advent. From the writings Thomas Merton, a secluded, Trappist Monk, we glean his understanding of what it is about current events that is worthy of contemplation, and what is not.
  Listen to the live recording: Living the Peace of Advent with Catholic Mystic Thomas Merton. From December 2, 2007. 28:14 min. - 11.3 MB file.
• November 18, 2007 - Paper or Plastic? Reflections on the Difficulty of Life. Rob moves us towards the enjoyment of our place in the sun. Using the Latin term, ipseity, we can find an understanding of our selves lying outside of the province of sin and guilt and aescetic ideals. We hear Nietzsche saying, ". . . that the sick should not make the healthy sick, should surely be our supreme concern on earth."
  Listen to the live recording: Paper or Plastic? Reflections on the Difficulty of Life. From November 18, 2007. 28:14 min. - 11.3 MB file.
• November 4, 2007 - Postmodernism, Unitarianism, and the Return of God. Unitarian thought grew out of the Enlightenment, the age of the Modern. As intellectuals have grown past the age of the Modern into the Postmodern, Unitarian thought too, has evolved into something fresh and new.
  Listen to the live recording: Postmodernism, Unitarianism, and the Return of God. From November 4, 2007. 26:56 min. - 10.8 MB file.
• October 7, 2007 - Confucius and Jesus. Jesus is often credited as a great teacher of moral principles by the Christian community. Writings handed down from Confucius contain a larger body of moral teaching than any other moral teacher, including Jesus! Today, we explore Confucian wisdom.
  Listen to the live recording: Confucius and Jesus. From October 7, 2007. 24:38 min. - 10.3 MB file.
• May 27, 2007 - Honoring the Tenth Anniversary of the Ministry of the Rev. Dr. Rob Manning, by Frieda Marshall.
  A very special service honoring the Tenth Anniversary of the ministry of the Reverend Dr. Rob Manning. Remarks from Fr. Bill Burton, Ellen Taylor, Frieda Marshall, Dr. Kerry Manning, and Dr. Rob Manning. Music from Kim Starkey.
  Listen to the live recording: Honoring the Tenth Anniversary, by Frieda Marshall.
  From May 27, 2007. 35:00 min. -14.0 MB file.
• April 29, 2007 - Joys. What do you think are the most enjoyable things in your life? Playing in the dirt? Your children? Hanging out with friends? "There has never been enough joy."
  Listen to the live recording: Joys. From April 29, 2007. 22:29 min. - 9.01 MB file.
• April 22, 2007 - This Week in God. Following a week of senseless murder, both in Quincy and at Virginia Tech, Rob shifted his focus to address some of the issues raised. These acts are symptoms of a culture oriented towards death rather than a culture of life. Referring to the conception of God described by Alfred North Whitehead, Rob explains how God experiences the losses during the week past with pain, very much like our own.
  Listen to the live recording: This Week in God. From April 22, 2007. 33:42 min. - 13.5 MB file.
• Easter Sunday, April 8, 2007 - What Jesus Tried To Save Us From. On this Easter Sunday Morning, Rob made a fresh survey of the four Canonic gospels, with only one question in his focus: What was it that Jesus was trying to save us from. He came up with five answers, each with a scriptural reference. You will find the range of these answers at variance with the traditional American Christian Easter sermon.
  Listen to the live recording: What Jesus Tried To Save Us From. From April 8, 2007. 33:08 min. - 13.91 MB file.
• March 25, 2007 - The View from Afar: How the U.S. is Perceived Abroad. Rob shares his recent experience as a Fulbright Scholar in Romania. This time his focus is upon the perception that Romanians and Eastern Europeans in general, have of America and of Americans. Rob presents a 21 ^stCentury version of the story of the "Ugly American."
  Listen to the live recording: The View From Afar: How the U.S. is Perceived Abroad. From March 25, 2007. 31:21 min. - 13.17 MB file.
• March 11, 2007 - God's Politics, Jim Wallis, and the rise of the Evangelical Left. The face of Christianity in America has been dominated by the politically active, Religious Right, for several decades, now. In his book, <em>God's Politics</em> Jim Wallis presents an indictment of the Religious Right. Jim Wallis presents a vision of Christianity that Unitarians can look more favorably upon.
  Listen to the live recording: God's Politics, Jim Wallis, and the rise of the Evangelical Left. From March 11, 2007. 37:20 min. - 15.68 MB file.
• February 25, 2007 - Lost in Translation. When we become confronted with clashing cultures, we often find that truth becomes elusive. We suppose that we know many things about other peoples. Our experiences within other cultures reveal to us how much we don't understand about what is foreign, different to us, and how imperfect, and flawed, and provisional is our understanding when we do try to interpret and to know the other.
  Listen to the live recording: Lost in Translation. From February 25, 2007. 29:13 min. - 26.06 MB file.
• February 11, 2007 - The Bear in the Closet. For us in this church, the fatherly God who assures and protects us and tells us that there is no bear in the closet is not a believeable vision of God. Instead, we open ourselves to the vision of a God who wakes us up and reveals to us that we are sleeping in false safety and security; and who asks us what we have done for those who aren't ok and safe and protected.
• Letters from Romania. During much of 2006, Dr. Manning was away teaching classes at The University of the West in Timisoara, Romania on a Fulbright Scholarship. During his time away, he sent this collection of letters to his congregation at home.
• September 17, 2006 - Thoughts About the Future. Rob has served as the minister of Quincy's Unitarian Church for ten years, now. He has served longer than any other minister in our long history, a history that dates back to 1839. In this talk, Rob shares a vision of our future, and his.
• September 10, 2006 - Our Church Community as a Home. Home for a while from Romania, Rob explains how his experiences away from America, away from Quincy, and away from Quincy's Unitarian Church, have affected his sense of "Home".
• May 22, 2004 - Patriotism and Spirituality. Rob offers an intimate glimpse into the way his patriotism has been affected by his theological and religious understanding.
• Easter Sunday, April 11, 2004 - The Secret of Forgiveness. "Father Forgive Them for they Know Not What They are Doing." Rob asks us to examine the ways in which holes are being made in the fabric of the universe.
• April 4, 2004 - Certainties and Hesitancies, A Talk about Gay Marriage. The certainty within the morality of Gay Marriage. And the Hesitancy to allow it to become a political football at this time.
• March 7, 2004 - Coming Together Outside the Temple. Rob tackles the theology of Mel Gibson's controversial movie, The Passion of the Christ.
• Christmas Eve, December 24, 2003 - A Unitarian Parable for Christmas. We look forward to our annual Christmas Eve Program as an important ingredient in our families' celebration of the season. Our Minister made Christmas 2003 especially memorable with his parable.
• December 21, 2003 - Extracting Meaning from the Christian Myth. Rob surveys several different possibilities for meaning from the familiar Christmastime story about the baby Jesus.
• November 30, 2003 - The Spirituality of The Gift. Digging deeply into some of the thoughts that surround the concept of the giving of gifts.
• October 26, 2003 - Which Halloween do we want?. A brief history of the syncretistic holiday, Halloween.
• September 23, 2003 - Has our Church Become Too Political. Reflections upon the role of our church in our community.
• April 20, 2003 - A Whole New Christianity, Beginning When? Where is the re-evaluation of Christian thought required by honest reflection upon the events of the Holocaust?
• April 13, 2003 - Talmudic Interpretation of the Babylonian passage recounting the conversation between the Rabbis and Alexander the Great. Our minister plays the role of a Talmudic Scholar and interprets a famous Talmudic Story.
• Good Friday, March 29, 2003 - On Judas. On this Good Friday, Rob was asked to make a short presentation to Quincy's Ministerial Alliance as part of the larger program.
• January 12, 2003 - The Ugliest Idea ever Conceived and The Most Beautiful Idea ever Conceived: Thoughts on Christianity. The predominant vision of Christianity in America is one that Jesus might hardly recognize.
• December 22, 2002 - On Dying Daily. In developing a personal theology of continuous renewal, Rob finds one meaning within the life of Jesus. Then another from Paul, which is more Buddhist in character.
• December 1, 2002 - Advent, The War Versus Iraq, and Spiritual Direction. Let Advent be a time for the contemplation of a most important question: Do we want to make war on Iraq in the first place?
• November 10, 2002 - Looking back at the Gulf War. Why aren't we discussing the Persian Gulf War of 1990. Why aren't we making the effort to learn from our recent history?
• March 31, 2002 - Violence and Christian Doctrine. How might conventional Christian teachings and theological interpretations be fostering, enabling, even promoting some of the violence in our households?
• March 3, 2002 - Unitarianism as a Culture. How are Unitarian values integrated into the lives of the Unitarians you know?
• February 24, 2002 - Life Inside the Simulacrum. Exploring the Social Theories of Jean Baudrillard, Rob asks how fictional visual images affect contemporary perceptions of "reality."
• January 13, 2002 - The Non-Christian Sources of Martin Luther King's Thought. "In his speeches and his writings, King mentions Gandhi more often than any other historical person except Jesus."
• October 28, 2001 - Unfunny Remarks About Humor. Jokes and their Relation to Repression. Wherein Rob gives us a heavy and serious talk about humor.
• September 23, 2001 - Good, Critical, Prophetic Theology: Where is it?. Or This is not a Time for Bad Theology!
• September 16, 2001 - Ruptured. A Unitarian response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001; presented on the Sunday following those terrible tragedies.
• September 2, 2001 - Life Lived Between Idiocy and Lunacy. A short talk for the first Sunday of our church year, celebrating how the summer has widened our horizons.
• May 27, 2001 - The Spiritual Practice of Forgiveness and its Problems. There are profound differences in the philosophies of Forgiveness practiced by the Christians and the Jews. Rob illustrates these differences with stories drawn from the survivors of the holocaust.
• Veteran's Day, November 11, 2000 - What Mean These Stones?. Cultural Memory and the meaning of the past. Reflections upon our rememberance during a day set aside for remembering.
• April 4, 1999 - Easter Sunday - Overcoming Christianity. Martin Luther King would tell us that all who work for justice have cosmic companionship. God, as a spirit who helps us to overcome, is the meaning of Christ's resurrection.
• November 9, 1997 - Christianity and the Care of the Self. Does Christianity have as one of its central concerns, and does it treasure and promote what Michel Foucault presented to us as the central concern of both Greek and Roman culture, "the care of the self"?
• October 17, 1997 - The Specter of Marx: Labor, Alienation, the Caterpillar and the Silkworm. Since we give so much of our lives to our work; our best sort of work should be the kind which enables us to become who we really want to be.
• February 22, 1997 - Love as Strong as Death. Life's toughest battles are fought inside people's hearts as they struggle with the despair, pain and hopelessness brought to them, without their choice, by death's power to take away.
• November 17, 1996 - Uprooted and/or Transplanted. In an afternoon ceremony on the same day, Rev. Dr. Robert J. S. Manning was formally ordained and installed as the minister of the Quincy Unitarian Church. In his morning talk, Rob pledges to resist becoming "settled."

The Quincy Unitarian Church Home Page.
The list of Selected Sermons.