In a statement from the Balcony -- to refer back to our opening metaphor -- it is easy to get lost in the discussion of ideas and forget the importance of the Street where action must take place, the Marketplace where public engagement must occur, the Crossroads where thought must become choice, and the very earth on which we have created these human artifacts. So we end this reflection by returning to our central theme that Ethical Culture is about social transformation in the light of ethical values. We need other statements to address other areas of our life-in-action: social, political, pastoral, psychological, aesthetic, environmental, and personal. We send this statement out within the limited compass of being a concept map, a thinking person's guide to Ethical Culture's relationship to its past and to current movements of thought. But our hope is that the clarifications and insights that it offers into what we are as a Movement will lead to a greater commitment to a religious Diagram of living that engenders social change, to a more humane Humanism, to a more people-oriented Science, and to a larger ethical imprint on the empirical engagements of life in our world today. Like all aphorisms, Deed before Creed (or the primacy of praxis over philosophy) needs elaboration. Clearly, thought can lead to action, and unthinking action may do harm. But the formula does suggest two things worth exploring: (1) it is a call to action beyond words and thought, and (2) It is an invitation to find truth through action, to make living experience the source of our philosophizing. As such, it remains a vital motto.
©1997-2007 Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture
this page last revision: 4/23/07