Harry Emerson Fosdick: Preacher, Pastor, Prophet

pp. 373 - 374

Fosdick said there are “three sorts of folk. There are the utter disbelievers. They will have none of religion. It is to them superstition and credulity, and God is as much a myth as the devils of an African witch doctor. But there are not many such. There are the great believers, who have grown up into a luminous and convincing life with God like St. Theresa who said that in her heart she had an experience so beautiful that one drop of it, falling on hell, would turn it into Paradise. But there are not many such. Between these two groups are the mass of [people]. They are not utter disbelievers and they are not glorious believers. Their faith is hesitant, uncertain, unsatisfying, sporadic. ‘Lord,’ they say, ‘I believe; help my unbelief.’”