Freedom of Spirit: Celebrating John Fetzer

Our founder, John E. Fetzer, spent a lifetime following a deep spiritual yearning as documented in Brian C. Wilson’s book John E. Fetzer and the Quest for the New Age. The book was recently awarded the Historical Society of Michigan's highest honor, the State History Award. Today, we celebrate the birth of Mr. Fetzer and congratulate Wilson, professor of comparative religion at Western Michigan University, on the award, the third he’s received for this book.

“While many Michiganders remember [John] Fetzer as a pioneering television and radio figure and longtime owner of the Detroit Tigers, Wilson’s book explores a lesser-known aspect of Fetzer’s life: his metaphysical religious beliefs,” the Historical Society of Michigan noted in announcing the state history award. “Fetzer’s wealth, which came from multiple television and radio enterprises, allowed him to create the Fetzer Institute—a foundation that he hoped would lead to a global spiritual transformation.”

While Mr. Fetzer’s roots were in the Christian faith, he was a seeker, exploring and embracing the wisdom of many great traditions. “For Fetzer, spirituality was a recognition that all is spirit, which he conceptualized as an eternal, conscious energy that, if one were open to it, would inevitably lead one back to the ‘great central source,’ which some people choose to call God,” writes Wilson. Mr. Fetzer was committed to living in close, daily communion with this divine mystery, which he was equally comfortable calling “God,” the “Holy Spirit,” or simply “Love.” 

Realizing this expansive notion of love became his vision for all beings and all things. He believed that his purpose in life was to help catalyze and support this spiritual transformation.

"Fetzer developed an idea he called 'freedom of the spirit,' by which he meant that every individual has the right and duty to explore the path suited for them, regardless of social and other pressures," Wilson noted. "This he did for his entire life, and even at a very advanced age, he continued exploring and experimenting with new ideas and practices—an unquenchable zest for life that I find inspirational."

The interests that shaped Mr. Fetzer’s life are the seedbed for the questions that define the work of the Fetzer Institute: How can the secular and sacred elements of life be better integrated? How can the insights of science and the power of technological innovation be utilized to explore the capacities of the mind and spirit? How can the wisdom and insight gained through inner exploration be used to better our individual and collective wellbeing? And how can the entrepreneurial spirit and financial resources gained from the American business sector be used in the service of creating a better world?