The Scientific Theist: A Life of Francis Ellingwood AbbotMercer University Press, 1987 - 171 pages This work is based on Sydney Ahlstrom's 1951 Harvard dissertation. The biography of Francis Ellingwood Abbot has been completely rewritten to focus on the context of his life and, as such, provides a vista into the intellectual and religious world of America in the late nineteenth century. Ahlstrom and one of his former students, Robert Bruce Mullin, began reworking the dissertation in 1983. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 13 | |
The Ministerial Candidate | 30 |
The Ministry at Dover | 42 |
The Defection of the Radicals | 61 |
Toledo and the Index | 81 |
Secularism and the Liberal League | 100 |
Obscenity Free Love and the Collapse of the League | 112 |
Private Life in Boston | 128 |
Scientific Theism | 136 |
The Final Years | 149 |
Bibliography | 156 |
Index | 167 |
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Agnosticism amendment American Anthony Comstock August became began Boston Boston Latin School bot's called Cambridge Christ Christian committee Comstock Comstock laws Conference Congregational Congress conservative constitution convention criticism David Ross Locke despite Diary doctrine Dover editorial Ethics evangelical faith final Francis Francis Ellingwood Abbot Frank free love Free Religion Free Religious Association freedom Frothingham George Chaney Harvard Divinity School Henry Horticultural Hall Huntington Ibid Index individual intellectual intuitionalism issue Jesus July June Katie knowledge later Latin School laws lectures letter Liberal Christians March Meadville meeting minister moral movement National Liberal League nature never November object obscenity October organization parish philosophy poems Potter preaching president principle problems published radical Randall reform Report resolution revealed Scientific Theism secularism secularist seemed September sermon social spirit Sunday Syracuse Theism theology thought tion Toledo took Unitarian Society University views vote William wrote York
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Page 65 - Son, — ARTICLE I. — Therefore, the Christian churches of the Unitarian faith here assembled unite themselves in a common body, to be known as the National Conference of Unitarian and other Christian Churches, to the end of energizing and stimulating the denomination with which they are connected to the largest exertions in the cause of Christian faith and work.
Page 22 - God ! when thou Dost scare the world with tempests, set on fire The heavens with falling thunderbolts, or fill With all the waters of the firmament The swift dark whirlwind that uproots...
Page 65 - Whereas, The great opportunities and demands for Christian labor and consecration at this time increase our sense of the obligations of all disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ to prove their faith...
Page 158 - Report of Addresses at a Meeting Held in Boston, May 30, 1867, To Consider the Conditions, Wants, and Prospects of Free Religion in America.
Page 103 - morality shall be abrogated, and that all laws shall be conformed to the requirements of natural morality, equal rights, and impartial liberty. " 9. We demand that not only in the Constitutions of the United States and of the several States, but also in the practical administration of the same, no privilege or advantage shall be conceded to Christianity or any other special religion ; that our entire political system shall be founded and administered on a purely secular basis ; and that...
Page 67 - Whereas the only reconciliation of the duties of collective Christian activity and individual freedom of thought, lies in an efficient organization for practical Christian work, based rather on unity of spirit than on uniformity of belief: Article I.
Page 75 - May 30, 1867, the objects being " to promote the interests of pure religion, to encourage the scientific study of theology, and to increase fellowship in the spirit.
Page 102 - ... 3. We demand that all public appropriations for educational and charitable institutions of a sectarian character shall cease. "4. We demand that all religious services now sustained by the government shall be abolished ; and especially that the use of the Bible in the public schools, whether ostensibly as a text-book or avowedly as a book of religious worship, shall be prohibited.
Page 102 - We demand that the appointment, by the President of the United States or by the Governors of the various States, of all religious festivals and fasts shall wholly cease. 6 We demand that the judicial oath in the courts and in all other departments of the government shall be abolished, and that simple affirmation under the pains and penalties of perjury shall be established in its stead.
Page 9 - It seemed a vast, rattling old shell of a building, bare, shabby, and forlorn to the point of squalor; not exactly dirty, but worn; shaky, and stained deeply in every part by time, weather, and merciless usage. The dingy red brick— and everything in that world was dingy red brick— had none of that plastic irregularity, those soft pink lights and mossy patina that...