Edward Scribner Ames’ Unpublished Manuscripts
Editor: John N. Gaston and W. Creighton Peden
Date Of Publication: Jun 2011
Isbn13: 978-1-4438-2932-8
Isbn: 1-4438-2932-3
Edward Scribner Ames (1870–1958) was a minister in the Christian Church, a.k.a. Disciples of Christ. He served as minister of the Hyde Park Christian Church from 1900 to l940. Having received his undergraduate degree from Drake College, BD and two years towards a doctorate at Yale University, he completed a PhD in philosophy in 1895 with John Dewey as chair of the department of philosophy at the University of Chicago. After teaching at Butler College for three years, he returned to Hyde Park Church and became a part time teacher in philosophy at the University of Chicago. Eventually Ames taught more and more and became chair of the department. At the University of Chicago he also became the founder of Disciples Divinity House, for which he served as Dean until 1945.

Ames is significant as a philosopher who adapted Christianity to the philosophy of pragmatism and the world of modern science. Ames’ hundreds of publications are held at the Disciples Divinity House at the University of Chicago, with the works in this volume being his unpublished manuscripts. In these lectures Ames devotes five lectures to explaining Christianity in terms of pragmatism to Disciples ministers. In other lectures he focuses on the philosophy of John Locke and its impact of the development of the Christian Church. Ames also developed a report for the Commission for the Restudy of the Disciples, The Philosophical Background on Disciples. In other ministerial lectures he presented a series of four lectures on The Reasonableness of Christianity. Also included are his alumni lecture at Yale Divinity in 1932 titled Imagery and Meaning in Religious Ideas; the Gates Memorial Lectures at Grinnell College titled This Human Life; a lecture at Northwestern University on The Will to Believe; and four lectures at the Pastors’ Institute in 1938 on When Science Comes to Religion. Ames addressed the Pastors’ Institute again in 1939 in four lectures on the Religious Implications of John Dewey’s Philosophy.

John N. Gaston has retired from a 36-year career in the information technology industry. He is both a Certified Computing Professional (CCP) and an Electronic Document Professional (EDP) and worked for more than ten years in document printing and publishing. Gaston received a BA from Davidson College and an MLS from Rollins College.

W. Creighton Peden is Fuller E. Callaway Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Augusta State University, USA, and President Emeritus of the Highlands Institute for American Religious and Philosophical Thought. Peden received a BA from Davidson College, an MA from the University of Chicago, and a PhD from St. Andrews University, Scotland.

“E. S. Ames was one of the most influential scholars in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the first half of the 20th century. Revisiting his adaptation of Christianity in light of modern science and pragmatic philosophy provides a valuable opportunity for Disciple theologians to examine an important trajectory of our intellectual heritage as we struggle to construct our postmodern identity. The publication of Ames' unpublished manuscripts, including his addresses to ministers, will enable scholars especially to better understand his humanism a la John Dewey’s thought.”

—Jeniffer G. Jesse, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion, Truman State University, USA

“Scholars affiliated with the University of Chicago in the early 20th century played major roles in developing empirical, pragmatic theologies that could hold their own in academic circles. Edward Scribner Ames was a star among those stars. Creighton Peden once again enriches our knowledge of this current of religious modernity. Accompanying his intellectual biography of Ames comes this publication of all of Ames’ unpublished manuscripts. These tools will not only serve future historians but they just might convince more theologians to keep alive this daring form of Christian survival.”

—Robert B. Tapp, Professor Emeritus of Humanities, Religious Studies, and South Asian Studies, University of Minnesota and Dean & Faculty Chair Emeritus, The Humanist Institute, New York City

“One of the central classical pragmatists is finally receiving his rightful attention. Ames was not only a creative philosopher alongside Dewey and Mead at Chicago, but he also was a psychologist and sociologist of religion who understood the religious life intimately. An amazing life indeed! He tireless did it all—as a university professor, minister of the University Church of Disciples of Christ, founder of the Disciples of Christ's Campbell Institute, and long-time dean of the Disciples Divinity House. Ames was a powerful humanistic voice in the liberal religious world of his day. This volume's superb collection of Ames's most significant and vibrant writings eloquently and persuasively speak to the needs of our own times today.”

—John R. Shook, author of The Companion to Pragmatism, professor at University at Buffalo

“E. S. Ames was one of the most influential scholars in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the first half of the 20th century. Revisiting his adaptation of Christianity in light of modern science and pragmatic philosophy provides a valuable opportunity for Disciple theologians to examine an important trajectory of our intellectual heritage as we struggle to construct our postmodern identity. The publication of Ames' unpublished manuscripts, including his addresses to ministers, will enable scholars especially to better understand his humanism a la John Dewey's thought.”

—Jennifer Jesse, Associate Professor, Truman University

“Edward Scribner Ames (1870-1958)—philosopher, minister, educator—was among the most creative early advocates for extending the pragmatic philosophy of William James and John Dewey into theology and philosophy of religion. During a long and varied career, Ames taught philosophy at the University of Chicago, served as minister of Hyde Park (later University) Church of the Disciples of Christ, and was dean of the Disciples Divinity House, affiliated with the University of Chicago. In this volume, Creighton Peden retrieves and interprets unpublished manuscripts that cast new light on Ames’s life and pragmatic philosophy of religion.”

—W. Clark Gilpin, The University of Chicago Divinity School

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