Evolutionary Theist: An Intellectual Biography of Minot Judson Savage, 1841-1918
Author: W. Creighton Peden
Date Of Publication: Jul 2009
Isbn13: 978-1-4438-0984-9
Isbn: 1-4438-0984-5
This book concludes fifty years of research on the empirical tradition in American liberal religious thought. At the University of Chicago, I wrestled with the issue of how to make pre-scientific religion intelligible in our scientific world. Being a student of B. E. Meland and attracted by H. N. Wieman’s philosophy of creative interchange, I initially worked on the key thinkers in the Chicago School from Shailer Mathews to B. E. Meland. This resulted in books on Wieman, A. N. Whitehead (with C. Hartshorne), A. E. Haydon, and The Chicago School: Voices of Liberal Religious Thought (1987).

While teaching at the U. of Glasgow in 1982, I began a research project on the empirical tradition in nineteenth century American liberal religious thought. Chauncy Wright led me to F. E. Abbot and the Free Religious Association. The past twenty five years has focused on the empirical tradition in this association, with writings on the thought of F. E. Abbot, W. J. Potter, D. A. Wasson. This work on Minot J. Savage concludes my research on the Free Religious Association. Nearing completion is a work tracing the empirical tradition through the four thinkers in the FRA and eight in the Chicago School.

W. Creighton Peden is Fuller E. Callaway Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Augusta State University (USA). He received his PhD from St. Andrews University. He is the author of eight books and editor of twenty-eight. Peden also co-authored, with Charles Hartshorne, Whitehead’s View of Reality.

“This book provides detailed information about Savage’s life and work, accompanied by Peden’s critical evaluation of Savage’s main ideas. Savage was a highly influential preacher, lecturer, and writer who sought, principally under the influence of Herbert Spencer, to incorporate a version of Darwinian evolutionary thought into his theological outlook. His thinking also reflects the impact of the Higher Criticism of the Bible that came to the fore in his lifetime. Savage endorsed the idea of universal salvation for all humans and contended that salvation results from or is identical with their ongoing perfection of character, a process that continues into the afterlife. Finally, he was fascinated by spiritualism and the spiritualist research of his time and argued that all reality was essentially spirit rather than matter. In general, Savage sought to bring religious ideas under the critical eye of reason and the developing science of his day. His life and thought give important insight into how liberal religious thinkers wrestled with challenging and often profoundly threatening cultural developments in the second part of the nineteenth century.”

—Donald A. Crosby, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Colorado State University

“Peden is probably America’s most productive scholar of 19th century liberal religious thought. His study of Minot Judson Savage—whose struggle for a “free” religion that was compatible with science, was exploring spiritualism, was indebted to the Christian heritage, and was politically workable within the Unitarian/Universalist organization—provides a monumental study of the human struggle for spiritual growth with intellectual integrity.”

—J. Edward Barrett, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Reigion, Muskingum College, Ohio

"This expanded version of a long-regarded classic introduction to Whitehead’s philosophy by his most reliable interpreters is most welcome. With the inclusion of a brief biography and a carefully chosen bibliography, it will prove most useful to students and general readers interested in knowing more of Whitehead’s work, now influential in so many branches of learning, not least theology.

—D.W.D. Shaw, emeritus Professor of Divinity, University of St Andrews, Scotland

Price Uk Gbp: 39.99
Price Us Usd: 59.99

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