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.
