Academic professionalization and protestant reconstruction, 1890-1902

George Albert Coe's psychology of religion

Bibliographic Data

ID4002071
AuthorsIan Nicholson, I A Nicholson (0000-0001-6746-2312, York University, corresponding author)
Year1994
Volume30
Issue4
Pages348-368
Publication date1994-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-5061 • E-ISSN: 1520-6696
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/1520-6696(199410)30:4<348::aid-jhbs2300300404>3.0.co;2-t
OpenAlexW2093037536
LanguageEN
Citations received2

This paper examines the relationship between the New Psychology and American Protestantism in the late nineteenth century through a consideration of the early career of George Albert Coe. Coe originally aspired to become a Methodist minister but after several years studying evolutionary biology and the New Theology his professional interests came to rest on the New Psychology. His decision to pursue a career in psychology and his subsequent research program is discussed in relation to the religious and institutional context of the period. For Coe, the New Psychology was not an ideologically secular initiative but a methodologically secular means of advancing a religious agenda. His experience suggests that the field's growth in the 1890s is partly attributable to the perception that psychology could help bring Protestantism into line with modern experience.

Art history · Context (archaeology) · Eugenics · George (robot) · History of psychology · Ideology · Political science · Politics · Professionalization · Protestantism · Psychoanalysis · Social science · Sociology · Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology · History · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Religious studies · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices

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