A measured faith: Edwin Starbuck, William James, and the scientific reform of religious experience

Harvard Theological Review

Volumn 101, Issue 3-4, 2008, Pages 431-450

  White, Christopher ^a  

^a VASSAR COLLEGE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 61249643785     PISSN: 00178160     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0017816008001946     Document Type: Review

References (41)

1. Half a century ago David Bremer noted the "deficiency of historical in the psychology of religion and called for new, serious studies of the pioneers in the field - but his call, according to Howard Booth, was ignored. Ph.D. diss., Boston University study in the psychology of religion" and called for new, serious studies of the pioneers in the field - but his call, according to Howard Booth, was ignored. See David Henry Bremer, "George Albert Coe's Contribution to the Psychology of Religion" (Ph.D. diss., Boston University, 1949) 7
2. and John Howard Booth, "Edwin Diller Starbuck: Pioneer in the Psychology of Religion" (Ph.D. diss., University of Iowa, 1972) 1
3. See also Leigh Schmidt, "The Making of Modern Mysticism," Journal of the American Academy of Religion 71 (2003) 273-302
4. and Hans Kippenberg, Discovering Religious History in the Modern Age (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002)
5. Edwin Diller Starbuck, The Psychology of Religion: An Empirical Study of Consciousness the Growth of Religious Consciousness (London: Walter Scott, 1900) 10
6. Edwin Starbuck, "Religion's Use of Me," in Religion in for Libraries Press Transition (ed. Virgilius Ferm; New York: Macmillan Co., 1937; repr. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1969) 215
7. Edwin Starbuck, "A Student's Impressions of James in the Middle '90s," Psychological Review 50 (1943) 129
8. Ibid
9. Starbuck, "Religion's Use of Me," 225
10. His two articles were "A Study of Conversion," American Journal of Psychology 8 (1897) 268-308
11. and "Contributions to the Psychology of Religion," American Journal of Psychology 9 (1897-1898) 70-124
12. Starbuck's book was the first in the genre, and his articles were the most ambitious quantitative studies done before 1900. There were, however, other scholars working along the same lines, especially those interested in relating conversion to life-cycle stages. All of them were associated with G. Stanley Hall at Clark University. The very earliest studies were most ambitious quantitative studies done before 1900. There were, however, other scholars working along the same lines, especially those interested in relating conversion to life-cycle stages. All of them were associated with G. Stanley Hall at Clark University. The very earliest studies were: G. Stanley Hall, "The Moral and Religious Training of Children," Princeton Review 9 (1882) 26-45
13. A. H. Daniels, "The New Life: A Study in Regeneration," American Journal of Psychology 6 (1895) 61-103
14. and J. H. Leuba, "The Psychology of Religious Phenomena," American Journal of Psychology 7 (1896) 309-385. Leuba's study was the most quantitative
15. Starbuck, "Religion's Use of Me," 223
16. Starbuck, Psychology of Religion, 25-27, 186
17. On liberal conversion failures see William Hutchison, "Cultural Strain and Protestant Liberalism," American Historical Review 76 (1971) 410
18. See also George Coe, The Spiritual Life: Studies in the Science of Religion (New York: Eaton & Mains, 1900) 120
19. The agnostic psychologist of religion James Leuba is well known for his Studies in the History of Psychology of Religion efforts to document how education militated against evangelical beliefs. For a summary of his work sec ed. Jacob Belzen; Amsterdam: Rodopi efforts to document how education militated against evangelical beliefs. For a summary of his work sec David M. Wulff, "James Henry Leuba: A Reassessment of a Swiss-American Pioneer," in Aspects in Contexts: Studies in the History of Psychology of Religion (ed. Jacob Belzen; Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1994) 25-44
20. See also Booth, "Edwin Diller Starbuck," 8
21. For more on Coe, Starbuck and other liberals who studied experience see Assurance, 1830-1940 Berkeley: University of California Press Christopher White, Unsettled Minds: Psychology and the American Search for Spiritual Assurance, 1830-1940 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008)
22. George B. Cutten, The Psychological Phenomena of Christianity (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1908) 4, 171-73, 165
23. See also William James to Edwin Diller Starbuck, 30 September 1898, important and he recommended it to other philosophers and psychologists. e.g., William James to James McKeen Cattell, 10 June 1903 in William James: Selected Unpublished Correspondence, 1885-1910 (ed. Frederick J. Down Scott; Columbus: Ohio State University) William James Papers. Unfortunately, Starbuck's questionnaire data have been lost or destroyed. James thought Starbuck's work was important and he recommended it to other philosophers and psychologists. See, e.g., William James to James McKeen Cattell, 10 June 1903 in William James: Selected Unpublished Correspondence, 1885-1910 (ed. Frederick J. Down Scott; Columbus: Ohio State University) 312-13
24. Quoted in Perry, William James 2:327
25. James and Hall wrote two separate pieces for one issue of The Nation that were printed back-to-back. were printed back-to-back. See William James, "The Teaching of Philosophy in our Colleges," The Nation 23 (1876) 178-79
26. and G. Stanley Hall, "College Instruction in Philosophy," The Nation 23 (1876) 180
27. See Henry Samuel Levinson, The Religious Investigations of William James (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1981) 73-76
28. Edwin Diller Starbuck, "The Feelings and their Place in Religion," The American Journal of Religious Psychology and Education 1 (1904) 183-85
29. See James's preface to Starbuck, Psychology of Religion, viii-ix
30. Edwin Starbuck, "The Feelings and their Place in Religion," The American Journal of Religious Psychology and Education 1 (1904) 175
31. see also Edwin Diller Starbuck, "The Intimate Senses as Sources of Wisdom," The Journal of Religion 1 (1921) 129-45
32. Starbuck, "Religion's Use of Me," 204, 219
33. James Bissett Pratt, The Psychology of Religious Belief (New York: Macmillan, 1907) 228
34. James Bissett Pratt, "The Psychology of Religion," Harvard Theological Review 1 (1908) 452
35. James Bissett Pratt, The Religious Consciousness: A Psychological Study (New York: Macmillian, 1924) 479, 228-29, 474
36. Edwin Diller Starbuck, "The Scientific Study of Religion," Homiletic Review 49 (1903) 102
37. Starbuck, "The Scientific Study of Religion," 102-3
38. Charles A. Brand, Decision Day and How to Use It (Boston: Pilgrim, 1908) School Archives, New Haven 6-7. From the George Albert Coe Papers, Yale Divinity School Archives, New Haven
39. Starbuck, "Religion's Use of Me," 205
40. P. Hopkins, "A Critical Survey of the Psychology of Religion," Psychology of Religion in Readings in the Psychology of Religion (ed. Orlo Strunk; New York: Abingdon, 1959) 46
41. H. Shelton Smith, Faith and Nurture (New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1941) 100-4