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Academic professionalization and protestant reconstruction, 1890‐1902: George Albert Coe's psychology of religion
Author(s) -
Nicholson Ian
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
journal of the history of the behavioral sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.216
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1520-6696
pISSN - 0022-5061
DOI - 10.1002/1520-6696(199410)30:4<348::aid-jhbs2300300404>3.0.co;2-t
Subject(s) - protestantism , professionalization , george (robot) , context (archaeology) , ideology , sociology , eugenics , history of psychology , social science , religious studies , psychology , psychoanalysis , law , political science , philosophy , history , politics , art history , archaeology
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.