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The Contribution of Professor Howison to Christian Thought

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

John Wright Buckham
Affiliation:
Berkeley, California

Extract

In a previous article in The Harvard Theological Review the writer presented an estimate of the contribution of Professor Royce to Christian thought. In the present article he endeavors to do the same with respect to another American philosopher of great significance to Christian theology, George Holmes Howison.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1916

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References

1 April, 1915.

2 The Limits of Evolution; Preface, p. xxvi. The citations are all from the second edition.

3 A third edition is now in course of preparation.

4 Especially noteworthy is a brief but striking paper on “The Origin of Concepts.”

5 The Limits of Evolution; Preface, p. xix ff.

6 The Conception of God; p. 117.

7 Ibid. pp. 98, 99.

8 A most careful and illuminating discussion of the relation of the One to the Many may be found in Professor Howison's paper at the St. Louis Congress of Arts and Science, in which he contrasts the unity of harmony with that of absorption.

9 The Limits of Evolution; p. 7.

10 The Limits of Evolution; p. 355.

11 Ibid. p. 359.

12 See also Ibid. p. 258 ff.

13 Hibbert Journal; vol. i, no. 1.

14 Op. cit. p. xii.

15 P. 365.

16 A criticism of Dr. Howison's theory of creation may be found in Professor James Ward's well-known volume, “The Realm of Ends”; pp. 455–460.

17 Op. cit. Preface; p. xvii.

18 In fact, Professor Howison has himself, in one place at least, recognized this principle of creative co-operation (p. 199) which he elsewhere so explicitly rejects.

19 From notes taken at one of a series of informal talks upon philosophy given to a small group of his friends at his home in the spring of 1914. A number of other quoted statements are either from these talks or from private conversations.

20 The Limits of Evolution; p. 353.

21 It would be difficult to overstate this saving emphasis of Professor Howison upon Otherhood. He once said to the writer that he regarded the reciprocal nature of personality as the main factor in his philosophy. “Reciprocity might be taken as its one supreme watchword.”

22 Op. cit. p. 375.

23 Op. cit. p. 308.

24 Ibid. p. 301.

25 Ibid. p. 304.

26 Ibid. p. 306.

27 By “time” as here used is meant, not Bergson's “la durée,” which suggests the idea of eternity, but time in the sense of “the fleeting world of phenomena.” See Professor Howison's address at the St. Louis Congress, p. 185 ff.

28 “The Right Relation of Reason to Religion,” The Limits of Evolution; p. 217 ff.

29 Dr. McGiffert recognizes this in his survey of Howison's philosophy in his recent volume, “The Rise of Modern Religious Ideas”; pp. 231–233.

30 Op. cit. p. 231.

31 Ibid. p. 265.

32 Ibid. p. 373.

33 Op. cit. p. 255.