Francis Ellingwood Abbot
Encyclopedia
Francis Ellingwood Abbot (November 6, 1836 – October 23, 1903) was an American philosopher and theologian who sought to reconstruct theology in accord with scientific method
.
The lifelong romance between himself and his wife forms the subject of If Ever Two Were One, a collection of his correspondence and diary entries.
, understood as based on the lordship of Christ
, is no longer tenable. He rejected all dogma and reliance on Scriptures or creeds, teaching the truth is open to every individual.
Abbot graduated from Harvard University
and the Meadville Theological School. He served Unitarian
churches in Dover, New Hampshire
, and Toledo, Ohio
, but his ministry proved controversial, and in 1868 New Hampshire's highest court ruled that the Dover, New Hampshire, First Unitarian Society of Christians' chosen minister was insufficiently "Christian" to serve his congregation. See Hale v. Everett, 53 N.H. 9 (1868). The Rev. Abbot had, it said, once preached that:
In another sermon, the court noted, Rev. Abbot had even declared that
"If Protestantism would include Mr. Abbot in this case," New Hampshire's highest court concluded,
Hale v. Everett, 53 N.H. 9, 87-88 (1868).
But opinions concerning Abbot diverged widely. Frederick Douglass
, for example, praised Frank Abbot for doing "much to break the fetters of religious superstition, for which he is entitled to gratitude." Letter from Hon. Frederick Douglass to Rev. M.J. Savage (June 15, 1880), published in Farewell Dinner to Francis Ellingwood Abbot, on Retiring from the Editorship of "The Index" 48 (George H. Ellis, 1880).
Following the controversy in New Hampshire, Abbot left the ministry in 1868 to write, edit, and teach. Abbot's theological position was stated in Scientific Theism (1885) and The Way Out of Agnosticism (1890). On the latter book Josiah Royce
wrote an article so scathing that Abbot took it as an unfair attempt to destroy his reputation, and eventually responded publicly with Mr. Royce's Libel (1891 October) in which he sought redress from Royce's employer Harvard University. The debate moved to the pages of The Nation
, where Charles Sanders Peirce took Abbot's side; William James
and Joseph Bangs Warner, less so. In his 1903 obituary of Abbot, Peirce praised Abbot's philosophical work and love of truth, and wrote that, in the introduction to Scientific Theism (wherein Abbot criticized nominalism
and traced it through Kant among others), Abbot "put his finger unerringly [...] upon the one great blunder of all modern philosophy." (For the full texts of the public controversy and the obituary, see "External links" below.)
Abbot committed suicide
by taking poison at his wife's gravesite in Central Cemetery, Beverly, Massachusetts, on the 10th anniversary of her death.
}, 3rd edition (1888), via Google Books.1
1 Users outside the USA may not yet be able to gain full access to editions linked through Google Books. See official Google Inside Google Book Search blog post "From the mail bag: Public domain books and downloads", November 9, 2006, 11:19 AM, posted by Ryan Sands, Google Book Search Support Team, Eprint
Scientific method
Scientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of...
.
The lifelong romance between himself and his wife forms the subject of If Ever Two Were One, a collection of his correspondence and diary entries.
Biography
As a spokesman for "free religion", he asserted that ChristianityChristianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, understood as based on the lordship of Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
, is no longer tenable. He rejected all dogma and reliance on Scriptures or creeds, teaching the truth is open to every individual.
Abbot graduated from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
and the Meadville Theological School. He served Unitarian
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
churches in Dover, New Hampshire
Dover, New Hampshire
Dover is a city in Strafford County, New Hampshire, in the United States of America. The population was 29,987 at the 2010 census, the largest in the New Hampshire Seacoast region...
, and Toledo, Ohio
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...
, but his ministry proved controversial, and in 1868 New Hampshire's highest court ruled that the Dover, New Hampshire, First Unitarian Society of Christians' chosen minister was insufficiently "Christian" to serve his congregation. See Hale v. Everett, 53 N.H. 9 (1868). The Rev. Abbot had, it said, once preached that:
-
- Whoever has been so fired in his own spirit by the overwhelming thought of the Divine Being as to kindle the flames of faith in the hearts of his fellow men, whether Confucius, or Zoroaster, or Moses, or Jesus, or Mohammed, has thereby proved himself to be a prophet of the living God; and thus every great historic religion dates from a genuine inspiration by the Eternal Spirit.
In another sermon, the court noted, Rev. Abbot had even declared that
-
- America is every whit as sacred as Judea. God is as near to you and to me, as ever he was to Moses, to Jesus, or to Paul. Wherever a human soul is born into the love of truth and high virtue, there is the "Holy Land." Wherever a human soul has uttered its sincere and brave faith in the Divine, and thus bequeathed to us the legacy of inspired words, there is the "Holy Bible."
"If Protestantism would include Mr. Abbot in this case," New Hampshire's highest court concluded,
-
- it would of course include Thomas Jefferson, and by the same rule also Thomas Paine, whom Gov. Plumer of New Hampshire called "that outrageous blasphemer," that "infamous blasphemer," "that miscreant Paine," whose "Age of Reason" Plumer had read "with unqualified disapprobation of its tone and temper, its coarse vulgarity, and its unfair appeals to the passions and prejudices of his readers."
Hale v. Everett, 53 N.H. 9, 87-88 (1868).
But opinions concerning Abbot diverged widely. Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing...
, for example, praised Frank Abbot for doing "much to break the fetters of religious superstition, for which he is entitled to gratitude." Letter from Hon. Frederick Douglass to Rev. M.J. Savage (June 15, 1880), published in Farewell Dinner to Francis Ellingwood Abbot, on Retiring from the Editorship of "The Index" 48 (George H. Ellis, 1880).
Following the controversy in New Hampshire, Abbot left the ministry in 1868 to write, edit, and teach. Abbot's theological position was stated in Scientific Theism (1885) and The Way Out of Agnosticism (1890). On the latter book Josiah Royce
Josiah Royce
Josiah Royce was an American objective idealist philosopher.-Life:Royce, born in Grass Valley, California, grew up in pioneer California very soon after the California Gold Rush. He received the B.A...
wrote an article so scathing that Abbot took it as an unfair attempt to destroy his reputation, and eventually responded publicly with Mr. Royce's Libel (1891 October) in which he sought redress from Royce's employer Harvard University. The debate moved to the pages of The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
, where Charles Sanders Peirce took Abbot's side; William James
William James
William James was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher who was trained as a physician. He wrote influential books on the young science of psychology, educational psychology, psychology of religious experience and mysticism, and on the philosophy of pragmatism...
and Joseph Bangs Warner, less so. In his 1903 obituary of Abbot, Peirce praised Abbot's philosophical work and love of truth, and wrote that, in the introduction to Scientific Theism (wherein Abbot criticized nominalism
Nominalism
Nominalism is a metaphysical view in philosophy according to which general or abstract terms and predicates exist, while universals or abstract objects, which are sometimes thought to correspond to these terms, do not exist. Thus, there are at least two main versions of nominalism...
and traced it through Kant among others), Abbot "put his finger unerringly [...] upon the one great blunder of all modern philosophy." (For the full texts of the public controversy and the obituary, see "External links" below.)
Abbot committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
by taking poison at his wife's gravesite in Central Cemetery, Beverly, Massachusetts, on the 10th anniversary of her death.
External links
- Grave of Francis Ellingwood Abbot at Central Cemetery, Beverly, MA
- Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, edited by James Grant Wilson, John Fiske and Stanley L. Klos. Six volumes, New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1887–1889
- Brief biography and sources
- Papers of Francis Ellingwood Abbot : an inventory (Harvard University Archives)
- Abbot, F. E. (1891), A Public Appeal for Redress to the Corporation and Overseers of Harvard University, Geo. H. Ellis, 141 Franklin Street, 48 pages, Gutenberg Eprint.
- Bishop Quaid and Abbot, F. E. (1876), The Public School Question, as Understood by a Catholic American Citizen and a Liberal American Citizen: Two Lectures before the Free Religious Association in Horticultural Hall, Boston, Free Religious Tracts No. 5, The Free Religious Association, Boston, 100 pages, Eprint via Google Books.1
- Abbot, F. E. (1885) Scientific Theism, University Press, John Wilson and Son, Cambridge (MA). "Introduction" via Arisbe. Third Edition (1888) xvii + 219 pages.
}, 3rd edition (1888), via Google Books.1
-
- Eprint, 3rd edition (1888) via Internet Archive.
- Abbot, F. E. (1890), The Way Out of Agnosticism, or the Philosophy of Free Religion, London: MacMillan and Co, and Cambridge, USA: University Press: John Wilson and Son, via Google Books1
- Royce, JosiahJosiah RoyceJosiah Royce was an American objective idealist philosopher.-Life:Royce, born in Grass Valley, California, grew up in pioneer California very soon after the California Gold Rush. He received the B.A...
(1890), "Dr. Abbot's 'Way Out of Agnosticism", International Journal of Ethics v. 1, n. 1, October, Philadelphia: International Journal of Ethics and London: T. Fisher Unwin, pp. 98-113 via Google Books.1. - Abbot, F. E. (1891), Professor Royce's Libel: Public Appeal for Redress to the Corporation and Overseers of Harvard University, public letter (dated October 1, 1891) published as pamphlet, Boston: G. H. Ellis, via Internet Archive.
- Peirce, C. S. (1891 November 12), "Abbot against Royce" (letter in support of Abbot), The NationThe NationThe Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
v. 53, n. 1376, New York: The Evening Post Publishing Company, p. 372 via Google Books.1 - James, WilliamWilliam JamesWilliam James was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher who was trained as a physician. He wrote influential books on the young science of psychology, educational psychology, psychology of religious experience and mysticism, and on the philosophy of pragmatism...
(1891 November 19), "Abbot against Royce" (letter dated November 15, 1891), The Nation, v. 53, n. 1377, pp. 387–388 via Google Books.1 - Warner, Joseph Bangs (1891 November 26), "The Suppression of Dr. Abbot's Reply" (letter dated November 20, 1891), The Nation v. 53, n. 1378, p. 408 via Google Books.1
- Abbot, F. E. (1891 December 3), "Mr. Warner's 'Evidence in Full' Completed" (letter dated November 28, 1891), along with editor's note declining further responses, The Nation v. 53, n. 1379, p. 426 via Google Books.1
- Royce, Josiah
- Abbot, F. E. (1906), The Syllogistic Philosophy or Prolegomena to Science, Little, Brown, and Company, Boston, two vols., vol. 1, xiii + 317 pages, vol. 2, vi + 374 pages.
of vol. 1 via Google Books.1 of vol. 2 via Google Books.1 - Eprint of vol. 1 via Internet Archive.
- Eprint of vol. 2 via Internet Archive.
- Peirce, C. S. (1903), "To the Editor of The Nation" (obituary for F. E. Abbot), dated Oct. 27, 1903, published Nov. 5, 1903, The Nation v. 77, n. 2001, p. 360. Eprint (scroll down). Google Books Eprint
1 Users outside the USA may not yet be able to gain full access to editions linked through Google Books. See official Google Inside Google Book Search blog post "From the mail bag: Public domain books and downloads", November 9, 2006, 11:19 AM, posted by Ryan Sands, Google Book Search Support Team, Eprint