Ames, Edward Scribner. Papers, 1893-1958

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Philosophy

Religion and Theology

No restrictions.

When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Ames, Edward Scribner. Papers and Addenda, [Box #, Folder #], Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

Edward Scribner Ames was born in Eau Claire, Wisconsin on April 21, 1870. He received his B.A. and M.A. from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, and then attended Yale University Divinity School. He received the Yale B.D. in 1892 and continued to study philosophy there for two more years. Transferring to the University of Chicago for a fellowship during 1894-1895, he earned a Ph.D. in philosophy in 1895, awarded by professors John Dewey and James Tufts. Ames first taught at Butler College, Indianapolis, for three years but soon returned to accept a philosophy position at Chicago in 1900, which he held until his retirement in 1936.

Ames’s focus was in psychology and sociology of religion. His father had been a Disciples of Christ minister in a series of Midwestern towns. Ames went on to publish several influential studies of religious experience and values, along with doctrinal studies relating to the Disciples of Christ. Influenced by his colleagues, he joined their Chicago School of Pragmatism and advanced a pragmatic understanding of God and doctrine, similar in many respects to Dewey’s religious humanism.

Ames was active in the life of Chicago; he joined the City Club and served on reform committees. Ames maintained his devotion to the Disciples of Christ and was in close association with other leading figures of the movement. He was one of the founding members, with other graduates of Yale and Chicago, of the Campbell Institute in Chicago in 1896. Ames edited The Scroll, the quarterly journal of the Campbell Institute, from 1925 to 1951. He was the minister of the Hyde Park Christian Church (renamed the University Church of Disciples of Christ) in Chicago from 1900 to 1940. He also served as the Dean of the Disciples Divinity House in Chicago from 1927 to 1945. Ames’s distinctively liberal and humanistic approach to both theology and ministerial leadership brought him into repeated conflicts with more conservative elements of the denomination. Among the specific doctrinal questions for which Ames is remembered is the humanity of Jesus, the denial of an afterlife, the diminished role of baptism, and open membership.

Ames died in Chicago on 29 June 1958 and his ashes were spread behind the family cottage on Lake Michigan in Pentwater, Michigan.

The collection contains family and professional correspondence, manuscripts, photographs, scrapbooks, and newspaper clippings. Includes correspondence with Vachel Lindsay (1904-1927).

The following related resources are located in the Department of Special Collections:

• Names
  • Ames, Edward Scribner, 1870-1958
  • Lindsay, Vachel, 1879-1931
  • Disciples of Christ
  • University of Chicago. Disciples Divinity House
  • University of Chicago. Department of Philosophy