Edgar S. Brightman
Encyclopedia
Edgar Sheffield Brightman (1884 – 1953) was a philosopher and Christian
theologian in the Methodist
tradition, associated with Boston University
and liberal theology, and promulgated the philosophy known as Boston personalism
.
, Massachusetts
, and was the only child of a Methodist pastor. He studied at Brown University
from which he graduated with a B.A. degree in 1906, and then with an M.A. degree in 1908. He then proceeded to Boston University
where he was awarded the Bachelor of Sacred Theology degree in 1910, followed by a PhD in 1912. He undertook further studies in Germany
at the University of Berlin and Marburg University between 1910-1912.
He was ordained a Methodist minister in 1912.
Wesleyan University between 1912-1915. He then took up a post as lecturer in ethics and religion at the Wesleyan University
in Connecticut
from 1915-1919. Finally, he moved to Boston University
in 1919 and taught philosophy there until he died in 1953. From 1925-1953 he occupied the Borden Parker Bowne
chair of Philosophy.
One of his earliest publications reflected the findings of higher criticism in Old Testament
studies concerning the identification of sub-sources and sub-documents within the first six books of the Bible (the Hexateuch). The Documentary Hypothesis
that Brightman drew upon had developed in Nineteenth Century German Biblical studies and had received their definitive form in the writings of Julius Wellhausen
. Wellhausen, and those who built on his theories, argued that the first five books of the Bible (the Pentateuch) were a composite creation drawing on four original sources and edited into their final form in the fourth century BC. These conclusions ran counter to the traditional Jewish and Christian position that Moses received the Pentateuch from God, with little if any further modification. Brightman was attacked for his pro-Wellhausian views by conservative and fundamentalist Methodists, and blacklisted.
In his involvement with the Methodist Church in America, Brightman joined the Methodist Federation for Social Action
. He also supported conscientious objectors in war, was a member of the American Civil Liberties Union
, and also the Committee on Peace through Justice.
empiricism
". By this Bowne meant that there was an existent reality beyond mere human sensory perception
s. He held to the importance of intuition
in understanding reality, and upheld the role of human free will. In many ways Bowne's work on personality anticipated some of the views of Sigmund Freud
, and even Albert Einstein
's findings on the relativity
of time and space. Bowne's emphasis on personality led to his philosophical views being known by the term "personalism
".
Brightman was an advocate of Bowne's position on personality, and those who gathered around both Bowne's and Brightman's writings became known as a movement called Boston Personalism. In Brightman's system of thought the human self is the dominant metaphysical
reality. His philosophical method in argument is known as rational empiricism.
In addition to building on Bowne's position, Brightman is credited with developing a metaphysical view in the philosophy of religion called finitistic theism. For Brightman God is a self-limited being whose good will though perfect is constrained by God's own nature. There is a dynamic relationship between God and the world that grows and develops, or is in process. In Brightman's thought God's purposes intend good for the world, yet pain and suffering occur. He did not argue for God having unlimited power over evil and suffering, but rather maintained that through the processes of the world and history evil will be overcome. In effect, God uses the tragedies of the creation as instruments that enable the world to reach its final goal.
Brightman's views about the growing and developing relationship between God and the world has strong affinities with process philosophy
as espoused by Alfred North Whitehead
and Charles Hartshorne
. Indeed Hartshorne and Brightman maintained a lengthy and lively correspondence on these matters for a period of some twenty three years.
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
theologian in the Methodist
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
tradition, associated with Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
and liberal theology, and promulgated the philosophy known as Boston personalism
Personalism
Personalism is a philosophical school of thought searching to describe the uniqueness of a human person in the world of nature, specifically in relation to animals...
.
Early life and education
Brightman was born in HolbrookHolbrook, Massachusetts
Holbrook is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. At the 2010 census, the town population was 10,791.- History :Before European settlement, the area now known as Holbrook, Massachusetts, like all of New England, had long been inhabited by Algonquian-speaking peoples.Holbrook was...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, and was the only child of a Methodist pastor. He studied at Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
from which he graduated with a B.A. degree in 1906, and then with an M.A. degree in 1908. He then proceeded to Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
where he was awarded the Bachelor of Sacred Theology degree in 1910, followed by a PhD in 1912. He undertook further studies in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
at the University of Berlin and Marburg University between 1910-1912.
He was ordained a Methodist minister in 1912.
Career
Brightman was a professional philosopher who taught the subject at NebraskaNebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
Wesleyan University between 1912-1915. He then took up a post as lecturer in ethics and religion at the Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...
in Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
from 1915-1919. Finally, he moved to Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
in 1919 and taught philosophy there until he died in 1953. From 1925-1953 he occupied the Borden Parker Bowne
Borden Parker Bowne
Borden Parker Bowne was an American Christian philosopher and theologian in the Methodist tradition. In 1876 he became a professor of philosophy at Boston University, where he taught for more than thirty years. He later served as dean of the graduate school. Bowne was an acute critic of positivism...
chair of Philosophy.
One of his earliest publications reflected the findings of higher criticism in Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
studies concerning the identification of sub-sources and sub-documents within the first six books of the Bible (the Hexateuch). The Documentary Hypothesis
Documentary hypothesis
The documentary hypothesis , holds that the Pentateuch was derived from originally independent, parallel and complete narratives, which were subsequently combined into the current form by a series of redactors...
that Brightman drew upon had developed in Nineteenth Century German Biblical studies and had received their definitive form in the writings of Julius Wellhausen
Julius Wellhausen
Julius Wellhausen , was a German biblical scholar and orientalist, noted particularly for his contribution to scholarly understanding of the origin of the Pentateuch/Torah ....
. Wellhausen, and those who built on his theories, argued that the first five books of the Bible (the Pentateuch) were a composite creation drawing on four original sources and edited into their final form in the fourth century BC. These conclusions ran counter to the traditional Jewish and Christian position that Moses received the Pentateuch from God, with little if any further modification. Brightman was attacked for his pro-Wellhausian views by conservative and fundamentalist Methodists, and blacklisted.
In his involvement with the Methodist Church in America, Brightman joined the Methodist Federation for Social Action
Methodist Federation for Social Action
The Methodist Federation for Social Action is an independent network of United Methodist clergy and laity working for justice in the areas of peace, poverty, and people's rights since 1907.-A short history:...
. He also supported conscientious objectors in war, was a member of the American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
, and also the Committee on Peace through Justice.
Philosophical stance
Brightman's philosophical views were influenced by the thought of Borden Parker Bowne (1847-1910). Bowne, who was a Methodist philosopher, emphasized the importance of personality and self-image, and encapsulated his ideas in the expression "transcendentTranscendence (philosophy)
In philosophy, the adjective transcendental and the noun transcendence convey the basic ground concept from the word's literal meaning , of climbing or going beyond, albeit with varying connotations in its different historical and cultural stages...
empiricism
Empiricism
Empiricism is a theory of knowledge that asserts that knowledge comes only or primarily via sensory experience. One of several views of epistemology, the study of human knowledge, along with rationalism, idealism and historicism, empiricism emphasizes the role of experience and evidence,...
". By this Bowne meant that there was an existent reality beyond mere human sensory perception
Perception
Perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of the environment by organizing and interpreting sensory information. All perception involves signals in the nervous system, which in turn result from physical stimulation of the sense organs...
s. He held to the importance of intuition
Intuition (knowledge)
Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without inference or the use of reason. "The word 'intuition' comes from the Latin word 'intueri', which is often roughly translated as meaning 'to look inside'’ or 'to contemplate'." Intuition provides us with beliefs that we cannot necessarily justify...
in understanding reality, and upheld the role of human free will. In many ways Bowne's work on personality anticipated some of the views of Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
, and even Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
's findings on the relativity
Theory of relativity
The theory of relativity, or simply relativity, encompasses two theories of Albert Einstein: special relativity and general relativity. However, the word relativity is sometimes used in reference to Galilean invariance....
of time and space. Bowne's emphasis on personality led to his philosophical views being known by the term "personalism
Personalism
Personalism is a philosophical school of thought searching to describe the uniqueness of a human person in the world of nature, specifically in relation to animals...
".
Brightman was an advocate of Bowne's position on personality, and those who gathered around both Bowne's and Brightman's writings became known as a movement called Boston Personalism. In Brightman's system of thought the human self is the dominant metaphysical
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
reality. His philosophical method in argument is known as rational empiricism.
In addition to building on Bowne's position, Brightman is credited with developing a metaphysical view in the philosophy of religion called finitistic theism. For Brightman God is a self-limited being whose good will though perfect is constrained by God's own nature. There is a dynamic relationship between God and the world that grows and develops, or is in process. In Brightman's thought God's purposes intend good for the world, yet pain and suffering occur. He did not argue for God having unlimited power over evil and suffering, but rather maintained that through the processes of the world and history evil will be overcome. In effect, God uses the tragedies of the creation as instruments that enable the world to reach its final goal.
Brightman's views about the growing and developing relationship between God and the world has strong affinities with process philosophy
Process philosophy
Process philosophy identifies metaphysical reality with change and dynamism. Since the time of Plato and Aristotle, philosophers have posited true reality as "timeless", based on permanent substances, whilst processes are denied or subordinated to timeless substances...
as espoused by Alfred North Whitehead
Alfred North Whitehead
Alfred North Whitehead, OM FRS was an English mathematician who became a philosopher. He wrote on algebra, logic, foundations of mathematics, philosophy of science, physics, metaphysics, and education...
and Charles Hartshorne
Charles Hartshorne
Charles Hartshorne was a prominent American philosopher who concentrated primarily on the philosophy of religion and metaphysics. He developed the neoclassical idea of God and produced a modal proof of the existence of God that was a development of St. Anselm's Ontological Argument...
. Indeed Hartshorne and Brightman maintained a lengthy and lively correspondence on these matters for a period of some twenty three years.
Brightman's writings
- The Sources of the Hexateuch (New York: Abingdon, 1918).
- Introduction to Philosophy (New York: H. Holt, 1925).
- Immortality in Post-Kantian Idealism (the Ingersoll Lecture, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1925).
- Religious Values (New York: Abingdon, 1925).
- Philosophy of Ideals (New York: H. Holt, 1928).
- Problem of God (New York: Abingdon, 1930).
- The Finding of God (New York: Abingdon, 1931).
- Is God A Person? (New York: Association Press, 1932).
- Moral Laws (New York: Abingdon, 1933).
- Personality and Religion (New York: Abingdon, 1934).
- The Future of Christianity (New York: Abingdon, 1937).
- Philosophy of Religion (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1940).
- The Spiritual Life (New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury, 1942).
- Nature and Values (New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury, 1945).
- Persons and Values (Boston: Boston University Press, 1952).
- ed., Personalism in Theology: A Symposium in Honor of Albert Cornelius Knudson (Boston: Boston University Press, 1943).
Secondary sources
- Randall E. Auxier and Mark Y. A. Davies, eds. Hartshorne and Brightman on God, Process, and Persons: The Correspondence 1922-1945 (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2001).
Assessments
- Edward John Carnell, A Philosophy of the Christian Religion (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1952).
- James John McLarney, The Theism of Edgar Sheffield Brightman (Washington: Catholic University of America, 1936).
- Joseph R. Shive, "The Meaning of Individuality: A Comparative Study of Alfred North Whitehead, Bordern Parker Bowne and Edgar Sheffield Brightman," Unpublished Dissertation, University of Chicago, 1961.
Philosophical background
- Frederick Copleston, A History of Philosophy, Vol. 8: Bentham to Russell (Garden City: Doubleday, 1967), chapters 11-13.
- Alan Gragg, Charles Hartshorne (Waco: Word Publishing, 1973).