{{Short description|American psychologist and political activist}} {{Infobox person | name = George Albert Coe | image = Prof. George Albert Coe.jpg | caption = | birth_date = {{birth date|1862|03|26}} | birth_place = Monroe County, New York<ref name=Marquis>[https://archive.org/details/whoswho141926/page/476/mode/2up COE, George Albert] in ''Who's Who in America'' (vol. 14, 1926 edition); p. 476</ref> | death_date = {{death date and age|1951|||1862|03|26}} | death_place = | spouse = | children = | relatives = Descendants of Robert Coe }}
'''George Albert Coe''' (March 26, 1862 – 1951) was an educational theorist and scholar of religion. Alongside William James and Edwin Diller Starbuck he has been described as "one of the three leading pioneers in psychology of religion". During his time he was a leading figure in the field of religious education.<ref name=dict>{{cite book |last1=Shook |first1=John R. |title=Dictionary Of Modern American Philosophers |date=2005 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic Publishing |page=511}}</ref>
==Biography== Coe was the son of a Methodist minister. In 1884 he completed his BA in the University of Rochester and subsequently received an MA in theology and a PhD in philosophy from Boston University. He also studied at the University of Berlin from 1890 to 1891. After completing his studies he held a professorship of philosophy at the University of Southern California and the Northwestern University before moving to the Union Theological Seminary in Columbia University.<ref>{{cite book |title=Encyclopedia of Christianity in the United States Volume 5 |date=2016 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |page=607}}</ref><ref name=setran>{{cite journal |last1=Setran |first1=David P. |title=Morality for the "Democracy of God": George Albert Coe and the Liberal Protestant Critique of American Character Education, 1917–1940 |journal=Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation |date=Winter 2005 |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=107–144 |doi=10.1525/rac.2005.15.1.107 |jstor=10.1525/rac.2005.15.1.107 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/rac.2005.15.1.107|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Here he was appointed professor of religious education and psychology.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Asquith Jr. |first1=Glenn H. |title=Anton T. Boisen and the Study of "Living Human Documents" |journal=Journal of Presbyterian History |date=Fall 1982 |volume=60 |issue=3 |pages=244–265 |jstor=23328440 |pmid=11617457 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23328440}}</ref>
He played a role in the foundation of the Religious Education Association (becoming President in 1909) and served as the editor of ''The Social Frontier'', a publication of the Progressive Education Association.<ref name=setran/><ref name=dict/> His writings promoted Liberal Protestantism and the Social Gospel.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Stevens |first1=Maryanne |title=Rethinking George Albert Coe |journal=Religious Education |date=1987 |volume=82 |issue=1 |pages=115–126|doi=10.1080/0034408870820110 }}</ref> Coe was a Methodist who helped found the Methodist Federation for Social Action.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Nicholson |first1=Ian |title=Academic Professionalization and Protestant Reconstruction, 1890-1902: George Albert Coe's Psychology of Religion |journal=Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences |date=1994 |volume=30 |issue=4 |pages=348–368|doi=10.1002/1520-6696(199410)30:4<348::AID-JHBS2300300404>3.0.CO;2-T }}</ref> Additionally he held memberships of the American Philosophical Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.<ref>{{cite book |title=History of Northwestern University and Evanston |date=1906 |publisher=Munsell Publishing Company |page=576}}</ref>
In the 1930s he founded the ''Committee on Militarism in Education''<ref>{{cite news |title=Educators Assail U.S. War Secretary |work=The Spokesman-Review |date=30 December 1935}}</ref> and was involved in the American Committee for the Protection of Foreign Born.<ref>{{cite book |title=Hearing[s] Before the Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, Eighty-fourth Congress, First-second Sessions Volume 7 |date=1955 |publisher=US Government Printing Office |pages=8278 and 8282}}</ref> In the later part of his life he became sympathetic to Marxist ethics,<ref name=dict/> stating that "Marx raised the fundamental ethical questions whether it is humane or just that a man's sustenance should depend on his contributing by his labor to the private profit of another".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Nelson Duke |first1=David |title=In the Trenches with Jesus and Marx Harry F. Ward and the Struggle for Social Justice |date=2003 |publisher=University of Alabama Press |page=211}}</ref> He considered that "we are not done with Marxism when we weight the merits and demerits of the Soviet government, nor when we choose between communist and anti-communist ideology" due to this ethical concern.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hedborg Craig |first1=Robert |title=Religion and Radical Politics An Alternative Christian Tradition in the United States |date=1992 |publisher=Temple University Press |page=193}}</ref> He was one of 450 figures to sign a statement defending the "constitutional rights of the Communist Party of the United States"<ref>{{cite book |title=Hearing[s] Before the Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, Eighty-fourth Congress, First-second Sessions Volume 7 |date=1955 |publisher=US Government Printing Office |pages=7188–7191}}</ref> and was involved in the 'National Non-Partisan Committee' to defend those in the Smith Act trials of Communist Party leaders.<ref>{{cite book |title=Hearing[s] Before the Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, Eighty-fourth Congress, First-second Sessions Volume 7 |date=1955 |publisher=US Government Printing Office |pages=7207–8}}</ref>
His personal papers are held at the archives of Yale and Northwestern University. An adherent of liberal theology, his papers contain correspondences with liberal theologians such as Emil Brunner, Adelaide Teague Case, Harrison S. Elliot, and Harry Emerson Fosdick.<ref>{{cite web |title=George Albert Coe papers |url=https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/4/resources/243 |website=archives.yale.edu |publisher=Archives at Yale}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=George A. Coe (1862-1951) Papers |url=https://findingaids.library.northwestern.edu/repositories/6/resources/690 |website=northwestern.edu}}</ref> He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of Southern California.<ref>{{cite journal |journal=School & Society |date=1932 |volume=36 |page=44}}</ref>
==Bibliography== ===Books=== * ''[https://archive.org/details/spirituallifest01coegoog The Spiritual Life: Studies in the Science of Religion]'' (1900) * ''[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.88565/mode/2up The Religion Of A Mature Mind]'' (1902) * ''[https://archive.org/details/educationinrelig0000geor_n3z8/mode/2up Education in Religion and Morals]'' (1904) * ''[https://archive.org/details/the-core-of-good-teaching/mode/2up The Core of Good Teaching]'' (1912) * ''[https://archive.org/details/psychologyofreli0000geor/mode/2up The Psychology of Religion]'' (1916) * ''[https://archive.org/details/asocialtheoryre03coegoog A Social Theory of Religious Education]'' (1917) * ''[https://archive.org/details/bwb_TZ-586-420/mode/2up Law and Freedom in the School: Can and Cannot, Must]'' (1924) * ''[https://archive.org/details/whatailsouryouth0000geor/page/n7/mode/2up What Ails Our Youth?]'' (1925) * ''[https://archive.org/details/whatischristiane0000geor/mode/2up What is Christian Education]'' (1929) * ''[https://archive.org/details/motivesofmen0000geor The Motives of Men]'' (1929) * ''[https://archive.org/details/whatisreligiondo0000geor What is Religion Doing to our Consciences?]'' (1943)
===Articles=== *''A study in the dynamics of personal religion'' in Psychological Review, Vol. 6, No. 5., pp. 484–505. *''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/3149231 Religious Education as a Part of General Education]'' in The Biblical World, Vol. 21, No. 6. (June 1903), pp. 440–6. *''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/3141052 Religion as a Factor in Individual and Social Development]'' in The Biblical World, Vol. 23, No. 1 (Jan., 1904), pp. 37–47 *''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/3154305 The Philosophy of the Movement for Religious Education]'' in the American Journal of Theology, Vol. 8, No. 2 (Apr., 1904), pp. 225–239 *''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/1075122 The Religious Spirit in the Secondary School]'' in The School Review, Vol. 13, No. 8 (Oct., 1905), pp. 581–596 *''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/2011771 Religious Value]'' in The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods, Vol. 5, No. 10 (May 7, 1908), pp. 253–256 *''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/3154590 What Does Modern Psychology Permit Us to Believe in Respect to Regeneration?]'' in The American Journal of Theology, Vol. 12, No. 3 (Jul., 1908), pp. 353–368 *''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/2011345 The Mystical as a Psychological Concept]'' in the Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 6, No. 8 (Apr. 15, 1909), pp. 197–202 *''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/3154833 Religion and the Subconscious]'' in The American Journal of Theology, Vol. 13, No. 3 (Jul., 1909), pp. 337–349 *''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/2762489 Notes on the Recent Census of Religious Bodies]'' in the American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 15, No. 6 (May, 1910), pp. 806–816 *''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/1507016 A New Natural History of Religion]'' in The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 3, No. 3 (Jul., 1910), pp. 366–372 *''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/3155151 The Distinguishing Mark of a Christian]'' in The American Journal of Theology, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Apr., 1912), pp. 256–267 *''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/3154720 The Origin and Nature of Children's Faith in God]'' in the American Journal of Theology, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Apr., 1914), pp. 169–190 *''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/2013372 On Having Friends: A Study of Social Values]'' in the Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 12, No. 6 (Mar. 18, 1915), pp. 155–161 *''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/1195388 The Religious Breakdown of Ministry]'' in The Journal of Religion, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jan., 1921), pp. 18–29 *''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/1195172 Who is Enriched by the Enrichment of Worship?]'' in The Journal of Religion, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Jan., 1923), pp. 22–33 *''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/1195315 What Constitutes a Scientific Interpretation of Religion?]'' in The Journal of Religion, Vol. 6, No. 3 (May, 1926), pp. 225–235 *''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/41176461 What Makes a College Christian?]'' in Christian Education, Vol. 14, No. 1 (October, 1930), pp. 8–15 *''[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.218240/page/n91/mode/2up My Own Little Theatre]'' in ''Religion in Transition'', edited by Vergilius Ferm (1937)
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * {{gutenberg author|58827}} * {{Internet Archive author}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coe, George Albert}} Category:1862 births Category:1951 deaths Category:19th-century Methodists Category:20th-century Methodists Category:20th-century people from New York (state) Category:American educational psychologists Category:Boston University alumni Category:American Methodists Category:Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Category:Fellows of the American Psychological Association Category:Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Category:Northwestern University faculty Category:People from Monroe County, New York Category:Psychologists of religion Category:Union Theological Seminary faculty Category:University of Rochester alumni Category:University of Southern California faculty