The Ingersoll Lectures on Human Immortality
Encyclopedia
The Ingersoll Lectures is the name given to an annual series of lectures presented at Harvard University
on the subject of immortality
.
The lectures were initiated by Harvard president Charles W. Eliot in 1896. They are now generally known as The Ingersoll Lectures on Human Immortality.
The lectures were to be published.
From 1896 to 1912 they were issued by the Houghton Mifflin
Company of Boston and New York. From 1914 to 1935 Harvard University Press
published each lecture. Since then, the lectures have been published in the Harvard Divinity Bulletin.
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...
on the subject of immortality
Immortality
Immortality is the ability to live forever. It is unknown whether human physical immortality is an achievable condition. Biological forms have inherent limitations which may or may not be able to be overcome through medical interventions or engineering...
.
Endowment
The Ingersoll Lectureship was founded as a result of a bequest by Miss Caroline Haskell Ingersoll, who died in 1893, leaving the sum of 5000 dollars for the institution of a series of lectures to be read annually in memory of her father, George Goldthwait Ingersoll. The lectures were to take place at the University of Harvard, on the subject of "the immortality of man".The lectures were initiated by Harvard president Charles W. Eliot in 1896. They are now generally known as The Ingersoll Lectures on Human Immortality.
The lectures were to be published.
From 1896 to 1912 they were issued by the Houghton Mifflin
Houghton Mifflin
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is an educational and trade publisher in the United States. Headquartered in Boston's Back Bay, it publishes textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults.-History:The company was...
Company of Boston and New York. From 1914 to 1935 Harvard University Press
Harvard University Press
Harvard University Press is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. In 2005, it published 220 new titles. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. Its current director is William P...
published each lecture. Since then, the lectures have been published in the Harvard Divinity Bulletin.
Lecturers and subjects (slightly incomplete)
The chosen lecturers were as follows- 1896: George A. Gordon — Immortality and the New Theodicy
- 1897: William JamesWilliam 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...
— Human Immortality: Two Supposed Objections to the Doctrine - 1898: Benjamin Ide WheelerBenjamin Ide WheelerBenjamin Ide Wheeler was a Greek and comparative philology professor at Cornell University as well as President of the University of California from 1899 to 1919.-Biography:...
— Dionysos and Immortality - 1899: Josiah RoyceJosiah 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...
— The Conception of Immortality - 1900: John Fiske — Life Everlasting
- 1904: William OslerWilliam OslerSir William Osler, 1st Baronet was a physician. He was one of the "Big Four" founding professors at Johns Hopkins Hospital as the first Professor of Medicine and founder of the Medical Service there. Sir William Osler, 1st Baronet (July 12, 1849 – December 29, 1919) was a physician. He was...
— Science and Immortality - 1905: Samuel McChord CrothersSamuel McChord CrothersSamuel McChord Crothers was an American Unitarian Universalist minister with The First Parish in Cambridge. He was a popular essayist....
— The Endless Life - 1906: Charles Fletcher DoleCharles Fletcher DoleCharles Fletcher Dole was an influential Unitarian minister, speaker, and writer in the Jamaica Plain section of Boston, Massachusetts, and Chairman of the Association to Abolish War...
— The Hope of Immortality: Our Reasons for it - 1906B: Wilhelm OstwaldWilhelm OstwaldFriedrich Wilhelm Ostwald was a Baltic German chemist. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1909 for his work on catalysis, chemical equilibria and reaction velocities...
— Individuality and Immortality - 1908: William Sturgis BigelowWilliam Sturgis BigelowWilliam Sturgis Bigelow was an American physician and collector of Japanese art. He was one of the first Americans to live in Japan , and to introduce the American public to Japanese art and culture...
— Buddhism and Immortality - 1909: G. Lowes DickinsonGoldsworthy Lowes DickinsonGoldsworthy Lowes Dickinson , was a British historian and political activist. He led most of his life at Cambridge, where he wrote a dissertation on Neoplatonism before becoming a fellow. He was closely associated with the Bloomsbury Group.A noted pacifist, Dickinson protested against Britain's...
— Is Immortality Desirable? - 1911: George Andrew Reisner — The Egyptian Conception of Immortality
- 1914: George Foot MooreGeorge Foot MooreGeorge Foot Moore He graduated from Yale University in 1872, where he was a member of Skull and Bones. He was awarded the highest theological qualifiction – the D.D....
— Metempsychosis - 1918: Clifford Herschel MooreClifford Herschel MooreClifford Herschel Moore was an American Latin scholar.Moore was born in Sudbury, Massachusetts, and educated at Harvard and in Europe at Munich . He taught classics in California and Massachusetts, at Phillips Academy in Andover .Moore then taught Latin at the University of Chicago , and at...
— Pagan Ideas of Immortality during the Early Roman Empire - 1920: Charles Reynolds BrownCharles Reynolds BrownCharles Reynolds Brown was an American Congregational clergyman and educator, born in Bethany, W. Va. He graduated at the University of Iowa in 1883 and studied theology in Boston University...
— Living Again - 1921: William Wallace Fenn — Immortality and Theism
- 1922: Kirsopp LakeKirsopp LakeKirsopp Lake was a New Testament scholar and Winn Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Harvard Divinity School. He had an uncommon breadth of interests, publishing definitive monographs in New Testament textual criticism, Greek palaeography, theology, and archaeology...
— Immortality and the Modern Mind - 1923: George Edwin Horr — The Christian Faith and Eternal Life
- 1924: Philip Cabot — The Sense of Immortality
- 1925: Edgar S. BrightmanEdgar S. BrightmanEdgar Sheffield Brightman 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....
— Immortality in Post-Kantian Idealism - 1926: Gustav Kruger — The Immortality of Man According to the Views of the Men of the Enlightenment
- 1927: Harry Emerson FosdickHarry Emerson FosdickHarry Emerson Fosdick was an American clergyman. He was born in Buffalo, New York. He graduated from Colgate University in 1900, and Union Theological Seminary in 1904. While attending Colgate University he joined the Delta Upsilon Fraternity. He was ordained a Baptist minister in 1903 at the...
— Spiritual Values and Eternal Life - 1928: Eugene William Lyman — The Meaning of Selfhood and Faith in Immortality
- 1929: W. Douglas MackenzieWilliam Douglas MackenzieWilliam Douglas Mackenzie, D.D., LL.D. was an American Congregational theologian, born at Fauresmith, Orange River Colony, South Africa, educated in Edinburgh at Watson's College School and at the Congregational Theological Hall...
— Man's Consciousness of Immortality - 1930: Robert A. Falconer — The Idea of Immortality and Western Civilization
- 1931: Julius Seelye Bixler — Immortality and the Present Mood
- 1932: William Pepperell MontagueWilliam Pepperell MontagueWilliam Pepperell Montague was a philosopher of the New Realist school. Montague stressed the difference between his philosophical peers as adherents of either "objective" and "critical realism"....
— The Chances of Surviving Death - 1933: Shailer MathewsShailer MathewsShailer Mathews was a liberal Christian theologian, involved with the Social Gospel movement.Born in Portland, Maine, and graduated from Colby College there, Mathews was progressive in his day, advocating social concerns as part of the Social Gospel message, and subjecting Biblical texts to...
— Immortality and the Cosmic Process - 1934: Walter Eugene Clark — Indian Conceptions of Immortality
- 1935: C. H. DoddC. H. DoddCharles Harold Dodd was a Welsh New Testament scholar and influential Protestant theologian.He is known for promoting "realized eschatology", the belief that Jesus' references to the kingdom of God meant a present reality rather than a future apocalypse.-Life:Dodd was born in Wrexham,...
— The Communion of Saints - 1936: William Ernest HockingWilliam Ernest HockingWilliam Ernest Hocking was an American idealist philosopher at Harvard University. He continued the work of his philosophical teacher Josiah Royce in revising idealism to integrate and fit into empiricism, naturalism and pragmatism...
— Meanings of Death - 1937: George Lyman KittredgeGeorge Lyman KittredgeGeorge Lyman Kittredge was a celebrated professor and scholar of English literature at Harvard University. His scholarly edition of the works of William Shakespeare' as well as his writings and lectures on Shakespeare and other literary figures made him one of the most influential American...
— The Old Teutonic Idea of the Future Life - 1938: Michael Ivanovich Rostoutzeff — The Mentality of the Hellenistic World and the Afterlife
- 1940: James Bissett PrattJames Bissett PrattJames Bissett Pratt was a philosophy teacher at Williams College.He wrote several books.- Writings :* The Psychology of Religious Belief, 1907* What is Pragmatism? 1909* India and its Faiths...
— The Implications of Selfhood - 1941: Alfred North WhiteheadAlfred North WhiteheadAlfred 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...
— Immortality - 1942: Douglas V. SteereDouglas V. SteereDouglas Van Steere was an American Quaker ecumenist.He served as a professor of philosophy at Haverford College from 1928 to 1964 and visiting professor of theology at Union Theological Seminary from 1961 to 1962...
— Death's Illumination of Life - 1943: Rufus M. Jones — The Spell of Immortality
- 1944: Louis FinkelsteinLouis FinkelsteinRabbi Louis Finkelstein was a Talmud scholar, an expert in Jewish law, and a leader of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and Conservative Judaism.-Brief Biography:...
— The Jewish Doctrine of Human Immortality - 1945: Hu Shih — The Concept of Immortality in Chinese Thought
- 1946: John Haynes HolmesJohn Haynes HolmesJohn Haynes Holmes was a prominent Unitarian minister and pacifist, noted for his anti-war activism.-Early years:John Haynes Holmes was born in Philadelphia on November 29, 1879. He studied at Harvard, graduating in 1902, and Harvard Divinity School, which he graduated in 1904. He was then called...
— The Affirmation of Immortality - 1947: Howard ThurmanHoward ThurmanHoward Thurman was an influential American author, philosopher, theologian, educator and civil rights leader. He was Dean of Theology and the chapels at Howard University and Boston University for more than two decades, wrote 21 books, and in 1944 helped found a multicultural church.-Early life...
— The Negro Spiritual Speaks of Life and Death - 1948: Clyde K. M. KluckhohnClyde KluckhohnClyde Kluckhohn , was an American anthropologist and social theorist, best known for his long-term ethnographic work among the Navajo and his contributions to the development of theory of culture within American anthropology.-Early life and education:...
— Conceptions of Death Among Southwestern Indians - 1949: Edwin Ewart Aubrey — Immortality and Purpose
- 1950: Charles Harold DoddC. H. DoddCharles Harold Dodd was a Welsh New Testament scholar and influential Protestant theologian.He is known for promoting "realized eschatology", the belief that Jesus' references to the kingdom of God meant a present reality rather than a future apocalypse.-Life:Dodd was born in Wrexham,...
— Eternal Life - 1951: Georges FlorovskyGeorges FlorovskyGeorges Vasilievich Florovsky was an Eastern Orthodox priest, theologian, historian and ecumenist. He was born in the Russian Empire, but spent his working life in Paris and New York...
— The Resurrection of Life - 1952: Vilhjalmur StefanssonVilhjalmur StefanssonVilhjalmur Stefansson was a Canadian Arctic explorer and ethnologist.-Early life:Stefansson, born William Stephenson, was born at Gimli, Manitoba, Canada, in 1879. His parents had emigrated from Iceland to Manitoba two years earlier...
— The Mackenzie River Coronation Gulf Eskimos: Their Concept of the Spirit World and of Immortality - 1953: Willard L. Sperry — Approaches to the Idea of Immortality
- 1954: Theodore Otto Wedel — The Community of Faith as the Agent of Salvation
- 1955: Oscar CullmannOscar CullmannOscar Cullmann was a Christian theologian in the Lutheran tradition. He is best known for his work in the ecumenical movement, being in part responsible for the establishment of dialogue between the Lutheran and Roman Catholic traditions...
— Immortality of the Soul and Resurrection of the Dead: The Witness of the New Testament - 1956: Harry A. WolfsonHarry Austryn WolfsonHarry Austryn Wolfson was a scholar, philosopher, and historian at Harvard University, the first chairman of a Judaic Studies Center in the United States...
— Immortality and Resurrection in the Philosophy of the Church Fathers - 1957: Hans Hoffman — Immortality of Life
- 1958: Werner JaegerWerner JaegerWerner Wilhelm Jaeger was a classicist of the 20th century.Jaeger was born in Lobberich, Rhenish Prussia. He attended school at Lobberich and at the Gymnasium Thomaeum in Kempen Jaeger studied at the University of Marburg and University of Berlin. He received a Ph.D...
— The Greek Ideas of Immortality - 1959: Henry J. CadburyHenry CadburyHenry Joel Cadbury was a biblical scholar, Quaker historian, writer, and non-profit administrator. A graduate of Haverford College, he was a Quaker throughout his life, though essentially an agnostic...
— Intimations of Immortality in the Thought of Jesus - 1960: John Knox — The Hope of Glory
- 1961: Hans JonasHans JonasHans Jonas was a German-born philosopher who was, from 1955 to 1976, Alvin Johnson Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York City.Jonas's writings were very influential in different spheres...
— Immortality and the Modern Temper - 1962: Paul TillichPaul TillichPaul Johannes Tillich was a German-American theologian and Christian existentialist philosopher. Tillich was one of the most influential Protestant theologians of the 20th century...
— Symbols of Eternal Life - 1963: Jaroslav PelikanJaroslav PelikanJaroslav Jan Pelikan was a scholar in the history of Christianity, Christian theology and medieval intellectual history.-Early years:...
— Immortal Man and Mortal God - 1964: Amos Niven Wilder — Mortality and Contemporary Literature
- 1965: Eric VoegelinEric VoegelinEric Voegelin, born Erich Hermann Wilhelm Vögelin, was a German-born American political philosopher. He was born in Cologne, then Imperial Germany, and educated in political science at the University of Vienna. He became a teacher and then an associate professor of political science at the...
— Immortality: Experience and Symbol - 1966: Wilfred Cantwell SmithWilfred Cantwell SmithWilfred Cantwell Smith was a Canadian professor of comparative religion who from 1964-1973 was director of Harvard's Center for the Study of World Religions. The Harvard Gazette characterized him as one of the field's most influential figures of the past century...
— Eternal Life - 1967: Jürgen MoltmannJürgen MoltmannJürgen Moltmann is a German Reformed theologian. The 2000 recipient of the Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion.-Moltmann's Youth:...
— Resurrection as Hope - 1968: Walter N. PahnkeWalter PahnkeWalter N. Pahnke M.D., Ph.D. was a minister, physician, and psychiatrist who attended Harvard in the early 1960s. He earned an MD from Harvard Medical School, a BD from Harvard Divinity School, a PhD from Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and a Harvard psychiatric residency.He was a...
— The Psychedelic Mystical Experience in the Human Encounter with Death - 1970: Elisabeth Kübler-RossElisabeth Kübler-RossElisabeth Kübler-Ross, M.D. was a Swiss American psychiatrist, a pioneer in Near-death studies and the author of the groundbreaking book On Death and Dying , where she first discussed what is now known as the Kübler-Ross model.She is a 2007 inductee into the American National Women's Hall of Fame...
— On Death and Dying - 1971: Liston O. Mills — ?
- 1977: Jane I. Smith — Reflections on Aspects of Immortality in Islam
- 1981: Victor TurnerVictor TurnerVictor Witter Turner was a British cultural anthropologist best known for his work on symbols, rituals and rites of passage...
— Images of Anti-Temporality: An Essay in the Anthropology of Experience - 1983: Wolfhart PannenbergWolfhart PannenbergWolfhart Pannenberg is a German Christian theologian. His emphasis on history as revelation, centred on the Resurrection of Christ, has proved important in stimulating debate in both Protestant and Catholic theology, as well as with non-Christian thinkers.-Life and views:Pannenberg was baptized as...
— Constructive and Critical Functions of Christian Eschatology - 1984: Martin E. MartyMartin E. MartyMartin Emil Marty is an American Lutheran religious scholar who has written extensively on 19th century and 20th century American religion. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1956, and served as a Lutheran pastor from 1952 to 1962 in the suburbs of Chicago...
— Hell Disappeared. No One Noticed. A Civic Argument - 1985: Robert J. LiftonRobert Jay LiftonRobert Jay Lifton is an American psychiatrist and author, chiefly known for his studies of the psychological causes and effects of war and political violence and for his theory of thought reform...
— The Future of Immortality - 1987: John B. CobbJohn B. CobbJohn B. Cobb, Jr. is an American United Methodist theologian who played a crucial role in the development of process theology. He integrated Alfred North Whitehead's metaphysics into Christianity, and applied it to issues of social justice.-Biography:John Cobb was born in Kobe, Japan in 1925 to...
Jr. — The Resurrection of the Soul - 1988: Wilfred Cantwell SmithWilfred Cantwell SmithWilfred Cantwell Smith was a Canadian professor of comparative religion who from 1964-1973 was director of Harvard's Center for the Study of World Religions. The Harvard Gazette characterized him as one of the field's most influential figures of the past century...
— Transcendence - 1989: Caroline Walker BynumCaroline BynumCaroline Walker Bynum is an American Medieval scholar. She is a University Professor Emerita at Columbia University, where she still teaches, and a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. She was the first woman to be appointed University Professor at Columbia...
— Bodily Miracles and the Resurrection of the Body in the High Middle Ages - 1990: Stephen J. GouldStephen Jay GouldStephen Jay Gould was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. He was also one of the most influential and widely read writers of popular science of his generation....
— (title unavailable, but see http://www.butler.edu/clergyproject/pdf/Rockwell%20-%202008.doc for summary) - 1991: Lawrence Sullivan — Death at Harvard and Death in America
- 1993: Marian Wright EdelmanMarian Wright EdelmanMarian Wright Edelman is an American activist for the rights of children. She is president and founder of the Children's Defense Fund.-Early years:...
— Leave No Child Behind - 1994: Jonathan MannJonathan MannJonathan Mann was a former head of the World Health Organization's global AIDS program.Mann was medically qualified, receiving his B.A. from Harvard College, his M.D. from Washington University in St. Louis , and the degree of M.P.H. from the Harvard School of Public Health in 1980.Mann was a key...
— Health, Society and Human Rights - 1995: Steven KatzSteven T. KatzSteven T. Katz is a Jewish philosopher and scholar. He is the director of the Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies at Boston University in Massachusetts, USA, where he holds the Alvin J. and Shirley Slater Chair in Jewish and Holocaust Studies. Professor Katz was born August 12, 1944 in Jersey...
— The Shoah and Historical Memory - 2002: Daniel CallahanDaniel CallahanDaniel Callahan was born July 19, 1930. Callahan is a philosopher widely recognized for his innovative studies in biomedical ethics.·In high school Callahan was a swimmer and choose to attend Yale University because of its competitive swimming program. While at Yale, he was drawn to...
— The Desire for Eternal Life: Scientific versus Religious Visions - 2006: Karen ArmstrongKaren ArmstrongKaren Armstrong FRSL , is a British author and commentator who is the author of twelve books on comparative religion. A former Roman Catholic nun, she went from a conservative to a more liberal and mystical faith...
— Is Immortality Important? Religion is about inhabiting the eternal in the here and now. - 2008: Leora Batnitzky — From Resurrection to Immortality: Theological and Political Implications in Modern Jewish Thought