MATHEWS, SHAILER

Baptist theologian; b. Portland, Maine, May 26, 1863; d. Chicago, Ill., Oct. 23, 1941. After studying at Colby College, Waterville, Maine, the Newton Theological Institution, Mass., and the University of Berlin, Germany, Mathews taught at Colby College for seven years. Later he joined the faculty of the divinity school at the University of Chicago (1894–1908) and served as dean of the school (1908–33). As one of the early and influential proponents of the social gospel, he attempted to apply the teachings of Christ to modern social and economic problems. He was a defender of the modernist point of view and sought to effect a cooperation between science and religion. For him, theology was functional, its purpose being to give a rational statement of Christian attitudes and hopes in a particular era. He maintained that theological thought can be meaningful only when it uses the social patterns of the times as a vehicle of expression. "Religion," he held, "will have to find a pattern which is as axiomatic for modern man of our day as the pattern of sovereignty was to the modern man of the sixteenth century" (Jackson, 35–36). He was the author of numerous books, including The Social Teachings of Jesus (1897), The Faith of Modernism (1924), Creative Christianity (1935), and The New Faith for Old: An Autobiography (1936). From 1903 to 1911 he was editor of the World Today, and later was editor of the Biblical World (1913–20). He served for four years as president of the Federal Council of Churches (1912–16).

See Also: national council of the churches of christ in the u.s.a.

Bibliography: j. h. jackson, Many But One (New York 1964).

[e. delaney]