Edgar Sheffield Brightman

(1884-1953) Brightman spent his life as a minister, theologian, and philosopher, famously working on personalism. He was born in Holbrook, Massachusetts on September 20, 1884. Brightman attended Brown University, where he earned an A.B. in in 1906, and an A.M. in 1908. After graduation, he immediately went to Boston University, where he earned an S.T.B. in 1910 and began his doctoral work under Borden Parker Bowne (1847-1910). Concurrently, he began ordained ministry as a deacon in the New England Southern Conference. At Boston University, he was a Jacob Sleeper Fellow, which allowed him to travel to Europe, where he studied in Berlin and Marburg from 1910 to 1911. Brightman received his Ph.D. from Boston in 1912.

He married Charlotte Hülsen in 1912. The couple moved to Nebraska, where Edgar taught psychology, philosophy, and biblical studies at the Nebraska Wesleyan University. Their marriage was cut short by Charlotte’s untimely death in 1915, at which point Brightman returned to New England. That same year, he joined the New England Conference, where he would continue to work for the rest of his life. Also upon his return to New England, he took a post as professor of Ethics and Religion at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. In 1918, he married Irma Fall, with whom he had five children. A year later, he moved to Boston University, where he was the Borden Parker Bowne Professor of Philosophy at the Graduate School. He remained in that chair until his death.

In many ways, Brightman continued Bowne’s school of personalism. They affirmed that the person was the starting place for and source of all understanding of the world and moral truth. He, along with Albert C. Knudson (1873-1953), Francis J. McConnell (1871-1953), George Albert Coe (1861-1951), and Ralph T. Flewelling (1871-1960), are often considered members of the Boston School of Personalism. This was in contrast to the California school, started by George H. Howison (1834-1916). Later, Walter George Muelder, who taught at both Boston University and the University of Southern California bridged the two schools in his “Communitarian Personalism.” In his philosophy of religion, Brightman attempted to understand good and evil in relation to God and history.

Bibliography:

1918. The Sources of the Hexateuch. New York: Abingdon.

1925. Introduction to Philosophy. New York: H. Holt.

1925. Immortality in Post-Kantian Idealism. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

1925. Religious Values. New York: Abingdon.

1928. Philosophy of Ideals. New York: H. Holt.

1930. Problem of God. New York: Abingdon.

1931. The Finding of God. New York: Abingdon.

1932. Is God A Person? New York: Association Press.

1933. Moral Laws. New York: Abingdon.

1934. Personality and Religion. New York: Abingdon.

1937. The Future of Christianity. New York: Abingdon.

1940. Philosophy of Religion. New York: Prentice-Hall.

1942. The Spiritual Life. New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury.

1945. Nature and Values. New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury.

1952. Persons and Values. Boston: Boston University Press.

Sources:

“Edgar Sheffield Brightman,” The Encyclopedia of Methodism (Duke, 1974).