Permanent Characteristics of Liberal Religion
Summary
An incomplete -- but long -- manuscript. Davis arrives at two key generalizations by considering the lives and efforts of two early pioneers; Thomas Hooker, who co-founded Hartford, Connecticut in the mid-1600s, and an unnamed ancestor. One of these generalizations is that social developments, both political, industrial, and religious, grow out of forces already operating in life. Facts need to be recognized and science is a key route to their recognition. The other, moral, generalization is that free inquiry is a fundamental moral principle for modern life. Davis tries twice to argue that the world is imbued with moral purpose, but the essay is incomplete on this point.