ACADEMIC PROFESSIONALIZATION AND PROTESTANT RECONSTRUCTION, 1890-1902- COE,GEORGE,ALBERT PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION

This paper examines the relationship between the New Psychology and Am erican Protestantism in the late nineteenth century through a consider ation of the early career of George Albert Coe. Coe originally aspired to become a Methodist minister but after several years studying evolu tionary biology and the New Theology his professional interests came t o rest on the New Psychology. His decision to pursue a career in psych ology and his subsequent research program is discussed in relation to the religious and institutional context of the period. For Coe, the Ne w Psychology was not an ideologically secular initiative but a methodo logically secular means of advancing a religious agenda. His experienc e suggests that the field's growth in the 1890s is partly attributable to the perception that psychology could help bring Protestantism into line with modern experience.