BURHOE,RALPH,WENDELL - HIS LIFE AND HIS THOUGHT .3. DEVELOPING THE VISION AMONG THE UNITARIANS, 1954-1964

This third installment in David Breed's intellectual biography of Ralp h Wendell Burhoe focuses upon the impact of his thought on the Unitari an Universalist Association and that group's role in Burhoe's career. Dana McLean Greeley, elected president of the American Unitarian Assoc iation in 1958, was a key figure in Burhoe's eventual participation in the project, "The Free Church in a Changing World." Burhoe's emphasis on the need for doctrine that could communicate religious wisdom in t erms of science stood in tension with free-church tradition. Neverthel ess, the section of the project's final report, titled "Theology and t he Frontiers of Learning," largely accepted Burhoe's program for a new natural theology based on science. This project brought Burhoe's prog ram to the attention of the denomination and led to the invitation in 1964 from Malcolm Sutherland, on behalf of Meadville/Lombard Theologic al School in Chicago, of which he was president, for Burhoe to impleme nt his program in the new curriculum of that school. Burhoe accepted.