Savage, Minot Judson (1841-1918)
Savage, Minot Judson (1841-1918)
Unitarian clergyman, author, and an early member of the American Society for Psychical Research. He was born on June 10, 1841, at Norridgewock, Maine. He studied at Bangor Theological Seminary, graduated in 1864, and was ordained as a Congregational minister a short time afterward. He served churches in California, Massachusetts, and Missouri. In 1873 he left Congregationalism and joined the Unitarian Church. He subsequently pastored the Third Unitarian Church, Chicago (1873-74), the Church of the Unity, Boston (1874-96), and the Church of the Messiah (now the Community Church), New York City (1896-1906).
Savage frequently advocated the examination of Darwin's evolutionary theories and their acceptance by the church. Evolution, he believed, tended to strengthen rather than weaken religious faith. His views were expressed in his books: Christianity, the Science of Mankind (1873), The Religion of Evolution (1876), and The Morals of Evolution (1880). As were many liberal thinkers of the day, he became interested not only in the scientific approach to origins supplied by biology, but the light shed on the end of earthy life by psychical research. He wrote several books dealing with issues of religion and survival. He died May 22, 1918, in Boston, Massachusetts.
Sources:
Savage, Minot J. Can Telepathy Explain? New York; London: G. P. Putnam's & Sons, 1902; 1903.
——. Immortality. N.p., 1906.
——. Life Beyond Death. New York; London: G. P. Putnam's & Sons, 1899; 1902; 1903.