This book deals with Bernard Eugene Meland's "life" (as presented in his unpublished intellectual autobiography) and "thought" as a constructive theologian who taught in the Divinity School of The University of Chicago (1945-64). When Meland was in the process of completing his doctoral studies at the University of Chicago, he came into close association with Henry Nelson Wieman who was joining the faculty. Meland took the first course Wieman offered in which they read William Ernest Hocking's The Meaning of God in Human Experience (Part IV) and Whitehead's Religion in the Making. He audited Wieman's other courses. The philosophy of A. N. Whitehead played a large role in their relationship and theology. With the sudden death of G. B. Smith, Wieman became Meland's doctoral advisor. After completing the doctoral program, Meland spent the next year at Marburg University in Germany studying with Rudolf Otto. He came away from this experience having discovered that the stimulus and lure in the language of the arts had become for him an alternative to the moral way of expressing value, sensibility, and fulfillment of human experience. He returned from Europe to begin teaching at Central College in Missouri and in 1936 joined the faculty at Pomona College in Claremont, California. His association with Wieman continued in the 1930s as they co-authored American Philosophies of Religion (1936). While teaching at Central College, Meland authored Modern Man's Worship (1934), and at Pomona College published Write Your Own Ten Commandments (1938), and The Church and Adult Education (1939).In 1945, Meland joined Wieman at the Divinity School as Professor of Constructive Theology. Although Wieman soon retired, their connection continued throughout Wieman's life. The Second World War had concluded and Meland was in a state of anguish and despair over the war and especially by the atomic bomb. In this troubled state of mind he published Seeds of Redemption (1947), America's Spiritual Culture (1948), and The Reawakening of Christian Faith (1949). His next two publications were Higher Education and the Human Spirit (1953) and Faith and Culture (1955), with the latter considered by many as his most important work. While teaching at Chicago, Meland twice served twice as The Barrows Lectures in India. His lectures in 1957-58 were published as The Realities of Faith (1962). In 1963-64, he continued his theme of the relationship between faith and culture by focusing on the impact of secularization on modern cultures. These lectures were published as The Secularization of Modern Cultures (1966). His last book was Fallible Forms and Symbols (1977).In the first section of this book, Meland's "thought" is considered under four headings: Metaphysical View, Method, Doctrine of God, and View of Religion, followed by an evauation. Section two is devoted to his "Later Writings," followed by a conclusion.

Edward Scribner Ames (1870-1958) was raised in the American Midwest as his family moved westward after the Civil War. His father was a minister in the Disciples of Christ, which was later changed to the Christian Church. In between serving several small churches in the Iowa area, his father did various odd jobs. Young Ames joined the Church one Sunday when his father was preaching, and was baptized in the river that afternoon. Ames was able to attend Drake College in Des Moines, Iowa, and did a post-graduate year here. He then went to Yale University's Divinity School, where he was placed in the senior class because of his previous studies. Following the BD, he spent two years toward a PhD at Yale. In 1894, Dr William R. Harper, whom Ames had known at Yale, was the new president of the new University of Chicago. Harper arranged for a fellowship for Ames to complete his dissertation and become the first PhD student under the departmental leadership of John Dewey. Ames taught the next three years at Butler College, a Disciples institution. He then returned to Chicago to become minister of a very small Disciples Church located near the center of the University. Soon after his return as a minister, Dewey offered him part time teaching in the philosophy department. As the years went by Ames taught more until he carried a full teaching load, ministered to the people of his Church, raised money to build the Disciples Divinity House at the University of Chicago, served as Dean of the DDH, and retired as Chairman of the philosophy department. He continued serving as minister to his Church for five more years. Ames taught for thirty five years at the University of Chicago and served in his final ministry for forty years. Ames would have nothing to do with theology, which he considered to be a process of looking for a black cat in a dark room that is not there. Being strongly influenced by William James, Ames published Psychology of Religious Experience in 1910, in which he presents a pragmatic view of religious experiences from the perspective of the modern science of his day. If there is a God, this God must be immanent in nature. Humans are relational animals who have evolved like other animals. In considering Christianity, Ames begins with Jesus and seeks a God as good as Jesus. For Ames, Jesus' greatness is to be found in his ethical and spiritual teachings. God is the total living process, which encompasses our intelligence and conduct. This God is not supernatural but wholly natural. Ames was a prolific writer. In order to expose the development of his thought, this volume presents his ideas historically by considering his major writings as well as journal articles, which addressed issues not completely considered in other writings. The companion volume, Edward Scribner Ames' Unpublished Manuscripts, contains important lectures as he relates his pragmatism to John Dewey and other pragmatic thinkers, as well as attempting to lead Disciples' ministers to expand their thought.