Douglass, Harlan Paul (1871–1953)

Pastor, mission administrator, and social scientist

Harlan Paul Douglass was born in Osage, Iowa on January 4, 1871 to Truman Orville and Maria Greene Douglass, and had three brothers and two sisters. Douglass’ life and career can be broken up into three chapters: 12 years as a pastor in the Midwest United States, seven years as a mission administrator, and over 30 years as a professional sociologist.

Pastor

Douglass received a Bachelor’s degree in 1891 from Iowa College (now Grinnell), and began studies at Chicago Theological Seminary the same year in aim of becoming a minister. He transferred to Andover Theological Seminary and received a theological degree in 1894 and was ordained in Iowa in the Congregationalist church shortly thereafter. In 1895 Douglass married Rena Sherman, with whom he had one child, Dorothea. He bounced between the Midwest and the Northeast, taking courses (Harvard University, Columbia University), teaching courses (Drury College, Springfield, MO), and pastoring churches (Manson, IA; Springfield, MO).

Several of his manuscripts deal with race relations, and in a letter to his mother, Douglass’ wife described how upset he had been in accidentally witnessing a lynching. Douglass’ position on race seems to have been a contributing factor to his departure from his last pastorate in Missouri, which two years later was the scene of intense white-dominated racial violence.

Mission Administrator

From 1906–10 Douglass served as the Superintendent of Education for the American Missionary Association (AMA) and Corresponding Secretary until 1918. Although it is unknown why Douglass made the shift from pastor to mission administrator, his choice of the AMA makes sense in light of his position on race. The AMA was established in 1846 by a group of abolitionists who had founded schools for African Americans and other minorities (including Appalachian whites) during the US Civil War. The organization seemed to have pulled together threads of Douglass’ Christian faith, passion for education, and belief in equality of all people.

As Superintendent he was in charge of 75 schools for African Americans and mountaineers in the South, constructing new school buildings, managing finances, and organizing volunteer labor. He was dedicated to hiring teachers regardless of race or gender and argued for hiring African Americans over whites if they were better qualified.

The position of Corresponding Secretary extended Douglass’ responsibilities beyond the South to the administration of the entire United States, its territories, and Mexico. He traveled extensively during this time and became an expert on rural America through his keen observational skills and great attention to detail. He wrote another mission-related text as Corresponding Secretary, The New Home Missions: An Account of Their Social Redirection (1914), which was in line with popular socially oriented missionary thought of the time, arguing that the mission of the church was to Christianize the United States but with the added responsibility of addressing social needs and eradicating social injustice. For Douglass, home missions were the most effective method for addressing these tasks because of their concern with justice and localized attention to social problems.

Following World War I, Douglass worked for a year in France with the Army Educational Corps for the education and demobilization of black troops. His proposed program to combine military work, agricultural training, and education (specifically literacy) was rejected. He had much more success in agricultural work, gaining international attention for organizing the 1919 Inter-Allied Conference on World Agriculture and was awarded the Order of Chevalier Mérite Agricole (Order of Agricultural Merit) by the French government. Upon his return to the United States later in 1919, Douglass worked with the Interchurch World Movement as Manager of the Agricultural Labor Branch. In this position he fully developed his research methodology, which always included both survey data and field research, even as far as working as a migrant worker for a period of time in order to study migrant workers.

Social Scientist

Douglass did graduate work in sociology at University of Chicago and Columbia University, the two important schools in the development of American sociology. He was influenced by prominent figures in the emerging field of sociology, such as Albion Small and Franklin Giddings, and developed a strong American (as opposed to European) sense of the discipline. Despite his long career in sociological research, Douglass never earned a Ph.D. His credibility as a sociologist rested more in his experience on the field than specialized training and credentials.

His career as a sociologist officially began in 1921 at age 50 when he joined the staff of the Institute of Social and Religious Research (“the Institute”) as Research Director shorty after it was organized. During its 13-year span the Institute produced 48 research projects and published 78 books. Douglass personally authored 12 books during this time, 11 of which were based on Institute studies.

Douglass’ area of expertise was the local church in all settings: rural, suburban, and urban. He was concerned with church unity and cooperation and used empirical data to support his recommendations for action to strengthen churches. Douglass embodied both a religious leader and a pioneering sociologist in his belief that when the facts are gathered and presented accurately, people will know what the best course of action is. He is described as having only one “dogma”: the “pursuit of facts to illumine the phenomenon he was studying.” Faith in rationality was his backdrop; he believed in reason and the scientific method coupled with laboring to do God’s work on earth.

When the Institute for Social and Religious Research folded in 1934, Douglass moved on to a series of positions in continuation of religious research and, particularly, church unity. He was the research director for an appraisal commission for the American Unitarian Association in 1934, and in 1937 became Secretary to the Federal Council of Churches’ Commission to Study Church Unity. This position was strategic for Douglas in further developing his ecumenical vision. In 1938 Douglass became the editor of the journal Christendom, which was incorporated into The Ecumenical Review with the founding of the World Council of Churches in 1948. He served as Senior Associate Editor of The Ecumenical Review until 1950. In 1943 he became Chairman of the Research Department of the Federal Council of Churches and two years later the Director of the Committee for Cooperative Field Research of the Home Missions Council and the Federal Council of Churches. Each study he performed in these various positions consisted of assembling facts to solve specific problems and promote policy. Douglass never quite retired, and died at age 82 on April 14, 1953.

The line between sociology and missiology today is much sharper than it was in Douglass’ lifetime. Douglass was neither a missionary nor a missiologist in the strictest sense of either term, nor is he particularly remembered for his work as a pastor or with the American Missionary Association. However, Douglass’s contributions to the sociology of religion are significant, and are connected with trends in missiological thinking at the time. Part of his legacy is the focus on practice and formulating church policy above theory; he was not concerned with truth for truth’s sake but instead the practical application of truth to real-world problems. Douglass’ primary role was as a social scientist in service of the church. Although never set out to write a missiological treatise, missiological themes are apparent in Douglass’ work: in particular, connections between race, evolution, and God; foreign mission; and Christian unity.

by Gina Zurlo

Bibliography

Digital Primary Texts

Douglass, H. Paul. Christian Reconstruction in the South. Boston: The Pilgrim Press, 1909.

____. Congregational Missionary Work in Porto Rico. New York: American Missionary Association, 1910.

____. From Survey to Service. New York: Council of Women for Home Missions, 1921.

____. The Little Town, Especially in its Rural Relationships. New York: Macmillan Company, 1919.

____. The New Home Missions: An Account of their Social Redirection. New York: Missionary Education Movement of the United States and Canada, 1914.

____. The Suburban Trend. New York: Century Press, 1925.

Primary Texts

____. 1000 City Churches: Phases of Adaptation to Urban Environment. New York: George H. Doran Company, 1926.

____. A Decade of Objective Progress in Church Unity, 1927–1936. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1937.

____. Church Comity: A Study of Coöperative Church Extension in American Cities. Garden City: Doubleday, Doran and Company, 1929.

____. The Church in the Changing City: Case Studies Illustrating Adaptation. New York: George H. Doran Company, 1927.

____. Church Study of Metropolitan Hartford, Connecticut. Hartford, CT: Greater Hartford Federation of Churches, 1947.

____. Church Unity Movements in the United States. New York: Institute of Social and Religious Research, 1934.

____. The Churches of Warren County, New Jersey: A Study. East Orange, NJ: New Jersey Council of Churches, 1944.

____. The Churches of Youngstown, Ohio: A Reconnaissance Study. Youngstown, OH: Youngstown Church Federation, 1943.

____. The City’s Church. New York: Friendship Press, 1929.

____. Ecumenicity Across the Street. New York: Pathfinding Service, 1947.

____. The Greater Cincinnati Church Study. Cincinnati: Council of Churches, 1947.

____. How Shall Country Youth Be Served? A Study of the “Rural” Work of Certain National Character-Building Agencies. New York: George H. Doran Company, 1926.

____. Increased Population and Housing Facilities in Cleveland: With Reference to the Responsibility of the Protestant Churches. Cleveland: Cleveland Church Federation, 1944.

____. Jersey City: The Community and Its Churches: A Brief Survey. Newark, NJ: New Jersey Council of Churches, 1945.

____. The Little Town, Especially in its Rural Relationships. New York: MacMillan Company, 1927.

____. Minneapolis Churches: A Brief Study of Their Institutional Aspects. Minneapolis: Burgess Publishing Company, 1944.

____. Missionary Boston. Boston: Massachusetts Council of Churches, 1944.

____. The Negro in the United States: A Brief Study. New York: Missionary Education Movement of the United States and Canada, 1912.

____. New Responsibilities of the Churches of Greater Dayton: A Study of the Religious Situation in a Major Industrial Community. Dayton: Church Federation of Dayton, 1943.

____. The Presbyterian Church in Metropolitan Philadelphia: A Study. Philadelphia: Synod of Pennsylvania, 1942.

____. Protestant Cooperation in American Cities. New York: Institute of Social and Religious Research, 1930.

____. Rhode Island Suburban and Rural Protestant Churches, 1949: A Study Made for the Rhode Island Council of Churches. Providence: Rhode Island Council of Churches, 1949.

____. Some Protestant Churches in America: The Comity Report, 1950, Based on the Studies, 1941–1949, of the Committee for Co-operative Field Research and Predecessor Agencies. New York: Commission on Planning and Adjustment of Local Inter-Church Relations, 1950.

____. Some Protestant Churches in Rural America: A Summary and Interpretation. New York: Town & Country Church, 1950.

____. Some Protestant Churches in Urban America. New York: Federal Council of Churches, 1950.

____. The Springfield Church Survey: A Study of Organized Religion With its Social Background. New York: George H. Doran Company, 1926.

____. The St. Louis Church Survey. New York: Arno Press, 1924.

____. Study of Tioga County, New York. Syracuse, NY: New York Council of Churches, 1941.

Douglass, H. Paul, and Edmund deS. Brunner. The Protestant Church as a Social Institution. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1935.

Secondary Sources

Brewer, Earl D. C., and Douglas W. Johnson. “Research Documents in the H. Paul Douglass Collection.” Review of Religious Research 13:2 (Winter 1972): 107–11.

Brunner, Edmund deS. “Harlan Paul Douglass: Pioneer Researcher in the Sociology of Religion.” Review of Religious Research 50 (October 2008): 11­–29.

Fichter, Joseph H. “1959 Harlan Paul Douglass Lecture: The Religious Professional.” Review of Religious Research 1:3 (Winter 1960): 89–101.

Hadden, Jeffrey K. “H. Paul Douglass: His Perspective and His Work.” Review of Religious Research 22:1 (September 1980): 66–88.

Perry, Everett L. “Douglass, H(arlan) Paul (1871–1953).” In Encyclopedia of Religion and Society, edited by William H. Swatos, Jr. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 1998. http://hirr.hartsem.edu/ency/douglass.htm.

Roozen, David A. “10,001 Congregations: H. Paul Douglass, Strictness and Electric Guitars.” Review of Religious Research 44:1 (September 2002): 5–21.

Shippey, Frederick A. “The Concept of Church in H. Paul Douglass.” Review of Religious Research 4:3 (Spring 1963): 155–71.

Works Cited

Brewer, Earl D. C., and Douglas W. Johnson. “Research Documents in the H. Paul Douglass Collection.” Review of Religious Research 13:2 (Winter 1972): 107–11.

Brunner, Edmund deS. “Harlan Paul Douglass: Pioneer Researcher in the Sociology of Religion.” Review of Religious Research 50 (October 2008): 11­–29.

Douglass, H. Paul. Christian Reconstruction in the South. Boston: The Pilgrim Press, 1909.

____. Church Comity: A Study of Coöperative Church Extension in American Cities. Garden City: Doubleday, Doran and Company, 1929.

____. A Decade of Objective Progress in Church Unity, 1927–1936. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1937.

____. The New Home Missions: An Account of their Social Redirection. New York: Missionary Education Movement of the United States and Canada, 1914.

____. Protestant Cooperation in American Cities. New York: Institute of Social and Religious Research, 1930.

____. The St. Louis Church Survey. New York: Arno Press, 1924.

Douglass, H. Paul, and Edmund deS. Brunner. The Protestant Church as a Social Institution. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1935.

Douglass, Rena S. Undated Personal Correspondence to Marie Green Douglass. The Amistad Research Center, H. Paul Douglass Collection.

DuBois, W. E. B. “Of the Faith of the Fathers.” In DuBois on Religion, edited by Phil Zuckerman, 47–56. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2000.

Fichter, Joseph H. “1959 Harlan Paul Douglass Lecture: The Religious Professional.” Review of Religious Research 1:3 (Winter 1960): 89–101.

Hadden, Jeffrey K. “H. Paul Douglass: His Perspective and His Work.” Review of Religious Research 22:1 (September 1980): 66–88.

Hocking, William H. Re-Thinking Missions: A Laymen’s Inquiry After One Hundred Years. New York: Harper Brothers, 1932.

Hutchinson, William R. Errand to the World: American Protestant Thought and Foreign Missions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.

Janowitz, Morris. The Last Half-Century. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978.

McKinney, William. “Religious Leadership, Religious Research and Religious Renewal.” Review of Religious Research 40:1 (September 1998): 5–15.

Niebuhr, H. Richard. The Social Sources of Denominationalism. New York: World Publishing, 1929.

Religious Research Association. “The H. Paul Douglass Lectures.”

Roozen, David A. “10,001 Congregations: H. Paul Douglass, Strictness and Electric Guitars.” Review of Religious Research 44:1 (September 2002): 5–21.

Shippey, Frederick A. “The Concept of Church in H. Paul Douglass.” Review of Religious Research 4:3 (Spring 1963): 155–71.

Stonsby, Ella V. The Sociology of Urban Protestantism According to Harlan Paul Douglass. Thesis (PhD) Drew University, 1976. Ann Arbor, Mich: University Microfilms International, 1978.

Links

Everett L. Perry, “Douglass, Harlan Paul,” Encyclopedia of Religion and Society.