Church Of Humanity
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Church of Humanity was a positivist church in England influenced and inspired by
Auguste Comte Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier Comte (; ; 19 January 1798 – 5 September 1857) was a French philosopher, mathematician and writer who formulated the doctrine of positivism. He is often regarded as the first philosopher of science in the ...
's Religion of Humanity in France. It also had a branch or variant in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, Brazil and other locations.
Richard Congreve Richard Congreve (4 September 1818 – 5 July 1899) was the first English philosopher to openly espouse the Religion of Humanity, the godless form of religious humanism that was introduced by Auguste Comte, as a distinct form of positivism. Con ...
founded the first English Church of Humanity in 1859, just two years after Comte's death. Despite being relatively small the church had several notable members and ex-members. For example, Ann Margaret Lindholm was raised in the "Church of Humanity" before converting to Catholicism. The New York City version originates with English immigrant Henry Edger. In 1854 he decided to dedicate himself to the "positive faith", just two years after his mentor Congreve in Britain. In 1869 an American organization formed with David Goodman Croly as a leading member. Croly strongly believed in the religious element of Comtism, but was somewhat limited in evangelizing for it. By the 1870s the positivist organization led to an American version of the "Church of Humanity." This was largely modeled on the English church. Like the English version it wasn't atheistic and had sermons and sacramental rites. At times the services included readings from conventional religious works like the
Book of Isaiah The Book of Isaiah ( ) is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Major Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. It is identified by a superscription as the words of the 8th-century BC prophet Isaiah ben Amo ...
. It was not as significant as the church in England, but did include several educated people unrelated to Croly. Nevertheless, one of the most noted people raised and baptized in the New York "Church of Humanity" was David Croly's son Herbert Croly. The church of humanity possibly had its greatest impact in Britain.


Temples of Humanity

* Chapel Street Hall — Lamb's Conduit Street, London * Chapelle de l’Humanité — 5 rue Payenne, Distrikt
Le Marais The Marais (Le Marais ; "the marsh") is a historic district in Paris, France. It spreads across parts of the 3rd arrondissement of Paris, 3rd and 4th arrondissement of Paris, 4th Arrondissements of Paris, arrondissements on the Rive Droit ...
,
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
* Templo da Humanidade — Rua Benjamin Constant 74,
Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...
, Brazil * Capela Positivista — Avenida João Pessoa 1058,
Porto Alegre Porto Alegre (, ; , ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian Federative units of Brazil, state of Rio Grande do Sul. Its population of roughly 1.4 million inhabitants (2022) makes it the List of largest cities in Brazil, 11th-most p ...
, Brazil * Capela Positivista — Rua Riachuelo 90,
Curitiba Curitiba () is the capital and largest city in the state of Paraná (state), Paraná in Southern Brazil. The city's population was 1,773,718 , making it the List of cities in Brazil by population, eighth most populous city in Brazil and the larg ...
, Brazil * Newton Hall – Fleur-de-lis Court, off Fetter Lane, Fleet Street, London *Church of Humanity –  Upper Parliament Street, Liverpool *Church of Humanity – Newcastle upon Tyne


See also

* Religion of Humanity - In France and Brazil, possibly more directly from Comte.


References

{{Reflist


Further reading

* Aldanov, Mark. 1944. "A Russian Commune in Kansas." ''Russian Review'' 4 (1):30–44. *Bevir, Mark. 2002. "Sidney Webb: Utilitarianism, Positivism, and Social Democracy." ''The Journal of Modern History'' 74 (2):217–252. *Billington, James H. 1960. "The Intelligentsia and the Religion of Humanity." ''The American Historical Review'' 65 (4):807–821. *Bourdeau, Michel, Mary Pickering, and Warren Schmaus, eds. 2018. ''Love, Order and Progress''. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. *Bryson, Gladys. 1936. "Early English Positivists and the Religion of Humanity." ''American Sociological Review'' 1 (3):343–62. *Claeys, Gregory. 2010. ''Imperial Sceptics''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. *Claeys, Gregory. 2018. "Professor Beesly, Positivism and the International: the Patriotism Issue." In ''"Arise Ye Wretched of the Earth": The First International in a Global Perspective'', edited by Fabrice Bensimon, Quinton Deluermoz and Jeanne Moisand. Leiden: Brill. *Feichtinger, Johannes, Franz L. Fillafer, and Jan Surman, eds. 2018. ''The Worlds of Positivism''. London: Palgrave Macmillan. *Forbes, Geraldine. 2018. "Striking a Chord: The Reception of Comte’s Positivism in Colonial India." In ''The Worlds of Positivism'', edited by Johannes Feichtinger, Franz L. Fillafer and Jan Surman, 31–52. London: Palgrave Macmillan. *Gilson, Gregory D., and Irving W. Levinson, eds. 2013. ''Latin American Positivism''. Lanham: Lexington. *Harp, Gillis J. 1991. "The Church of Humanity." ''Church History'' 60 (4):508–523. *Harp, Gillis J. 1995. ''Positivist Republic''. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. *Harrison, Frederic. 1911. ''Autobiographic Memoirs''. 2 vols. Vol. II. London: Macmillan. *Harrison, Frederic. 1911. ''Autobiographic Memoirs''. 2 vols. Vol. I. London: Macmillan. *Harrison, Frederic. 1912. ''Among My Books. Centenaries, Reviews, Memoirs''. London: Macmillan & Co. *Lenzer, Gertrud, ed. 2009. ''The Essential Writings of Auguste Comte and Positivism''. London: Transaction. *McGee, John Edwin. 1931. ''A Crusade for Humanity: the History of Organized Positivism in England''. London: Watts. *Pickering, Mary. 1993. ''Auguste Comte''. 3 vols. Vol. I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. *Pickering, Mary. 2017. "Auguste Comte and the Curious Case of English Women." In ''The Anthem Companion to Auguste Comte'', edited by Andrew Wernick, 175–204. *Quin, Malcolm. 1924. ''Memoirs of a Positivist''. London: Allen, Unwin. *Raeder, Linda C. 2002. ''John Stuart Mill and the Religion of Humanity''. Columbia: University of Missouri Press. *Simon, W.M. 1963. ''European Positivism in the Nineteenth Century''. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. *Sutton, Michael. 1982. ''Nationalism, Positivism and Catholicism''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. *Vogeler, Martha S. 1978. "Frederic Harrison and the Religion of Humanity." ''The Ethical Record'' 83 (10):3–6. *Wernick, Andrew. 2001. ''Auguste Comte and the Religion of Humanity''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. *Whatmore, Richard. 2005. "Comte, Auguste (1798-1857)." In ''Encyclopaedia of Nineteenth-Century Thought'', edited by Gregory Claeys, 123–8. London: Routledge. *Wilson, Matthew. 2016. "The Utopian Moment." In ''Utopia(s) Worlds And Frontiers Of The Imaginary'', edited by Maria do Rosário  Monteiro and Mário S. Ming  Kong, 77–82. CRC. *Wilson, Matthew. 2018. ''Moralising Space''. London: Routledge. *Wilson, Matthew. 2019. "Dwelling in Possibility?  A Case Study of Deep Heritage Conservation: Liverpool’s Temple of Humanity." In ''Routledge Companion of Global Heritage Conservation'', edited by Vinayak Bharne. Routledge. *Wilson, Matthew. 2019. "Labour, Utopia and Modern Design Theory." ''Intellectual History Review'' 29 (2):313–35. *Wilson, Matthew. 2020. "Rendering sociology." ''Journal of Interdisciplinary History of Ideas'' 8 (16):1–42. *Wunderlich, Roger. 1992. ''Low Living and High Thinking at Modern Times, New York''. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press. 1878 establishments in England Comtism History of New York City Nontheism Social history of London