Mathews, Shailer, 1863-1941

Shailer Mathews was born in Portland, Maine on May 26, 1863. He received an A.B. from Colby College in 1884, and an M.A. in 1887 In the latter year, he also graduated from Newton Theological Seminary, after which he spent a number of years as a professor at Colby. He was on leave during the year 1890-1891, studying at the University of Berlin, and returned with an enthusiasm for research and the historical-scientific approach to all knowledge that became a life-long characteristic.

In 1894, at the invitation of William Rainey Harper, he came to the newly reorganized University of Chicago, where he was to play an influential role until his retirement in 1933. He held a number of positions in the Divinity School of the University; Assistant Professor of New Testament Interpretation, 1894-97; Professor in the same field, 1897-1905; Professor of Systematic Theology, 1905-1906; Professor of Historical and Comparative Theology, 1906-1933; junior Dean, 1899-1908; Dean, 1908-1933. At the same time he played a very active part as a member of the administrative council of the University as a whole and as a participant in countless faculty and administrative activities He found time to write or to edit more than a score of books, many of which were extremely influential and widely read, particularly those dealing with the new approach to religious knowledge then widely disparaged as "Modernism" and with the social application of the Christian Gospel. He edited a journal of general observation and comment on world affairs, "The World Today", from 1903 to 1911; he also was editor of "The Biblical World", 1913-20 For a long period he was an editorial adviser on religious books for Harpers

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