Horace Bushnell and the Religious Education Movement1

Abstract

This article tests the assumption that Horace Bushnell was the father of the religious education movement, despite the fact that at least two generations lapsed between the final edition of his groundbreaking book, Christian Nurture, in 1861 and the formation of the Religious Education Association in 1903. It contends that William Rainey Harper was both the father of the movement and the founder of the Religious Education Association, while Bushnell can be viewed as the “spiritual father” of the movement, with Henry Clay Trumbull as the link between the two. George Albert Coe can be seen as the “dean” of religious educators and a leader of the movement in the first half of the 20th century.