The Later Theory of Community

Abstract

After his Gifford Lectures, Royce was not again to publish a major philosophical work for seven years. His health required moderation of activity which was largely confined to class lectures and studies in logic. His interest in ethics grew, and this resulted in various lectures and in the publication in 1908 of his major work in ethics, The Philosophy of Loyalty.2 His interest in religious questions also grew, and this resulted in a lecture, “What is Vital in Christianity?,” delivered at Harvard in 1909 and published in William James and Other Essays in 1911.3 He indicated that this was but the inception of a larger work that he was planning on Christianity.4 He delivered the Bross Lectures in 1911 and these were published in 1912 as The Sources of Religious Insight.5 This work complements The Problem of Christanity, particularly the matter of the first volume, by presenting Royce’s conception of the nature of religion which the latter work in part presupposes. We will present a few of these key ideas by way of a transition to The Problem of Christianity.