Encyclopedia of Religion
and Society

William H. Swatos, Jr. Editor

Table of Contents | Cover Page  |  Editors  |  Contributors  |  Introduction  |  Web Version

WHITMAN, LAURIS B.
(1909-1983) B.D., Andover-Newton; Ph.D., Penn State. First president, Religious Research Association (1959-1961).

Whitman's career bridged religion and the social sciences: pastorates, sociology professor, most of 1955-1969 employed by the National Council of Churches as Research Department Director, where he drew upon the expertise of consultant sociologists for in-house and interdenominational research planning. He also employed a psychologist for a landmark Christian education study. As first president of the church-oriented Religious Research Association, he performed a liaison function with the academically oriented Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. In his 1966 RRA H. Paul Douglass lecture, "Religion and Social Science: Two Worlds or One?" (in the Review of Religious Research 1968), he described desirable collaboration between religion and the social sciences.

Everett L. Perry

 

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