author
Lawrence Thomas Cole
1869–1955
A minister and scholar from Ann Arbor, he is remembered for a thoughtful early study of how Christian belief took shape in conversation with Greek philosophy. His best-known work, The Basis of Early Christian Theism, began as a Columbia University doctoral dissertation in 1898.
1 Audiobook
The Basis of Early Christian Theism
by Lawrence Thomas Cole
About the author
Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on April 24, 1869, Lawrence Thomas Cole was an American clergyman and religious scholar. The surviving records available here are sparse, but they consistently connect him with both church work and academic study, and they place his life between 1869 and 1955.
Cole is best known for The Basis of Early Christian Theism, a study first published in 1898. The book was submitted as part of his PhD work in philosophy at Columbia University and explores how early Christian ideas about God developed alongside Greek philosophical thought. That blend of ministry and scholarship gives his writing a clear sense of purpose: he was interested not only in doctrine itself, but in the intellectual history behind it.
He died on December 18, 1955, and was buried in Forest Hill Cemetery in Ann Arbor. No clearly suitable verified portrait image was confirmed from the sources reviewed, so none is included here.