author
Vivian Phelips
b. 1860
A questioning religious writer of the early 20th century, best known for examining how modern thought challenged traditional Christian belief. His work speaks in a direct, argumentative style that aims more for candor than comfort.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in 1860 and recorded in library authority files as Vivian Phelips (1860–1939), he is chiefly remembered for The Churches and Modern Thought, first published in the early 1900s. The book sets out to examine the grounds of unbelief and the tensions between established Christian doctrine and newer intellectual currents.
Phelips wrote as a critic of organized religion from within a serious moral and philosophical debate, taking up questions of faith, doubt, biblical authority, and the effect of modern scholarship on belief. The tone of his best-known work is thoughtful but combative, aimed at readers willing to test inherited ideas rather than accept them automatically.
Reliable biographical detail about his personal life is limited in the sources readily available online, so he is known today more through his writings than through a full public life story. Records associated with his publications and authority files indicate that he lived from 1860 to 1939.