author
William Hallock Johnson
1865–1963
A philosopher, Presbyterian minister, and educator, he moved between scholarship and leadership, writing on free will and Christian faith while later guiding Lincoln University through a period of change. His life joined academic thought with practical work in higher education.
1 Audiobook
The Christian Faith Under Modern Searchlights
by William Hallock Johnson
About the author
Born in New York City in 1865, William Hallock Johnson became a Presbyterian minister, teacher, and scholar whose work ranged across philosophy, religion, and education. He studied at Princeton and Columbia, and his best-known writing includes The Free-Will Problem in Modern Thought, a study that reflects his interest in moral choice, psychology, and belief.
Johnson later served as president of Lincoln University in Pennsylvania from 1926 to 1936. Accounts of his presidency note that he helped reduce the university's debt and oversaw important changes at the school, including the appointment of its first Black faculty member.
He died in 1963 after a long career that connected church life, academic writing, and university leadership. For listeners coming to his work today, he is an interesting figure not only for what he wrote, but for the way he stood at the meeting point of philosophy, theology, and American higher education.