Warren Felt Evans
Warren Felt Evans | |
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| Born | December 23, 1817 Rockingham, Vermont, United States |
| Died | 1889 |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation(s) | Philosopher, author |
| Known for | First author of the New Thought movement[1] |
| Part of a series of articles on |
| New Thought |
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Warren Felt Evans (December 23, 1817-1889) was an American author of the New Thought movement. He became a student of the movement in 1863, after seeking healing from its founder, Phineas P. Quimby. He was the founder of a mind-cure sanitarium in Salisbury, Massachusetts, and has been referred to as "the recording angel of metaphysics".[1]
Personal life
Born in Rockingham, Vermont, Evans was sixth of seven children. After studying at Chester Academy he entered Middlebury College in 1837, transferring the next year to Dartmouth College. He left in the middle of his junior year for financial reasons.[2] He married M. Charlotte Tinker two years afterwards in 1840.
Career
Evans became a Methodist minister in 1838, serving eleven different charges until 1863. That year he left the Methodists and joined the Church of the New Jerusalem after reading the books of Emanuel Swedenborg.
In 1863, Evans went to Portland, Maine, to find healing in the philosophy and methods of Phineas P. Quimby. Soon after, with Quimby's permission, he opened a mental medicine office in Claremont, New Hampshire. He and his wife opened an office in Boston. They practiced and informally taught the principles of mental healing there for 20 years.[3][4]
Charles Braden, a metaphysical historian, wrote that Evans, "was the only important figure, aside from Mrs. Eddy, who attempted to work out a consistent and philosophically supported system of metaphysical healing and mental healing after Quimby."[1]
Writing
Evans was the first to write about the New Thought movement began by Quimby. His first book was published six years after Quimby died, and he continued writing for the rest of his life.
- (1869) The Mental Cure (Illustrating the Influence of the Mind on the Body, Both in Health and Disease, and the Psychological Method of Treatment).
- (1872) Mental Medicine.
- (1875) Soul and Body.
- (1881) The Divine Law of Cure.
- (1885) The Primitive Mind Cure.
- (1886) Esoteric Christianity and Mental Therapeutics.
References
- ^ a b c Vahle, N. (2002) The Unity movement: Its evolution and spiritual teachings. Templeton Foundation Press. p 127.
- ^ Lawerence, J.L. "An Extraordinary Season in Prayer: Warren Felt Evans's Journey into "Scientific" Spiritual Practice", Retrieved June 4, 2011.
- ^ Andersen, C.A. "The Healing Idealism Of P. P. Quimby, W. F. Evans, And The New Thought Movement", Retrieved June 4, 2011.
- ^ Teahan, J.F. (1979) "Warren Felt Evans and Mental Healing: Romantic Idealism and Practical Mysticism in Nineteenth-Century America", Church History. Vol. 48, No. 1.