The Cathedral of Humanity on Halsted Street: Jane Addams, Auguste Comte, and Edward Caird

Jane Addams played an integral role in the development of a pragmatic ethic. Influenced by Darwinian naturalism, Addams found her religious calling as the founder of an American settlement house, Hull House. On a postgraduation European tour Addams visited Toynbee Hall and met followers of Auguste Comte's Religion of Humanity and adherents of Edward Caird's Oxford Hegelian idealism. Comte's account of the social organism provides Addams with an alternative to Spencer's social Darwinism, one more compatible with Addams's social gospel ethics. Caird's Hegelian interpretation of the evolution of Christianity shaped the settlement movement. Addam's saw her American settlement house as the perfect environment for developing American democratic and humanistic faith.