These lectures were given under the auspices of the Lowell Institute of Boston, MA in 1848-1849. In this series of lectures Bowen endeavours to show that the fundamental doctrines of religion rest upon the same basis that supports all science, and that they cannot be denied without also rejecting familiar truths that are adopted almost unconsciously, and upon which the conduct of life and the regulation of our ordinary concerns. Bowen argues that the time seems to have arrived for a more practical and immediate verification than the world has ever witnessed of the great truth, that the civilization that is not based upon Christianity is big with the elements of its own destruction.(PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).