Sophia Fahs
From Philosopedia
Fahs, Sophia Lyon (1876-1978)
Fahs, who was born in China where her parents were Presbyterian missionaries, was the principal figure in the remaking of Unitarian religious educational materials during the 1930s.
She married Charls Harvey Fahs, a Methodist minister, and in 1902 received her A.B. from the College of Wooster (1897); her M.A. from Teachers College (1904); and a B.D. from Union Theological Seminary (1926).
Fahs taught religious education at that seminary from 1927-1944 and was on the staff of the church school at Riverside Church, New York City (1933-1942).
In 1937 she became the Unitarians' children's editor for a new series, "The New Beacon Series," for which she wrote or co-wrote many books.
"Each night a child is born is a holy night," she was known for saying.
Not until she was eighty-two was she ordained into the Unitarian ministry by the Cedar Lane Uniarian Universalist Church in Bethesda, Maryland.
Fahs recognized the often overlooked importance of early childhood education, and she worked to provide suitable materials to be used with Unitarian youth.
Works
- Uganda's White Man of Work (1907)
- "How Childish Should a Child's Religion Be?" for the magazine Religious Education (1928)
- Consider the Children How They Grow (1940)
- The Church Across the Street (1947)
- Today's Children and Yesterday's Heritage, A Philosophy of Creative Religious Development (1952)
- From Long Ago and Many Lands (1955)
- The Old Story of Salvation (1961)
- Worshipping Together with Questioning Minds (1965)
- Old Tales for a New Day, with Alice Cobbs - (published posthumously in 1981)
