There is a great interest in comparative religion and a desire to understand faiths other than our own and even to experiment with exotic cults.

Biography
Born in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston into an affluent family Emily Greene Balch was amongst the first graduates of Bryn Mawr College in 1889. Emily Greene Balch (January 8 1867 – January 9 1961) was an American economist and writer. She continued to study sociology and economics in Europe and the United States and in 1896 Emily Greene Balch joined the faculty of Wellesley College becoming a full professor of economics and sociology in 1913.

A pacifist dissident Balch was fired from her professorship at Wellesley College due to her anti-war views during World War I. She later became a Quaker and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1946 (the prize that year was shared with John Mott) notably for her work with the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).