Joseph Henry Green

Joseph Henry Green was an English surgeon, lecturer, and philosophical writer closely associated with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Spiritual Philosophy, Vol. 2 belongs to the posthumous two-volume work whose full title is Spiritual Philosophy: Founded on the Teaching of the Late Samuel Taylor Coleridge. John Simon edited the 1865 Macmillan edition and contributed a memoir of Green. The second volume is theological, developing subjects such as the idea of God, the Trinity, redemption, conscience, and spiritual freedom. Green had studied German philosophy, became Coleridge's friend and literary executor, and spent years trying to organize the poet's ideas into a systematic account. His medical career included surgery at St Thomas's Hospital, teaching at King's College London and the Royal College of Surgeons, and two terms as president of the latter institution. The book therefore joins his philosophical commitments to a professional life grounded in anatomy, surgery, and education.