Originally a Baptist in the habit of reading the Bible daily and memorizing numerous passages from it, Royce’s father joined the Disciples of Christ in 1857. His seminary-trained mother, with her mystical, evangelical sense of the divine presence, preferred the quiet devotions of the Congregational Church, but helped her husband all the same in organizing the Disciples’ congregation. With the father often on the road in a mostly futile pursuit of the American dream, Royce’s religious upbringing was directed mainly by his mother. His lifelong intimacy with the Scriptures owed much to the fascination he experienced as a child listening to his mother reading stories to him from the Bible. The first book he remembered reading independently was the Apocalypse from the copy of the New Testament on display in the family’s living room. When home, the father strictly supervised the biblical readings, prayers, and singing of evangelical hymns. This paternal regimen, along with the excessive…