Was Charles Taze Russell a phrenologist?

Answer 1

No he wasn't (if one means one who practices reading people's heads). If you would like to find out more information about him you can read all of his writings online; you can use Google to search his writings, as they are found on several websites. Russell did believe in the possibility that phrenology was true, and in a few instances made some suggestions related to phrenology and The Bible. Phrenology is generally denounced today as "pseudo science," or "quackery." (We need to remember that many claim similar things concerning the Bible itself.) Whether the principles of Phrenology, as a whole, are actually true or false is still debated. Even if it could be proven to be false, Russell never presented his suggestions on Phrenology with any kind of dogmatism, and if he was misled by Phrenologists of his day, so were many other people, including such people as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Thomas Edison. His teachings, however, were based solely on the Bible, although he often saw things around us that confirm the Bible's teachings.

FURTHERIf one looks up the word Phrenology, we find that rather than being a religious connotation, Phrenology is believed by many to fall more under the category of quack science, although there are many who uphold Phrenology. It is the belief that certain areas of your skull have to be bigger to accommodate certain areas of your brain, much like if you have an athletic build, you have to have shirts that are bigger in the shoulders and arms to accommodate your shape. So, basically Phrenology would teach that if you have a good sense of humour, your skull would have to have a larger area in that particular part of your brain to accommodate the larger size of the part of the brain that has to do with humor. Russell did have some degree of knowledge concerning phrenology, evidently through his association with one "Brother Wallace," who had been actively engaged in Phrenology before becoming associated with the Bible Students movement, and who continued to use the principles of Phrenology to illustrate Biblical truths after associating with the movement. Russell adopted some of Brother Wallace's views and presented them in the Watch Tower; however, Russell did not present his statements as dogmatism, and any Bible Student was free to either accept or reject the suggestions he stated.