During this same time, Bliss also become interested in the writings of people such as Charles Kingsley, Frederick Denison Maurice, Edward Bellamy, the English Christian socialist, and most notably George E. McNeil. While all these writers were important to Bliss’s foundational understanding of Christianity's role in social and economic life, it was George E. McNeil who had the greatest impact. According to Bliss “McNeil was the one man living from whom in spirit as well as economic wisdom he had learned the most”.