He was a frequent contributor to scholarly journals including
The Journal of Philosophy, Philosophy of Science, The Journal of Religion, The Review of Metaphisics, Ethics, Modern Age, The Personalist, and The International Philosophical Quarterly. He also wrote the article on Immanuel Kant for
The New Century Cyclopedia of Names and a chapter of
The Heritage of Kant. Most notable among his publications were two popular textbooks.
A Modern Philosophy of Religion (
Henry Regnery Company, 1955) became a widely used text book at colleges and universities including
Amherst College,
Cornell University,
Temple University, the University of Nebraska,
Oberlin College,
Yale Divinity School, the
University of Kansas,
Drew University, the
University of Pittsburgh,
St. Olaf College,
Syracuse University,
Garrett Theological Seminary and others. His second text,
The Nature of Philosophy, An Introduction (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1961) was also widely adopted for use in introductory courses in philosophy. He also wrote ''A Study of Locke's Theory of Ideas'' based on his dissertation at Princeton University. All three of these texts remained available in print well into the 21st century. In 1957, the General Assembly of
the United Presbyterian Church authorized the appointment of a committee to consider a new statement of faith. Thompson was the only layman among the fifteen members of the Committee on a Brief Contemporary Statement of Faith, serving as its secretary. He was one of three members of the committee responsible for drafting the document that was adopted by the church as the Confession of 1967. == Approach to the Collegiate Professorship ==