Beecher, Henry Ward
(24 June 1813, Litchfield, CT-8 March 1887, Brooklyn, NY). Education: B.A., Amherst College, 1834; B.D., Lane Seminary, 1837. Career: Minister, Presbyterian churches in Lawrenceberg, IN, 1837-39, and Indianapolis, IN, 1839-47; minister, Plymouth Congregational Church, Brooklyn, NY, 1847-87; editor, Independent, 1861-63, and Christian Union, 1870-81.
Henry Ward Beecher was a public phenomenon, so much so that one has to move into the twentieth century and television evangelism to find a preacher as popular and flamboyant as the pastor of Plymouth Congregational Church in Brooklyn. Every Sunday his church was crowded with 2,500 followers. Thousands more read his sermons weekly in the press. Others attended his lectures or bought his books of prayers and sermons.
Beecher was noted for his informality, whether romping with children at a Sunday-school picnic or devouring peanuts as he wandered the streets of New York. Handsome and robust he enjoyed warm relations with many friends. Some said he took friendship a step too far and indulged in "gross immoralities" with Mrs. Theodore Tilton, one of his parishioners. A civil suit against Beecher by Mr. Tilton in 1874 resulted in a hung jury. For the most part his congregation supported him, and Beecher's popularity was unimpaired.
He was a moderate reformer during most of his life--a fact that exasperates some historians who would prefer that he had used his enormous influence more daringly. He did not support abolitionism, for example, until a majority of Northerners opposed slavery. And he failed to trouble his congregation with sermons on the poverty and poor working conditions of industrial America. But he was an effective supporter of several reform movements, often using his influence to bring a ripe cause, such as abolitionism, to fruition. And occasionally he took risks: during the Civil War he spoke in favor of the North in hostile assemblies in England, and he supported woman suffrage long before it became law.
Beecher was most popular for his sermons and prayers that seemed to capture human experience. He had little patience with systematic theology, and in 1882 his church withdrew from its Congregational association in order to avoid conflicts over some of his unorthodox ideas. His innovations included an acceptance of Darwinism on the grounds that God uses natural laws to further his plans. His acceptance of humanistic values in religion also was reflected in his rejection of the notion that damnation is eternal.
In such ways Beecher seems to have moved light years beyond his Puritan antecedents, but in his heartfelt piety, his homey wit, and his affection for the laity, he reminds one of men like Thomas Shepard* who brought Congregationalism to America.
Bibliography
A: Seven Lectures to Young Men (Indianapolis, 1844); Star Papers, 2 vols. (New York, 1855-58); Eyes and Ears (Boston, 1863); Freedom and War (Boston, 1863); Yale Lectures on Preaching, 3 vols. (New York, 1872-74); Evolution and Religion (New York, 1885); Lectures and Orations by Henry Ward Beecher (New York, 1913).
B: DAB 2, 129-35; DARB, 35-37; NCAB 3, 129-30; NCE 2, 220-21; NIT 9 March 1887, 1; SH 2, 24-25; Lyman Abbott, Henry Ward Beecher (Hartford, Conn., 1887); Joseph Howard, Life of Henry Ward Beecher (Philadelphia, 1887); Paxton Hibben, Henry Ward Beecher: An American Portrait (New York, 1927; 1942); William G. McLoughlin, The Meaning of Henry Ward Beecher (New York, 1970); Jane S. Elsmere, Henry Ward Beecher: The Indiana Years, 1837- 1847 (Indianapolis, 1973); Altina L. Waller, Reverend Beecher and Mrs. Tilton: Sex and Class in Victorian America (Amherst, Mass., 1982); James Michael Duduit, Henry Ward Beecher and the Political Pulpit (Dissertation, Florida State University, 1983).
Henry Ward Beecher was a public phenomenon, so much so that one has to move into the twentieth century and television evangelism to find a preacher as popular and flamboyant as the pastor of Plymouth Congregational Church in Brooklyn. Every Sunday his church was crowded with 2,500 followers. Thousands more read his sermons weekly in the press. Others attended his lectures or bought his books of prayers and sermons.
Beecher was noted for his informality, whether romping with children at a Sunday-school picnic or devouring peanuts as he wandered the streets of New York. Handsome and robust he enjoyed warm relations with many friends. Some said he took friendship a step too far and indulged in "gross immoralities" with Mrs. Theodore Tilton, one of his parishioners. A civil suit against Beecher by Mr. Tilton in 1874 resulted in a hung jury. For the most part his congregation supported him, and Beecher's popularity was unimpaired.
He was a moderate reformer during most of his life--a fact that exasperates some historians who would prefer that he had used his enormous influence more daringly. He did not support abolitionism, for example, until a majority of Northerners opposed slavery. And he failed to trouble his congregation with sermons on the poverty and poor working conditions of industrial America. But he was an effective supporter of several reform movements, often using his influence to bring a ripe cause, such as abolitionism, to fruition. And occasionally he took risks: during the Civil War he spoke in favor of the North in hostile assemblies in England, and he supported woman suffrage long before it became law.
Beecher was most popular for his sermons and prayers that seemed to capture human experience. He had little patience with systematic theology, and in 1882 his church withdrew from its Congregational association in order to avoid conflicts over some of his unorthodox ideas. His innovations included an acceptance of Darwinism on the grounds that God uses natural laws to further his plans. His acceptance of humanistic values in religion also was reflected in his rejection of the notion that damnation is eternal.
In such ways Beecher seems to have moved light years beyond his Puritan antecedents, but in his heartfelt piety, his homey wit, and his affection for the laity, he reminds one of men like Thomas Shepard* who brought Congregationalism to America.
Bibliography
A: Seven Lectures to Young Men (Indianapolis, 1844); Star Papers, 2 vols. (New York, 1855-58); Eyes and Ears (Boston, 1863); Freedom and War (Boston, 1863); Yale Lectures on Preaching, 3 vols. (New York, 1872-74); Evolution and Religion (New York, 1885); Lectures and Orations by Henry Ward Beecher (New York, 1913).
B: DAB 2, 129-35; DARB, 35-37; NCAB 3, 129-30; NCE 2, 220-21; NIT 9 March 1887, 1; SH 2, 24-25; Lyman Abbott, Henry Ward Beecher (Hartford, Conn., 1887); Joseph Howard, Life of Henry Ward Beecher (Philadelphia, 1887); Paxton Hibben, Henry Ward Beecher: An American Portrait (New York, 1927; 1942); William G. McLoughlin, The Meaning of Henry Ward Beecher (New York, 1970); Jane S. Elsmere, Henry Ward Beecher: The Indiana Years, 1837- 1847 (Indianapolis, 1973); Altina L. Waller, Reverend Beecher and Mrs. Tilton: Sex and Class in Victorian America (Amherst, Mass., 1982); James Michael Duduit, Henry Ward Beecher and the Political Pulpit (Dissertation, Florida State University, 1983).
