COOK, JOSEPH
(26 January 1838, Ticonderoga, NY-25 June 1901, Ticonderoga, NY). Education: Attended Yale College, 1858-61; B.A., Harvard College, 1865; B.D., Andover Seminary, 1868; post-graduate study, Andover Seminary, 1868-69; travel and study in Europe, 1871-73. Career: Acting minister, First Congregational Church, Lynn, MA, 1869-71; lecturer and author, Boston, MA, 1874-95.
During the second half of the nineteenth century, many Christians were fascinated by the new discoveries in modern science but were disturbed with the possibility that such doctrines as evolution threatened traditional religious beliefs. Joseph Cook was one of those preachers who assured Congregationalists, and other Christians, that they could have their religion and science too.
He preached at Lynn and several other towns in the Boston area for a few years, but he found his calling in 1874 when he began to lead the Monday noon prayer meetings at Boston's Tremont Temple. Bostonians flocked to hear him during their lunch breaks. His performances, known as the Monday Lectures, were published in newspapers and books and translated into many languages. They gained Cook a national and international audience. Between 1880 and 1883 he made a triumphant world tour.
Cook was stridently orthodox, attacking those who appeared the enemies of religious orthodoxy. And yet he was comfortable with new findings in science and philosophy. Many of his lectures were reports on the latest discoveries in biology and sociology. He claimed that the best of science was always compatible with religion. But his critics pointed out that his knowledge was superficial-as indeed it was.
His career was more reflective of the yearning for a comfortable association of orthodoxy and modernity than the reality of a respectable synthesis. But in religion, as in life as a whole, men and women often express ourselves in what they desire, as well as in what they attain. Joseph Cook's superficial science found a receptive audience because it told orthodox Christians what they wanted to hear.
Bibliography
A: Boston Monday Lectures, 11 vols. (Boston, 1877-88) [Topics include Biology, Transcendentalism, Orthodoxy, Socialism, and Current Religious Perils.]
B: DAB 4, 371-72; DARB, 111-12; NCAB 2, 260-61; NIT, 26 June 1901,7; SH 3, 265.
During the second half of the nineteenth century, many Christians were fascinated by the new discoveries in modern science but were disturbed with the possibility that such doctrines as evolution threatened traditional religious beliefs. Joseph Cook was one of those preachers who assured Congregationalists, and other Christians, that they could have their religion and science too.
He preached at Lynn and several other towns in the Boston area for a few years, but he found his calling in 1874 when he began to lead the Monday noon prayer meetings at Boston's Tremont Temple. Bostonians flocked to hear him during their lunch breaks. His performances, known as the Monday Lectures, were published in newspapers and books and translated into many languages. They gained Cook a national and international audience. Between 1880 and 1883 he made a triumphant world tour.
Cook was stridently orthodox, attacking those who appeared the enemies of religious orthodoxy. And yet he was comfortable with new findings in science and philosophy. Many of his lectures were reports on the latest discoveries in biology and sociology. He claimed that the best of science was always compatible with religion. But his critics pointed out that his knowledge was superficial-as indeed it was.
His career was more reflective of the yearning for a comfortable association of orthodoxy and modernity than the reality of a respectable synthesis. But in religion, as in life as a whole, men and women often express ourselves in what they desire, as well as in what they attain. Joseph Cook's superficial science found a receptive audience because it told orthodox Christians what they wanted to hear.
Bibliography
A: Boston Monday Lectures, 11 vols. (Boston, 1877-88) [Topics include Biology, Transcendentalism, Orthodoxy, Socialism, and Current Religious Perils.]
B: DAB 4, 371-72; DARB, 111-12; NCAB 2, 260-61; NIT, 26 June 1901,7; SH 3, 265.
