TUCKER, WILLIAM JEWETT
JEWETT (13 July 1839, Griswold, CT-29 September 1926, Hanover NH). Education: B.A., Dartmouth College, 1861; B.D., Andover Seminary, 1866. Career: Schoolteacher, Columbus, OH, 1861- 63; minister, Manchester, NH, 1867-75; minister, New York, NY, 1875-79; professor of sacred rhetoric, Andover Seminary, 1880-93; president, Dartmouth College, 1893-1909.
During the late nineteenth century the liberating spirit of progressive orthodoxy prevailed among Congregationalists. Ministers and professors could explore new findings in biology, geology, and history without being accused of heresy. Or so it seemed.
But an important event in the life of William Jewett Tucker suggests that freedom of thought within the church still had its limits. After serving as pastor in New Hampshire and New York, Tucker joined the faculty at Andover Seminary in 1880. A few years later he and four colleagues founded the Andover Review, and in 1886 they published some of its articles under the title Progressive Orthodoxy. The book was too progressive and not sufficiently orthodox for some Congregationalists, who objected particularly to the authors' contention that un-Christianized infants and heathen are not necessarily doomed to hell. During a "second probation," the Andover professors argued, such youths might have another opportunity for salvation. The doctrine made sense to many in an age that was quietly abandoning some of the harsher elements of Calvinistic thought. But some churchmen, particularly the missionary organizations, objected to the innovation.
The result was the "Andover controversy" in which the five professors were tried in 1886 for heresy. One was condemned and the others escaped narrowly, thanks to a tie vote on their guilt. In 1890 the Massachusetts Supreme Court faulted the proceedings, and in 1892 the condemned man was finally acquitted. Even though the charge of heresy did not stick, the proceedings showed that Progressive Orthodoxy, pioneered some four decades before by Horace Bushnell* still aroused suspicions of heresy in some quarters.
Tucker was on safer ground as a social reformer than as a religious liberal. In 1891 he founded Andover House, a highly successful Boston settlement house, later known as South End House. His social consciousness was also apparent at Andover, where he introduced such topics as immigration, labor unions, capitalism, crime, and disease in his courses on pastoral theology.
Tucker became president of a troubled Dartmouth in 1893 and helped strengthen the college, building its enrollment from three hundred to one thousand and modernizing the curriculum. After his retirement he wrote several illuminating volumes on his times.
Bibliography
A: The Making and the Unmaking of the Preacher (Boston, 1898); Personal Power (Boston, 1910); Public Mindedness (Concord, Mass., 1910); The Function of the Church in Modern Society (Boston, 1911); The New Reservation of Time (Boston, 1916); My Generation: An Autobiographical Interpretation (Boston, 1919).
B: DAB 19, 41-42; DARB, 475-76; NCAB 24,242; NYT 30 September 1926, 25; SH 12, 22-24,
During the late nineteenth century the liberating spirit of progressive orthodoxy prevailed among Congregationalists. Ministers and professors could explore new findings in biology, geology, and history without being accused of heresy. Or so it seemed.
But an important event in the life of William Jewett Tucker suggests that freedom of thought within the church still had its limits. After serving as pastor in New Hampshire and New York, Tucker joined the faculty at Andover Seminary in 1880. A few years later he and four colleagues founded the Andover Review, and in 1886 they published some of its articles under the title Progressive Orthodoxy. The book was too progressive and not sufficiently orthodox for some Congregationalists, who objected particularly to the authors' contention that un-Christianized infants and heathen are not necessarily doomed to hell. During a "second probation," the Andover professors argued, such youths might have another opportunity for salvation. The doctrine made sense to many in an age that was quietly abandoning some of the harsher elements of Calvinistic thought. But some churchmen, particularly the missionary organizations, objected to the innovation.
The result was the "Andover controversy" in which the five professors were tried in 1886 for heresy. One was condemned and the others escaped narrowly, thanks to a tie vote on their guilt. In 1890 the Massachusetts Supreme Court faulted the proceedings, and in 1892 the condemned man was finally acquitted. Even though the charge of heresy did not stick, the proceedings showed that Progressive Orthodoxy, pioneered some four decades before by Horace Bushnell* still aroused suspicions of heresy in some quarters.
Tucker was on safer ground as a social reformer than as a religious liberal. In 1891 he founded Andover House, a highly successful Boston settlement house, later known as South End House. His social consciousness was also apparent at Andover, where he introduced such topics as immigration, labor unions, capitalism, crime, and disease in his courses on pastoral theology.
Tucker became president of a troubled Dartmouth in 1893 and helped strengthen the college, building its enrollment from three hundred to one thousand and modernizing the curriculum. After his retirement he wrote several illuminating volumes on his times.
Bibliography
A: The Making and the Unmaking of the Preacher (Boston, 1898); Personal Power (Boston, 1910); Public Mindedness (Concord, Mass., 1910); The Function of the Church in Modern Society (Boston, 1911); The New Reservation of Time (Boston, 1916); My Generation: An Autobiographical Interpretation (Boston, 1919).
B: DAB 19, 41-42; DARB, 475-76; NCAB 24,242; NYT 30 September 1926, 25; SH 12, 22-24,
