TUCKERMAN, JOSEPH
(18 January 1778, Boston, MA-20 April 1840, Havana, Cuba). Education: B.A., Harvard College, 1798; studied theology with Thomas Thacher, Dedham, MA, 1798-180l. Career: Minister. Chelsea, MA. 1801-26; minister-at-large, Boston. 1826-36.
Joseph Tuckerman began his career as minister to a Congregational parish in Chelsea, Massachusetts, and concluded as a Unitarian "minister-at-large" in Boston. He had to abandon his Chelsea ministry because he had a weak constitution, and the strain on his voice of preaching twice on Sundays was too great He abandoned Congregationalism because his religious liberalism and his social instincts led him to Unitarianism. Despite poor health he embarked on one of the most difficult assignments of any clergyman of his time: ministering to the unchurched poor in Boston. He was supported by the American Unitarian
Association, then directed by his former Harvard roommate, William Ellery Channing.
Tuckerman became famous in America and Europe for his social welfare work. He believed that the essence of Christianity was action rather than contemplation, and that the church should apply itself to reforming society. In particular, he worked for better jails, insane asylums, and welfare policies. He brought together twenty-one separate welfare agencies, forming the Benevolent Societies of Boston, the fIrst umbrella organization of its kind in the United States. And he worked to sensitize city officials as well as fellow ministers to the problems of urban poverty.
His ministry established a precedent for the Social Gospel of the late nineteenth century. By that time a liberal movement and a social consciousness had grown up within Congregationalism that made it possible for a man like Washington Gladden* to adopt ideas like those of Tuckerman and remain within the Congregational Church.
Bibliography
A: Seven Discourses on Miscellaneous Subjects (Boston, 1813); Principles and Results of the Ministry-at-Large (Boston, 1838); The Elevation of the Poor (Boston, 1874); Memorial of Rev. Joseph Tuckerman (Worcester, MA, 1888).
B: AAP 8, 345-56; DAB 19,46; DARB, 476-78; NCAB 6, 230-31; SH 12,34; UU, 328-29; William Ellery Channing, A Discourse on the Life and Character of the Rev. Joseph Tuckerman (Boston, 1841); Daniel T. McColgan, Joseph Tuckerman: Pioneer in American Social Work (Washington, D.C., 1940).
Joseph Tuckerman began his career as minister to a Congregational parish in Chelsea, Massachusetts, and concluded as a Unitarian "minister-at-large" in Boston. He had to abandon his Chelsea ministry because he had a weak constitution, and the strain on his voice of preaching twice on Sundays was too great He abandoned Congregationalism because his religious liberalism and his social instincts led him to Unitarianism. Despite poor health he embarked on one of the most difficult assignments of any clergyman of his time: ministering to the unchurched poor in Boston. He was supported by the American Unitarian
Association, then directed by his former Harvard roommate, William Ellery Channing.
Tuckerman became famous in America and Europe for his social welfare work. He believed that the essence of Christianity was action rather than contemplation, and that the church should apply itself to reforming society. In particular, he worked for better jails, insane asylums, and welfare policies. He brought together twenty-one separate welfare agencies, forming the Benevolent Societies of Boston, the fIrst umbrella organization of its kind in the United States. And he worked to sensitize city officials as well as fellow ministers to the problems of urban poverty.
His ministry established a precedent for the Social Gospel of the late nineteenth century. By that time a liberal movement and a social consciousness had grown up within Congregationalism that made it possible for a man like Washington Gladden* to adopt ideas like those of Tuckerman and remain within the Congregational Church.
Bibliography
A: Seven Discourses on Miscellaneous Subjects (Boston, 1813); Principles and Results of the Ministry-at-Large (Boston, 1838); The Elevation of the Poor (Boston, 1874); Memorial of Rev. Joseph Tuckerman (Worcester, MA, 1888).
B: AAP 8, 345-56; DAB 19,46; DARB, 476-78; NCAB 6, 230-31; SH 12,34; UU, 328-29; William Ellery Channing, A Discourse on the Life and Character of the Rev. Joseph Tuckerman (Boston, 1841); Daniel T. McColgan, Joseph Tuckerman: Pioneer in American Social Work (Washington, D.C., 1940).