Theodore Parker, 1810—1860

[Mentioned in Science and Health, p. 80]

Theodore Parker , dynamic preacher and abolitionist, was one of the most liberal thinkers of his time. He brought to his work the same fighting spirit that his grandfather had shown when he led the minutemen on the village green at Lexington, Massachusetts. He also brought enormous knowledge, for all his life he had a passion for reading. Because German theology and philosophy strongly influenced him, he naturally associated with Emerson, Bronson Alcott, and other Transcendentalists.

After he had pointed out what he called the transient in Christianity, conservative Unitarians refused him their pulpits. But the 28th Congregational Society arranged for him to preach in the Melodeon in Boston. Here he taught an infinitely perfect God, the eternal Mother, and immortal life. His words, "With the consciousness of immortality, with a certain knowledge of the infinite perfection of God, the perfect Cause, the perfect Providence, I can do all things," would seem to nullify the claim that after passing on he sent a communication that "there never was, and there never will be, an immortal spirit."

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Signs of the Times
January 22, 1955
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