41 Facts About Theodore Parker

Theodore Parker was an American transcendentalist and reforming minister of the Unitarian church.

Theodore Parker responded to these tragedies by refusing to lapse into what he called "the valley of tears", focusing instead on other events and demands, and by affirming "the immortality of the soul", later a benchmark of his theology.

Theodore Parker excelled at academics and gained an early education through country schools and personal study.

Theodore Parker studied long and late when farm chores allowed, teaching himself math, Latin, and other subjects.

Theodore Parker continued teaching himself and private students in advanced and specialized subjects.

Theodore Parker studied for a time under Convers Francis, who later preached at Parker's ordination.

In 1830, at age 19, Theodore Parker walked the ten miles from Lexington to Cambridge to apply to Harvard College.

Theodore Parker was accepted but could not pay the tuition, so he lived and studied at home, continued to work on his father's farm, and joined his classmates only for exams.

Theodore Parker then took various posts as a teacher, conducting an academy from 1831 to 1834 at Watertown, Massachusetts, where his late mother's family lived.

Theodore Parker announced their engagement to his father in October, 1833.

Theodore Parker considered a career in law, but his strong faith led him to theology.

Theodore Parker specialized in the study of German theology and was drawn to the ideas of Coleridge, Carlyle, and Emerson.

Theodore Parker wrote and spoke Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and German.

Theodore Parker completed the divinity school program quickly, in 1836, in order to marry and begin preaching without delay.

Theodore Parker had spent 1836 visiting pulpits in the Boston area, but for family reasons accepted a pastorate at West Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1837.

Theodore Parker adapted to pastoral life and preached in many pulpits around Boston as a visitor.

Theodore Parker gained a wide reputation as an earnest, effective speaker.

Theodore Parker delivered one especially popular sermon twenty-five times between 1838 and 1841.

Morality involves right acting, while religion requires love of God and regular prayer, which Theodore Parker considered essential to human life.

In 1837, Theodore Parker had begun attending meetings of the group later known as the Transcendental Club.

Transcendentalists such as Henry David Thoreau and Theodore Parker wrote of the world as divine, and of themselves as part of this divinity.

Unlike Emerson and other Transcendentalists Theodore Parker believed the movement was rooted in deeply religious ideas and did not believe it should retreat from religion.

Theodore Parker tempered his radicalism with diplomacy and discretion, however.

In 1838 Theodore Parker published his first major article, a critical review of an orthodox work written by his former professor John Gorham Palfrey.

In 1841, Theodore Parker laid bare his radical theological position in a sermon titled A Discourse on the Transient and Permanent in Christianity, in which he espoused his belief that the traditions of historic Christianity did not reflect the truth.

Theodore Parker instead argued for a type of Christian belief and worship in which the essence of Jesus's teachings remained permanent but the words, traditions, and other forms of their conveyance did not.

Theodore Parker stressed the immediacy of God and saw the Church as a communion, looking upon Christ as the supreme expression of God.

Theodore Parker retained his faith in God but suggested that people experience God intuitively and personally, and that they should center their religious beliefs on individual experience.

Theodore Parker remained unwilling to concede that his views placed him beyond the outer bounds of Unitarian liberalism.

Theodore Parker began to see himself as a prophetic religious reformer.

Theodore Parker was no longer as sensitive to criticism and bore difficulties more easily.

Theodore Parker's travels seemed to stimulate a growing interest in political and social issues.

The debate over the nature and degree of Theodore Parker's "infidelity" caused Unitarians to adopt a liberal creed, which they had formerly declined to do based on an inclusive principle.

Theodore Parker elected to call his new congregation the 28th Congregational Society of Boston; after the Melodeon, Parker's congregation met in the Boston Music Hall on Winter Street, Boston.

Theodore Parker was increasingly known for preaching what he and his followers identified as a type of prophetic Christian social activism.

Theodore Parker called the law "a hateful statute of kidnappers" and helped organize open resistance to it.

Theodore Parker worked with many fugitive slaves, some of whom were among his congregation.

Theodore Parker developed tuberculosis, then without effective treatment, and departed for Florence, Italy, where he died on May 10,1860.

Theodore Parker sought refuge in Florence because of his friendship with Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning, Isa Blagden and Frances Power Cobbe, but died scarcely a month following his arrival.

Theodore Parker was a patient of William Wesselhoeft, who practiced homeopathy.

Theodore Parker is buried in the English Cemetery in Florence.