Reverend Luther Tracy Townsend (September 27, 1838 - 1922) was a professor at Boston University and an author of theological and historical works.
Reverend Luther Tracy Townsend (September 27, 1838 - 1922) was a professor at Boston University and an author of theological and historical works.
Luther Tracy Townsend was born on September 27, 1838, in Orono, Maine, to Luther K. Townsend and Mary True Call. [1] [2] His father died on November 16, 1839, and his mother took the family to New Hampshire. He started work at the Boston, Concord and Montreal Railroad in 1850. He infrequently attended the New Hampshire Conference Seminary, now known as the Tilton School. He graduated from Dartmouth College with an A.B. in 1859. He then attended Andover Theological Seminary and graduated in 1862. He enlisted as a private in the 16th New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry in 1862 during the American Civil War. He was ordained by the Methodist church, in 1864. On September 27, 1865, he married Laura C. Huckins, the daughter of David T. Huckins and Sarah F. White of Watertown, Massachusetts. [2]
Townsend served as pastor of a Methodist church after the Civil War, until 1868 when he began teaching classical languages, church history, and theology at Boston Theological Seminary, later known as Boston University School of Theology. [3] [4] It was here he gained a reputation as a defender of traditional evangelical beliefs and a critic of Darwinism and evolution. [5] Townsend resigned his position at Boston University in 1893 to focus on writing and lecturing, [6] and was a delegate to the 1893 World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago. [2] In addition to his writing, he served as a Methodist pastor in Baltimore and later in Washington, D. C. [1]
As a Christian creationist, Townsend attacked evolution and defended a literal interpretation of the first chapters of Genesis over scientific research in his books such as Evolution or Creation (1896), Adam and Eve (1904) and Collapse of Evolution (1905). [6] In Collapse of Evolution, Townsend blamed evolutionary theory, among other things, with what he saw as the downward moral trend of society, and warned that if the theory was accepted it would lead to an increase in war, murder, and that the world would be "an asylum for an idiotic race and a mad house with padded cells without anyone to lock or unlock its doors." [7] He was a member of the Victoria Institute, a creationist organization, [2] and was one of the most well known clerical opponents of evolution at the time. [6] Townsend was also a supporter of William Menzies Alexander's research on demonic possession. [8]
Christian fundamentalism, also known as fundamental Christianity or fundamentalist Christianity, is a religious movement emphasizing biblical literalism. In its modern form, it began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries among British and American Protestants as a reaction to theological liberalism and cultural modernism. Fundamentalists argued that 19th-century modernist theologians had misunderstood or rejected certain doctrines, especially biblical inerrancy, which they considered the fundamentals of the Christian faith.
Boston University School of Theology (STH) is the oldest theological seminary of American Methodism and the founding school of Boston University, the largest private research university in New England. It is one of thirteen theological schools maintained by the United Methodist Church. BUSTH is a member of the Boston Theological Institute consortium.
John Edward Robinson was a missionary bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, elected in 1904.
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Henry Eyster Jacobs was an American religious educator, Biblical commentator and Lutheran theologian.
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Rejection of evolution by religious groups, sometimes called creation–evolution controversy, has a long history. In response to theories developed by scientists, some religious individuals and organizations question the legitimacy of scientific ideas that contradicted the young earth pseudoscientific interpretation of the creation account in Genesis.
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Charles Otis Gill was an American Congregationalist clergyman and college football player and coach. Named to the 1889 College Football All-America Team as a player for Yale, Gill later served as head coach for the California and New Hampshire football programs, one season each. With Gifford Pinchot, Gill co-authored two influential books on the state of rural churches in the United States.
George Park Fisher was an American theologian and historian who was noted as a teacher and a prolific writer.
William Menzies Alexander was a Scottish medical and theological writer. He was Moderator of the General Assembly for the Free Church of Scotland for 1911/12.
Charles Francis Rice was a prominent minister and author. He was a member of the New England Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church for 50 years, serving as a District Superintendent for five years and as president of the Massachusetts Federation of Churches for 10 years.
The Twelfth Baptist Church is a historic church in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. Established in 1840, it is the oldest direct descendant of the First Independent Baptist Church in Beacon Hill. Notable members have included abolitionists such as Lewis Hayden and Rev. Leonard Grimes, the historian George Washington Williams, the artist Edward Mitchell Bannister, abolitionist and entrepreneur Christiana Carteaux, pioneering educator Wilhelmina Crosson, and civil rights movement leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Lotan Harold DeWolf, usually cited as L. Harold Dewolf, was an American Methodist minister and professor of systematic theology at Boston University where he was Martin Luther King Jr.'s "primary teacher and mentor".
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Mary Elizabeth Perley was an American writer, professor, and poet. She taught at Tilden Ladies' Seminary, New Hampshire Conference Seminary, Tabor College, Fargo College, and the University of North Dakota. In addition to two books, she wrote poems, newspaper articles, short stories, and plays.
Katherine Van Allen Grinnell was an American lecturer, author, and social reformer. She was one of the first women in the United States to lecture and write on the place of woman in the scheme of government. Grinnell attained an international reputation and was praised by Frances Willard, Susan B. Anthony, Lady Somerset, and others.
Joy Jittaun Moore is Professor of Biblical Preaching at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota.
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