Phillips Brooks: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search
VisualWikitext
imported>PrimeBOT
m →External links: Task 24: template replacement following a TFD
 
imported>Mollymcc
 
Line 80: Line 80:
}}
}}


'''Phillips Brooks''' (December 13, 1835{{snd}}January 23, 1893) was an [[Episcopal Church in the United States of America|American Episcopal]] clergyman and author, long the [[Rector (ecclesiastical)|Rector]] of Boston's [[Trinity Church (Boston)|Trinity Church]] and briefly [[Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts|Bishop of Massachusetts]]. He wrote the lyrics of the Christmas hymn, "[[O Little Town of Bethlehem]]".
'''Phillips Brooks''' (December 13, 1835{{snd}}January 23, 1893) was an [[Episcopal Church in the United States of America|American Episcopal]] clergyman and author, long the [[Rector (ecclesiastical)|Rector]] of Boston's [[Trinity Church (Boston)|Trinity Church]] and briefly [[Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts|Bishop of Massachusetts]]. One of the most popular preachers of the [[Gilded Age]], he worked to make the Christian Church more relevant to contemporaries.<ref name="Harp">{{cite book |last1=Harp |first1=Gillis J. |title=Brahmin Prophet: Phillips Brooks and the Path of Liberal Protestantism |date=2003 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |location=New York |isbn=0-8476-9960-9}}</ref> Among his other accomplishments, he wrote the lyrics of the Christmas hymn, "[[O Little Town of Bethlehem]]".


He is honored on the [[Calendar of saints (Episcopal Church)|Episcopal Church liturgical calendar]] on [[January 23]].<ref name="liturgicalcalendar">{{Cite web |title=Phillips Brooks, Bishop, 1893 |url=https://www.episcopalchurch.org/lectionary/phillips-brooks/ |access-date=2022-07-19 |website=The Episcopal Church |language=en-US}}</ref>
He is honored on the [[Calendar of saints (Episcopal Church)|Episcopal Church liturgical calendar]] on [[January 23]].<ref name="liturgicalcalendar">{{Cite web |title=Phillips Brooks, Bishop, 1893 |url=https://www.episcopalchurch.org/lectionary/phillips-brooks/ |access-date=2022-07-19 |website=The Episcopal Church |language=en-US}}</ref> In addition to his moral stature, he was a man of great physical height, standing {{Convert|6|ft|4|in|spell=in|m}} tall.


==Background==
==Background==


===Early life and education===
===Early life and education===
Born in Boston, Brooks was descended through his father, William Gray Brooks, from the Rev. [[John Cotton (puritan)|John Cotton]]; through his mother, Mary Ann Phillips, he was a great-grandson of [[Samuel Phillips, Jr.]], founder of [[Phillips Academy]] in [[Andover, Massachusetts]]. Three of Brooks' five brothers{{snd}}Frederic, Arthur, and John Cotton{{snd}}were eventually ordained in the [[Episcopal Church in the United States of America|Episcopal Church]].
Brooks was born on December 13, 1835, in Boston to William Gray Brooks and Mary Ann Phillips Brooks. His father, a Unitarian from a solid, middle-class background, started his career as a hardware and dry goods merchant. His mother was from an orthodox Congregational family. Her father was John Phillips (1776-1820), one of the founders of [[Andover Theological Seminary]].<ref name="Harp"></ref>


Phillips Brooks prepared for college at the [[Boston Latin School]] and graduated from [[Harvard University]] in 1855 at the age of 20, where he was elected to the [[A.D. Club]]. He worked briefly as a school teacher at Boston Latin, but, upon being fired, felt that he had failed miserably. He wrote, "I do not know what will become of me and I do not care much.... I wish I were fifteen years old again. I believe I might become a stunning man: but somehow or other I do not seem in the way to come to much now."<ref>Clyde E. Fant and William M. Pinson, Jr., Twenty Centuries of Great Preaching, Volume 6 (Waco, TX: Word, 1971), p. 114</ref> In 1856, he began to study for ordination in the Episcopal Church in the [[Virginia Theological Seminary]] at [[Alexandria, Virginia|Alexandria]], [[Virginia (U.S. state)|Virginia]]. While a seminarian there, he preached at Sharon Chapel (now All Saints Episcopal Church, Sharon Chapel) in nearby [[Fairfax County, Virginia|Fairfax County]].
Rejecting the arid Unitarianism of New England, Mary Ann Brooks determined that the family would join St. Paul's Episcopal Church on Tremont St. in Boston.<ref name="Harp"></ref> Three of Phillips Brooks' five brothers{{snd}}Frederic, Arthur, and John Cotton{{snd}}were eventually ordained in the [[Episcopal Church in the United States of America|Episcopal Church]].


===Pastoral career===
Phillips Brooks attended [[Boston Latin School]], where he excelled in classical languages, followed by [[Harvard University]]. Here, he encountered literary [[Romanticism]], the sermons of [[Henry Ward Beecher]], and the poetry of [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]]. He was elected to the [[A.D. Club]] and graduated in 1855 at the age of twenty.
[[File:P. Brooks - DPLA - ad64af0b1bbfd28b9f3b5913b0c6789b (page 1).jpg|left|thumb|P. Brooks, ca. 1875–1920. Cabinet Card Collection, Boston Public Library]]
 
After graduation, he took a post at Boston Latin where he lasted only six months before being fired. He felt that he had failed miserably. He wrote, "I do not know what will become of me and I do not care much.... I wish I were fifteen years old again. I believe I might become a stunning man: but somehow or other I do not seem in the way to come to much now."<ref>Clyde E. Fant and William M. Pinson, Jr., Twenty Centuries of Great Preaching, Volume 6 (Waco, TX: Word, 1971), p. 114</ref>
 
Brooks chose to enter the ministry. In 1856, he began to study for ordination in the Episcopal Church in the [[Virginia Theological Seminary]] at [[Alexandria, Virginia|Alexandria]], [[Virginia (U.S. state)|Virginia]]. He struggled with what he perceived as anti-intellectualism of his fellow students but managed to complete his training.<ref name="Harp"></ref> While a seminarian there, he preached at Sharon Chapel (now All Saints Episcopal Church, Sharon Chapel) in nearby [[Fairfax County, Virginia|Fairfax County]].
 
==Pastoral career==
=== Philadelphia during the Civil War ===
[[File:Phillips Brooks by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Trinity Church, Boston.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Statue by [[Augustus Saint-Gaudens]], Trinity Church, Boston, dedicated 1910]]
[[File:Phillips Brooks by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Trinity Church, Boston.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Statue by [[Augustus Saint-Gaudens]], Trinity Church, Boston, dedicated 1910]]
[[File:Memorial to Phillips Brooks.jpg|thumb|Memorial to Phillips Brooks in Trinity Church, Boston]]
[[File:Memorial to Phillips Brooks.jpg|thumb|Memorial to Phillips Brooks in Trinity Church, Boston]]
In 1859, he graduated from [[Virginia Theological Seminary]], was ordained deacon by Bishop [[William Meade]] of Virginia, and became rector of the Church of the Advent in [[Philadelphia]]. In 1860, he was ordained priest, and in 1862, became rector of the [[Church of the Holy Trinity, Philadelphia]], where he remained seven years, gaining an increasing name as a [[Broad church]]man,<ref name="auto">"Brooks, Phillips", in ''Concise [[Dictionary of American Biography]]'' (1964), New York:  Scribner's.</ref> preacher, and patriot. In addition to his moral stature, he was a man of great physical bearing as well, standing {{Convert|6|ft|4|in|spell=in|m}} tall.
In 1859, Brooks graduated from [[Virginia Theological Seminary]], was ordained deacon by Bishop [[William Meade]] of Virginia, and became rector of the Church of the Advent in [[Philadelphia]]. In 1860, he was ordained priest, and in 1862, became rector of the [[Church of the Holy Trinity, Philadelphia]], where he remained seven years, gaining an increasing name as a [[Broad church]]man,<ref name="auto">"Brooks, Phillips", in ''Concise [[Dictionary of American Biography]]'' (1964), New York:  Scribner's.</ref> preacher, and patriot.  


During the [[American Civil War]] he upheld the cause of the North and opposed slavery, and his sermon on the death of [[Abraham Lincoln]] was an eloquent expression of the character of both men. His sermon at Harvard's commemoration of the Civil War dead in 1865 likewise attracted attention nationwide.<ref name="auto"/> In 1869 he became rector of [[Trinity Church (Boston)|Trinity Church, Boston]]; today, his statue is located on the left exterior of the church.
During the [[American Civil War]] he upheld the cause of the North and opposed slavery, and his sermon on the death of [[Abraham Lincoln]] was an eloquent expression of the character of both men. His sermon at Harvard's commemoration of the Civil War dead in 1865 likewise attracted attention nationwide.<ref name="auto"/>


Brooks wrote that his only ambition was "to be a parish priest and, though not much of one, [I] would as a college president be still less". Under his inspiration, architect [[Henry Hobson Richardson]], muralist [[John LaFarge]], and stained glass artists [[William Morris]] and [[Edward Burne-Jones]] created an architectural masterpiece in Trinity Church, Boston. Among the building's notable features was the first freestanding liturgical altar in the United States in an overall chancel design that attracted attention for its [[Liturgical Movement]] influence even in British architectural magazines. Behind the free standing altar there was another revival from the early church chancel, a great [[wikt:synthronon|synthronon]] for priests that surrounded the apse. Because Massachusetts had two bishops then, the bishops' chairs were placed within the altar rail to either side of the holy table. There were no choir stalls to distract from the central altar, which was hardly recognized as an altar in a period when most altars were backed up to elaborate carved screens. Until 1888, there was also no pulpit. Brooks preferred to preach his legendary sermons from a modest lectern near the rector's stall on the south side of the chancel. There was also an eagle lectern on a balustraded [[Pulpit|ambo]] in the center at the chancel steps.
=== Trinity Church, Boston ===
In 1869, Brooks accepted the call to serve as rector of [[Trinity Church (Boston)|Trinity Church, Boston]]; today, his statue is located on the left exterior of the church.  


Such was the magnificence of Trinity Church that, in his chapter on Phillips Brooks' chancel in ''[[Ralph Adams Cram]]: An Architect's Four Quests,'' Douglass Shand-Tucci calls it "an American [[Hagia Sophia]]", a reflection of Brooks' architectural and liturgical tastes, disclosed in his travel writings, where in Germany for instance he referred to "thrilling music" and "thrilling incense" in respect to a liturgy he attended there in the Roman Catholic cathedral. Holy Week in Rome also greatly moved him, especially the papal high mass on Easter. Although he despaired of Anglo-Catholic ritualism, he championed many aspects of the liturgical movement, including congregational singing during the liturgy. At the Eucharist, for instance, he would preach, not from the pulpit, but from the chancel steps, and although he liked to preach in a black academic gown, he never failed to appear in a commodious white [[surplice]] and priest's [[Stole (vestment)|stole]] when he officiated at the office or Eucharist.
Brooks' ambition was to help build a new kind of Protestantism that incorporated insights drawn from the Romantic and liberal theology of the nineteenth century, particularly its celebration of subjective individual experience. To this end, he worked to create a physical manifestation of that message in stone and mortar.<ref name="Harp" />


The building of Trinity was completed in 1877, but the Venetian mosaics that Brooks and Richardson wanted could not be afforded. It was not until the magnificent new altar and sanctuary of [[Maginnis & Walsh]] were completed in 1938 that Trinity's chancel reflected that aspect of their dreams for Trinity, which Brooks called "America's glory forever". Brooks preached there Sunday after Sunday to large congregations until he was consecrated [[Bishop]] of [[Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts|Massachusetts]] in 1891. He had previously declined an election as assistant bishop of [[Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania|Pennsylvania]] in 1886.
In the 1870s, Brooks became intimately involved in the design and construction of the new [[Trinity Church (Boston)|Trinity Church]] on [[Copley Square]] in the [[Back Bay, Boston|Back Bay]]. Architect [[Henry Hobson Richardson]] drew on Romanesque architectural language to create an architectural masterpiece. The interior was richly decorated with murals by [[John LaFarge]] and stained glass windows by [[William Morris]] and [[Edward Burne-Jones]]. A repudiation of the cool, classical aesthetic of New England Protestantism, the church was designed to evoke religious sensibilities in the congregation. Van Wyck Brooks wrote that the new church represented "the break of the Boston mind with its Puritan past."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tucci |first1=Douglas Shand |title=Built in Boston: City and Suburb |date=1978 |publisher=New York Graphic Society |location=Boston |page=47}}</ref>


He was for many years an overseer and preacher of [[Harvard University]]. In 1881, he declined an invitation to be the sole preacher to the university and professor of Christian ethics. On April 30, 1891, he was elected sixth Bishop of Massachusetts, and on October 14 was consecrated to that office in Trinity Church.
The interior marked a deliberate return to early Christian liturgical principles and symbolism. Among the building's notable features was a freestanding liturgical altar. This allowed the celebrant to face the congregation during the Eucharist, emphasizing the communal nature of the sacrament rather than the priest acting as intermediary between God and people. The church also had a [[wikt:synthronon|synthronon]], a semicircular seating arrangement for priests around the apse that directly mirrors early Christian basilicas. Theologically, it represents the collegiality of the priesthood, the idea that ministry is shared among clergy rather than concentrated in a single hierarchical figure. With no choir stalls blocking sight lines, the entire assembly could participate more fully in the liturgy.<ref name=Gods></ref>  These interior features were inspired by [[St. George's Episcopal Church (Manhattan)]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Curran |first1=Kathleen |title=The Romanesque Revival, Mural Painting, and Protestant Patronage in America |journal=The Art Bulletin |date=1999 |volume=81 |pages=693-722}}</ref>


He died unmarried in 1893, after an episcopate of only 15 months. His death was a major event in the history of Boston. One observer reported: "They buried him like a king. Harvard students carried his body on their shoulders. All barriers of denomination were down. Roman Catholics and Unitarians felt that a great man had fallen in Israel."<ref>Mrs. Edward S. Drown, in ''The Witness'', March 21, 1940</ref>
Until 1888, Trinity Church had no pulpit. Brooks preferred to preach his legendary sermons from a modest lectern near the rector's stall on the south side of the chancel. By preaching from within the chancel rather than from a towering pulpit, Brooke embodied the Anglican ''[[via media]]'' between Catholic sacramentalism and the Protestant emphasis on preaching.<ref name=Gods>{{cite web |last1=Shand-Tucci |first1=Douglass |title=American Aristocracy: Gods of Copley Square-Centerpiece 6 |url=https://www.openlettersmonthlyarchive.com/olm/american-aristocracy-gods-of-copley-square-centerpiece-6 |website=Open Letters Monthly |access-date=1 July 2025}}</ref>


==Influence and legacy==
Such was the magnificence of Trinity Church that historian Douglass Shand-Tucci called it "an American [[Hagia Sophia]]."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Shand-Tucci |first1=Douglass |title=Ralph Adams Cram: An Architect's Four Quests |date=2005 |publisher=University of Massachusetts Press |location=Boston}}</ref>
 
=== Preaching ===
[[File:P. Brooks - DPLA - ad64af0b1bbfd28b9f3b5913b0c6789b (page 1).jpg|left|thumb|P. Brooks, ca. 1875–1920. Cabinet Card Collection, Boston Public Library]]Brooks was a gifted preacher with broad appeal. His sermons drew crowds of people, some of whom had never been in an Episcopal Church before. He had no sensational manner, according to listeners, but simply presented the Gospel in his natural style. "There is nothing in his voice, bearing, or look," wrote one frustrated observer, "which can explain his almost unexampled popularity. For popular he is almost beyond precedent."<ref name="Harp" />
 
One source of his power as a speaker, according to historian Gillis J. Harp, was his ability to offer congregants an encounter with Christ through a mixture of scriptural truth and personality. Skilled at the use of metaphor to quicken religious sentiment, he was both preacher and poet.<ref name="Harp" />
 
Brooks was neither a reformer nor a social conservative, but both groups drew inspiration from his words. Harp noted, "He understood his own ministerial role as primarily exhortative, an inspirational preacher to stir ups he soul, not agitate for social change."<ref name="Harp" />
 
=== Bishop of Massachusetts ===
 
On April 30, 1891, Brooks was elected sixth [[Bishop]] of [[Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts|Massachusetts]], despite opposition from conservative High Church [[Anglo-Catholicism|Anglo-Catholics]] opposed to his theological liberalism.<ref name="Harp" /> He was consecrated to that office in Trinity Church on October 14, 1891.
 
Brooks was for many years an overseer and preacher of [[Harvard University]]. In 1881, he declined an invitation to be the sole preacher to the university and professor of Christian ethics.
 
== Death ==
 
Brooks died suddenly in early 1893, at the age of fifty-seven, probably as a result of diphtheria complicated by a cold or flu. His episcopate lasted only 15 months.<ref name="Harp" />
 
His death was a major event in the history of Boston. One observer reported: "They buried him like a king. Harvard students carried his body on their shoulders. All barriers of denomination were down. Roman Catholics and Unitarians felt that a great man had fallen in Israel."<ref>Mrs. Edward S. Drown, in ''The Witness'', March 21, 1940</ref>
 
Somewhat more critically, Harvard professor Charles Eliot Norton noted that Brooks seldom appeared to be troubled by religious doubt or concern about the declining influence of the clergy. "He was quite sincere, for religion was a matter of sentiment not of intelligence with him. His strong sense of right & wrong prevented his optimism from sapping his moral integrity, and from doing much harm to the easygoing public whom he served and pleased. The eulogies of him are sadly extravagant."<ref name="Harp" />
 
==Legacy==


===Publications===
===Publications===


In 1877, Brooks published a course of lectures upon preaching that he had delivered at the theological school of [[Yale University]], and which are an expression of his own experience. In 1879, the ''[[Bohlen Lectures]] on The Influence of Jesus'' came out. In 1878, he published his first volume of sermons, and from time to time issued other volumes, including ''Sermons Preached in English Churches'' (1883) and ''"The Candle of the Lord" and Other Sermons'' (1895). Brooks was also famous and beloved for his collections of sermons, ''The Purpose and Use of Comfort'', first published in 1878, which includes the title sermon as well as: "The Withheld Completions of Life," "The Conqueror from Edom," "Keeping the Faith," "The Soul's Refuge in God," "The Man with One Talent," "The Food of Man, "The Symbol and the Reality," "Is It I?", and others.
Brooks left behind published lectures and sermons in an effort to bring Protestant Christianity to a wide audience of readers. In 1877, Brooks published a course of lectures upon preaching that he had delivered at the theological school of [[Yale University]] as an expression of his own experience. In 1879, the ''[[Bohlen Lectures]] on The Influence of Jesus'' came out. In 1878, he published his first volume of sermons, and from time to time issued other volumes, including ''Sermons Preached in English Churches'' (1883) and ''"The Candle of the Lord" and Other Sermons'' (1895).  


Today, he is probably best known for authoring the [[Christmas carol]] "[[O Little Town of Bethlehem]]". Brooks also introduced [[Helen Keller]] to [[Christianity]] and to [[Anne Sullivan]].
Brooks was also famous and beloved for his collections of sermons, ''The Purpose and Use of Comfort'', first published in 1878, which includes the title sermon as well as: "The Withheld Completions of Life," "The Conqueror from Edom," "Keeping the Faith," "The Soul's Refuge in God," "The Man with One Talent," "The Food of Man, "The Symbol and the Reality," "Is It I?", and others.


===Awards and historical monuments===
He wrote several hymns and carols, among them the [[Christmas carol]] "[[O Little Town of Bethlehem]]".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brooks |first1=Phillip |title=Christmas Songs and Easter Carols |date=1903 |publisher=E.P. Dutton |location=Boston}}</ref>


Brooks's understanding of individuals and of other religious traditions gained a following across a broad segment of society, as well as increased support for the Episcopal Church. Within his lifetime, he received honorary degrees from Harvard (1877) and [[Columbia University|Columbia]] (1887), and the [[Doctor of Divinity]] degree by the [[University of Oxford]], England (1885).
=== Influence ===
Brooks did not marry or have children of his own, but he had great love for children. He met an eleven-year-old [[Helen Keller]] when she was at the Perkins Institute for the Blind. It is said that "she sat on Phillips Brooks' knee and learned that God is love."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Henny |first1=Nella Braddy |title=Helen Keller at 75: 'Tranquil and Unafraid' |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/08/30/specials/keller-75.html |access-date=1 July 2025 |work=New York Times |date=June 26, 1955}}</ref>


In addition, his close ties with [[Harvard University]] led to the creation of Phillips Brooks House in [[Harvard Yard]], built seven years after his death. On January 23, 1900, it was dedicated to serve "the ideal of piety, charity, and hospitality". The Phillips Brooks House originally housed a Social Service Committee, which became the Phillips Brooks House Association in 1904. It ceased formal religious affiliation in the 1920s, but remains in operation as a student-run group of volunteer organizations. Brooks' theological alma mater, Virginia Theological Seminary, honors him with a statue outside its library.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vts.edu/page/news-detail?pk=891856|title=Friday, December 20, 2013|access-date=17 April 2017}}</ref>
===Awards and Monuments===


A statue of Phillips Brooks stands on the [[North Andover, Massachusetts]], Town Common, facing North Parish Church.
Within his lifetime, Brooks received honorary degrees from Harvard (1877) and [[Columbia University|Columbia]] (1887), and the [[Doctor of Divinity]] degree by the [[University of Oxford]], England (1885).
[[File:Phillips Brooks Statue on North Andover Common.jpg|thumb|Phillips Brooks Statue on North Andover Common]]
[[File:Phillips Brooks Statue on North Andover Common.jpg|thumb|Phillips Brooks Statue on North Andover Common]]
His close ties with [[Harvard University]] led to the creation of Phillips Brooks House in [[Harvard Yard]], built seven years after his death. On January 23, 1900, it was dedicated to serve "the ideal of piety, charity, and hospitality". The Phillips Brooks House originally housed a Social Service Committee, which became the Phillips Brooks House Association in 1904. It ceased formal religious affiliation in the 1920s, but remains in operation as a student-run group of volunteer organizations. Brooks' theological alma mater, Virginia Theological Seminary, honors him with a statue outside its library.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vts.edu/page/news-detail?pk=891856|title=Friday, December 20, 2013|access-date=17 April 2017}}</ref>
[[File:Plaque on rear base of Phillips Brooks Statue, North Andover Common.jpg|thumb|Plaque on rear base of Phillips Brooks Statue, North Andover Common]]
[[File:Plaque on rear base of Phillips Brooks Statue, North Andover Common.jpg|thumb|Plaque on rear base of Phillips Brooks Statue, North Andover Common]]
A statue of Phillips Brooks stands on the [[North Andover, Massachusetts]], Town Common, facing North Parish Church.
[[File:View of Phillips Brooks statue and North Parish.jpg|thumb|View of Phillips Brooks statue and North Parish on North Andover Common]]
[[File:View of Phillips Brooks statue and North Parish.jpg|thumb|View of Phillips Brooks statue and North Parish on North Andover Common]]
[[Alexander Viets Griswold Allen]], an Episcopal clergyman and professor of ecclesiastical history at the [[Episcopal Divinity School]] in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]], published several biographical works on Brooks. These included the two-volume ''Phillips Brooks, Life and Letters'' (1901) and the abbreviated and revised one-volume ''Phillips Brooks'' (1907), both published in New York. In 1961, Raymond W. Albright published another biography of Brooks entitled ''Focus on Infinity''. His contemporary biographer is Douglass Shand-Tucci, who published a chapter on the bishop in ''Ralph Adams Cram: an Architects Four Quests'' in 2005, and in 2009 on the website of Back Bay Historical/The Global Boston Perspective<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.backbayhistorical.org/Blog |title=Douglass Shand-Tucci &#124; BackBay Historical Blog |access-date=2014-02-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131211005748/http://www.backbayhistorical.org/blog/ |archive-date=2013-12-11 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and elaborated as "The Saint Bishop and the American Hagia Sophia" in an October 2009 lecture at the New England Historical Genealogical Society in Boston as part of "The Gods of Copley Square" series. Another contemporary biographer, examining the preacher's evangelical legacy, is Gillis J. Harp,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=14-02-023-f|title=Touchstone Archives: A Once & Former Evangelical|access-date=17 April 2017}}</ref> who has written a major study, ''Brahmin Prophet : Phillips Brooks and the Path of Liberal Protestantism''.


A private elementary school in Menlo Park, California{{snd}}[[Phillips Brooks School]]{{snd}}is named for him, as is [[Brooks School]] in his hometown of North Andover, Massachusetts, the latter founded by Endicott Peabody, who also founded the [[Groton School]]. The Brooks family founded a Brooks Memorial School in [[Cleveland, Ohio]], in 1874 in memory of Phillips' brother, the Rev. Frederic Brooks, who died in an accident in Cambridge. That school was sponsored in part by [[John D. Rockefeller]] and operated under the Brooks name until 1891; it currently operates under the name of the [[Hathaway Brown School]]. John S. White, first headmaster of the school in Cleveland, also founded a Phillips Brooks School in Philadelphia in 1904 that operated there until 1919.
A private elementary school in Menlo Park, California{{snd}}[[Phillips Brooks School]]{{snd}}is named for him, as is [[Brooks School]] in his hometown of North Andover, Massachusetts, the latter founded by Endicott Peabody, who also founded the [[Groton School]]. The Brooks family founded a Brooks Memorial School in [[Cleveland, Ohio]], in 1874 in memory of Phillips' brother, the Rev. Frederic Brooks, who died in an accident in Cambridge. That school was sponsored in part by [[John D. Rockefeller]] and operated under the Brooks name until 1891; it currently operates under the name of the [[Hathaway Brown School]]. John S. White, first headmaster of the school in Cleveland, also founded a Phillips Brooks School in Philadelphia in 1904 that operated there until 1919.
Line 136: Line 167:
==Notes==
==Notes==
{{Reflist}}
{{Reflist}}
* Raymond W. Albright, ''Focus on Infinity: A Life of Philips Brooks'' (New York, 1961).


==References==
==Bibliography==
* Albright, Raymond W. ''Focus on Infinity: A Life of Philips Brooks.'' New York: Macmillan, 1961.
*Allen, Alexander V.G. Phillips Brooks, Life and Letters. 2 vols. New York: Dutton, 1900.
*Allen, Alexander V.G. Phillips Brooks, 1835-1893. New York: Dutton, 1907.
* {{EB1911|wstitle=Brooks, Phillips}}
* {{EB1911|wstitle=Brooks, Phillips}}
* Harp, Gillis J. ''Brahmin Prophet: Phillips Brooks and the Path of Liberal Protestantism.'' New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003.


==External links==
==External links==

Latest revision as of 13:24, 1 July 2025

Template:Short description Script error: No such module "Other people". Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox Christian leader

Phillips Brooks (December 13, 1835Template:SndJanuary 23, 1893) was an American Episcopal clergyman and author, long the Rector of Boston's Trinity Church and briefly Bishop of Massachusetts. One of the most popular preachers of the Gilded Age, he worked to make the Christian Church more relevant to contemporaries.[1] Among his other accomplishments, he wrote the lyrics of the Christmas hymn, "O Little Town of Bethlehem".

He is honored on the Episcopal Church liturgical calendar on January 23.[2] In addition to his moral stature, he was a man of great physical height, standing Template:Convert tall.

Background

Early life and education

Brooks was born on December 13, 1835, in Boston to William Gray Brooks and Mary Ann Phillips Brooks. His father, a Unitarian from a solid, middle-class background, started his career as a hardware and dry goods merchant. His mother was from an orthodox Congregational family. Her father was John Phillips (1776-1820), one of the founders of Andover Theological Seminary.[1]

Rejecting the arid Unitarianism of New England, Mary Ann Brooks determined that the family would join St. Paul's Episcopal Church on Tremont St. in Boston.[1] Three of Phillips Brooks' five brothersTemplate:SndFrederic, Arthur, and John CottonTemplate:Sndwere eventually ordained in the Episcopal Church.

Phillips Brooks attended Boston Latin School, where he excelled in classical languages, followed by Harvard University. Here, he encountered literary Romanticism, the sermons of Henry Ward Beecher, and the poetry of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He was elected to the A.D. Club and graduated in 1855 at the age of twenty.

After graduation, he took a post at Boston Latin where he lasted only six months before being fired. He felt that he had failed miserably. He wrote, "I do not know what will become of me and I do not care much.... I wish I were fifteen years old again. I believe I might become a stunning man: but somehow or other I do not seem in the way to come to much now."[3]

Brooks chose to enter the ministry. In 1856, he began to study for ordination in the Episcopal Church in the Virginia Theological Seminary at Alexandria, Virginia. He struggled with what he perceived as anti-intellectualism of his fellow students but managed to complete his training.[1] While a seminarian there, he preached at Sharon Chapel (now All Saints Episcopal Church, Sharon Chapel) in nearby Fairfax County.

Pastoral career

Philadelphia during the Civil War

File:Phillips Brooks by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Trinity Church, Boston.jpg
Statue by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Trinity Church, Boston, dedicated 1910
File:Memorial to Phillips Brooks.jpg
Memorial to Phillips Brooks in Trinity Church, Boston

In 1859, Brooks graduated from Virginia Theological Seminary, was ordained deacon by Bishop William Meade of Virginia, and became rector of the Church of the Advent in Philadelphia. In 1860, he was ordained priest, and in 1862, became rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity, Philadelphia, where he remained seven years, gaining an increasing name as a Broad churchman,[4] preacher, and patriot.

During the American Civil War he upheld the cause of the North and opposed slavery, and his sermon on the death of Abraham Lincoln was an eloquent expression of the character of both men. His sermon at Harvard's commemoration of the Civil War dead in 1865 likewise attracted attention nationwide.[4]

Trinity Church, Boston

In 1869, Brooks accepted the call to serve as rector of Trinity Church, Boston; today, his statue is located on the left exterior of the church.

Brooks' ambition was to help build a new kind of Protestantism that incorporated insights drawn from the Romantic and liberal theology of the nineteenth century, particularly its celebration of subjective individual experience. To this end, he worked to create a physical manifestation of that message in stone and mortar.[1]

In the 1870s, Brooks became intimately involved in the design and construction of the new Trinity Church on Copley Square in the Back Bay. Architect Henry Hobson Richardson drew on Romanesque architectural language to create an architectural masterpiece. The interior was richly decorated with murals by John LaFarge and stained glass windows by William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. A repudiation of the cool, classical aesthetic of New England Protestantism, the church was designed to evoke religious sensibilities in the congregation. Van Wyck Brooks wrote that the new church represented "the break of the Boston mind with its Puritan past."[5]

The interior marked a deliberate return to early Christian liturgical principles and symbolism. Among the building's notable features was a freestanding liturgical altar. This allowed the celebrant to face the congregation during the Eucharist, emphasizing the communal nature of the sacrament rather than the priest acting as intermediary between God and people. The church also had a synthronon, a semicircular seating arrangement for priests around the apse that directly mirrors early Christian basilicas. Theologically, it represents the collegiality of the priesthood, the idea that ministry is shared among clergy rather than concentrated in a single hierarchical figure. With no choir stalls blocking sight lines, the entire assembly could participate more fully in the liturgy.[6] These interior features were inspired by St. George's Episcopal Church (Manhattan).[7]

Until 1888, Trinity Church had no pulpit. Brooks preferred to preach his legendary sermons from a modest lectern near the rector's stall on the south side of the chancel. By preaching from within the chancel rather than from a towering pulpit, Brooke embodied the Anglican via media between Catholic sacramentalism and the Protestant emphasis on preaching.[6]

Such was the magnificence of Trinity Church that historian Douglass Shand-Tucci called it "an American Hagia Sophia."[8]

Preaching

File:P. Brooks - DPLA - ad64af0b1bbfd28b9f3b5913b0c6789b (page 1).jpg
P. Brooks, ca. 1875–1920. Cabinet Card Collection, Boston Public Library

Brooks was a gifted preacher with broad appeal. His sermons drew crowds of people, some of whom had never been in an Episcopal Church before. He had no sensational manner, according to listeners, but simply presented the Gospel in his natural style. "There is nothing in his voice, bearing, or look," wrote one frustrated observer, "which can explain his almost unexampled popularity. For popular he is almost beyond precedent."[1]

One source of his power as a speaker, according to historian Gillis J. Harp, was his ability to offer congregants an encounter with Christ through a mixture of scriptural truth and personality. Skilled at the use of metaphor to quicken religious sentiment, he was both preacher and poet.[1]

Brooks was neither a reformer nor a social conservative, but both groups drew inspiration from his words. Harp noted, "He understood his own ministerial role as primarily exhortative, an inspirational preacher to stir ups he soul, not agitate for social change."[1]

Bishop of Massachusetts

On April 30, 1891, Brooks was elected sixth Bishop of Massachusetts, despite opposition from conservative High Church Anglo-Catholics opposed to his theological liberalism.[1] He was consecrated to that office in Trinity Church on October 14, 1891.

Brooks was for many years an overseer and preacher of Harvard University. In 1881, he declined an invitation to be the sole preacher to the university and professor of Christian ethics.

Death

Brooks died suddenly in early 1893, at the age of fifty-seven, probably as a result of diphtheria complicated by a cold or flu. His episcopate lasted only 15 months.[1]

His death was a major event in the history of Boston. One observer reported: "They buried him like a king. Harvard students carried his body on their shoulders. All barriers of denomination were down. Roman Catholics and Unitarians felt that a great man had fallen in Israel."[9]

Somewhat more critically, Harvard professor Charles Eliot Norton noted that Brooks seldom appeared to be troubled by religious doubt or concern about the declining influence of the clergy. "He was quite sincere, for religion was a matter of sentiment not of intelligence with him. His strong sense of right & wrong prevented his optimism from sapping his moral integrity, and from doing much harm to the easygoing public whom he served and pleased. The eulogies of him are sadly extravagant."[1]

Legacy

Publications

Brooks left behind published lectures and sermons in an effort to bring Protestant Christianity to a wide audience of readers. In 1877, Brooks published a course of lectures upon preaching that he had delivered at the theological school of Yale University as an expression of his own experience. In 1879, the Bohlen Lectures on The Influence of Jesus came out. In 1878, he published his first volume of sermons, and from time to time issued other volumes, including Sermons Preached in English Churches (1883) and "The Candle of the Lord" and Other Sermons (1895).

Brooks was also famous and beloved for his collections of sermons, The Purpose and Use of Comfort, first published in 1878, which includes the title sermon as well as: "The Withheld Completions of Life," "The Conqueror from Edom," "Keeping the Faith," "The Soul's Refuge in God," "The Man with One Talent," "The Food of Man, "The Symbol and the Reality," "Is It I?", and others.

He wrote several hymns and carols, among them the Christmas carol "O Little Town of Bethlehem".[10]

Influence

Brooks did not marry or have children of his own, but he had great love for children. He met an eleven-year-old Helen Keller when she was at the Perkins Institute for the Blind. It is said that "she sat on Phillips Brooks' knee and learned that God is love."[11]

Awards and Monuments

Within his lifetime, Brooks received honorary degrees from Harvard (1877) and Columbia (1887), and the Doctor of Divinity degree by the University of Oxford, England (1885).

File:Phillips Brooks Statue on North Andover Common.jpg
Phillips Brooks Statue on North Andover Common

His close ties with Harvard University led to the creation of Phillips Brooks House in Harvard Yard, built seven years after his death. On January 23, 1900, it was dedicated to serve "the ideal of piety, charity, and hospitality". The Phillips Brooks House originally housed a Social Service Committee, which became the Phillips Brooks House Association in 1904. It ceased formal religious affiliation in the 1920s, but remains in operation as a student-run group of volunteer organizations. Brooks' theological alma mater, Virginia Theological Seminary, honors him with a statue outside its library.[12]

File:Plaque on rear base of Phillips Brooks Statue, North Andover Common.jpg
Plaque on rear base of Phillips Brooks Statue, North Andover Common

A statue of Phillips Brooks stands on the North Andover, Massachusetts, Town Common, facing North Parish Church.

File:View of Phillips Brooks statue and North Parish.jpg
View of Phillips Brooks statue and North Parish on North Andover Common

A private elementary school in Menlo Park, CaliforniaTemplate:SndPhillips Brooks SchoolTemplate:Sndis named for him, as is Brooks School in his hometown of North Andover, Massachusetts, the latter founded by Endicott Peabody, who also founded the Groton School. The Brooks family founded a Brooks Memorial School in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1874 in memory of Phillips' brother, the Rev. Frederic Brooks, who died in an accident in Cambridge. That school was sponsored in part by John D. Rockefeller and operated under the Brooks name until 1891; it currently operates under the name of the Hathaway Brown School. John S. White, first headmaster of the school in Cleveland, also founded a Phillips Brooks School in Philadelphia in 1904 that operated there until 1919.

The Episcopal Church remembers Phillips Brooks annually on January 23, the anniversary of his death.[2] He is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[13][14]

Notes

Template:Reflist

Bibliography

  • Albright, Raymond W. Focus on Infinity: A Life of Philips Brooks. New York: Macmillan, 1961.
  • Allen, Alexander V.G. Phillips Brooks, Life and Letters. 2 vols. New York: Dutton, 1900.
  • Allen, Alexander V.G. Phillips Brooks, 1835-1893. New York: Dutton, 1907.
  • File:Wikisource-logo.svg This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Script error: No such module "template wrapper".
  • Harp, Gillis J. Brahmin Prophet: Phillips Brooks and the Path of Liberal Protestantism. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003.

External links

Script error: No such module "Portal". Template:Sister project Template:Wikisource/outer coreScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Template:Sister project

Template:S-relTemplate:S-endTemplate:Hall of Fame for Great AmericansTemplate:Authority control
Preceded byTemplate:S-bef/checkTemplate:Succession box/check 6th Bishop of Massachusetts
1891 – 1893 Template:S-ttl/check 		Template:S-aft/check Succeeded by
  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  2. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  3. ↑ Clyde E. Fant and William M. Pinson, Jr., Twenty Centuries of Great Preaching, Volume 6 (Waco, TX: Word, 1971), p. 114
  4. ↑ a b "Brooks, Phillips", in Concise Dictionary of American Biography (1964), New York: Scribner's.
  5. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  6. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  7. ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
  8. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  9. ↑ Mrs. Edward S. Drown, in The Witness, March 21, 1940
  10. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  11. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  12. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  13. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  14. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".Template:Open access
Retrieved from "http://debianws.lexgopc.com/wiki143/index.php?title=Phillips_Brooks&oldid=2041486"