Charles Conrad Wright (February 9, 1917 – February 17, 2011) was an American religious historian and scholar of American

Unitarianism Unitarianism () is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian sect of Christianity. Unitarian Christians affirm the wikt:unitary, unitary God in Christianity, nature of God as the singular and unique Creator deity, creator of the universe, believe that ...

and

congregational polity Congregational polity, or congregationalist polity, often known as congregationalism, is a system of ecclesiastical polity in which every local church (congregation) is independent, ecclesiastically sovereign, or " autonomous". Its first articul ...

. He served on the faculty of

Harvard Divinity School Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's mission is to educate its students either in the religious studies, academic study of religion or for leadership role ...

from 1954 to 1987 and continued to write for another decade. During his life, Wright was considered the authority on Unitarian church history and polity as well as the history of the Divinity School. Born in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

, Wright was the son of Charles Henry Conrad Wright, a professor of French at Harvard. A Unitarian himself, he was a member of First Parish in Cambridge, the Unitarian Universalist congregation associated with Harvard. His son, Conrad Edick Wright, is a historian of New England. He attended Browne and Nichols School, then was graduated from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...

in 1937 before receiving an MA in 1942 and a PhD in 1946 from Harvard.C. Conrad Wright obituary
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Bibliography

Books

*''The Beginnings of Unitarianism in America'' (1955) *''The Liberal Christians'' (1970) *''Three Prophets of Religious Liberalism: Channing, Emerson, Parker'' (1986) *''A Stream of Light: A Sesquicentennial History of American Unitarianism'' (1975) (re-issued in 1989 with the subtitle "A Short History of American Unitarianism") *''Walking Together: Polity and Participation in Unitarian Universalist Churches'' (1989) *''Congregational Polity: A Historical Survey of Unitarian Universalist Practice'' (1997)

Essay collections

*''Walking Together: Polity and Participation in Unitarian Universalist Churches'' (1989) *''The Unitarian Controversy: Essays in American Unitarian History'' (1994)

Edited volumes

*''Religion in American Life: Selected Readings'' (1972)

Essays

*in ''The Harvard Divinity School: Its Place in Harvard University and in American Culture.'' (1954). Ed. George H. Williams.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, C Conrad American Unitarian Universalists American historians of religion American male non-fiction writers Harvard Divinity School faculty Writers from Cambridge, Massachusetts 1917 births 2011 deaths Harvard College alumni Buckingham Browne & Nichols School alumni Historians from Massachusetts