Jesse Babcock Ferguson (January 19, 1819 – September 3 or September 4, 1870) was an American

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

preacher who developed

Spiritualist Spiritualism is the metaphysical school of thought opposing physicalism and also is the category of all spiritual beliefs/views (in monism and dualism) from ancient to modern. In the long nineteenth century The ''long nineteenth century'' i ...

leanings in the 1840s and 1850s while serving as the preacher at the Nashville, Tennessee

Church of Christ Church of Christ may refer to: Church groups * When used in the plural, a New Testament designation for local groups of people following the teachings of Jesus Christ: "...all the churches of Christ greet you", Romans 16:16. * The entire body of Ch ...

Biography

Ferguson edited a periodical called ''The Christian Magazine'' and drew large numbers into the church with his powerful preaching, leading to congregational growth and the construction of a new church building. He was eventually expelled from the Nashville Church of Christ in April 1857 for his public advocacy of Spiritualism; the new church building burned shortly after that under suspicious circumstances. Ferguson's beliefs and their upshot led some of the members of the Nashville Church of Christ who had not agreed with Ferguson's Spiritualism to make stronger affirmation of orthodoxy a requirement for future ministers; among the leaders of this strain of belief was

Tolbert Fanning Tolbert Fanning (May 10, 1810 – May 3, 1874) was one of the most influential leaders of what came to be called the American Restoration Movement. Born in what would later become Cannon County, Tennessee. He was man of many talents in both religi ...

, who used the Ferguson incident to enforce his own conservative beliefs as the norm for the group. Ferguson later travelled to England in the company of the Davenport brothers to demonstrate supposed

supernatural Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...

phenomena A phenomenon ( : phenomena) is an observable event. The term came into its modern philosophical usage through Immanuel Kant, who contrasted it with the noumenon, which ''cannot'' be directly observed. Kant was heavily influenced by Gottfried W ...

. He worked as their stage manager but they were exposed as frauds.Lande, R. Gregory. (2020). ''Spiritualism in the American Civil War''. McFarland. pp. 84-85. Ferguson also became convinced of the eventual salvation of all souls through divine grace, the doctrine of Universalism, and was active in the Universalist faith in his later years. Ferguson is buried in Nashville's Mount Olivet Cemetery.

Selected publications

''Spirit Communion''
(1855)
''Nationality Versus sectionalism''
(1866)

References

External links

at the website of the

Unitarian Universalist Association Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) is a liberal religious association of Unitarian Universalist congregations. It was formed in 1961 by the consolidation of the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America, both P ...

Jesse B. Ferguson
a
TheRestorationMovement.com

Supramundane Facts in the Life of Rev. Jesse Babcock Ferguson, A.M., L.L.D. Including Twenty Years of Observations of Preternatural Phenomena
Edited by T. L. Nichols, M.D. London: 1885. (PDF) a
SpiritualWritings.com
1819 births 1870 deaths 19th-century American clergy American members of the Churches of Christ American spiritualists Burials at Mount Olivet Cemetery (Nashville) Members of Restoration Movement denominations Ministers of the Restoration Movement {{US-Christian-clergy-stub