John Weiss (June 28, 1818 – March 9, 1879) was an
American author and clergyman, an advocate of
women's rights, as well as a noted
abolitionist.
Biography
Weiss was born in
Boston. His father, a German Jew, was a barber in
Worcester. He graduated at
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
in 1837 and at the
Harvard Divinity School in 1843, studying abroad in between. He then preached at
Watertown, but withdrew on account of his anti-slavery opinions. He was pastor at
New Bedford, Massachusetts
New Bedford (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ) is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, Bristol County, Massachusetts. It is located on the Acushnet River in what is known as the South Coast (Massachusetts), South Coast region. Up throug ...
, for a short time, resigning on account of the failure of his health. After several years of study and travel he resumed his pastorate in the
Unitarian
Unitarian or Unitarianism may refer to:
Christian and Christian-derived theologies
A Unitarian is a follower of, or a member of an organisation that follows, any of several theologies referred to as Unitarianism:
* Unitarianism (1565–present ...
church at
Watertown in 1859, remaining there until 1870.
On the issue of
slavery,
the Reverend John Weiss was an outspoken abolitionist.
[ He was an advocate of woman's rights,][ a rationalist in religion, and a disciple of the transcendental philosophy. He delivered courses of lectures on "Greek Religious Ideas," "Humor in Shakespeare," and "Shakespeare's Women." Of his lectures on Greek religious ideas, Octavius B. Frothingham said: "They were the keenest interpretation of the ancient myths, the most profound, luminous, and sympathetic, I have met with."
]
Works
He is the author of many reviews, sermons, and magazine articles on literary, biographical, social, and political questions. He also wrote:
*''Life and Correspondence of Theodore Parker'' (2 vols., New York, 1864)
*''American Religion'' (1871)
He edited and translated:
* Friedrich von Hardenberg, ''Henry of Ofterdingen'' (a romance, Boston, 1842)
* Friedrich Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friends ...
, ''Philosophical and Æsthetic Letters and Essays'' (with an introduction, 1845)
* William Smith, ''Memoir of Johann G. Fichte
Johann Gottlieb Fichte (; ; 19 May 1762 – 29 January 1814) was a German philosopher who became a founding figure of the philosophical movement known as German idealism, which developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Kan ...
'' (1846)
References
Further reading
*
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weiss, John
1818 births
1879 deaths
American abolitionists
American feminist writers
American people of German-Jewish descent
American theologians
American Unitarian clergy
Harvard Divinity School alumni
Jewish American writers
Jewish feminists
American male feminists
American feminists
Writers from Boston
Abolitionists from New Bedford, Massachusetts
19th-century American clergy