"The Personality of the Deity" is a sermon written and delivered by

Henry Ware Jr. Henry Ware Jr. (April 21, 1794 – September 22, 1843) was an influential Unitarian theologian, early member of the faculty of Harvard Divinity School, and first president of the Harvard Musical Association. He was a mentor of Ralph Waldo Eme ...

Background

Ware presented the sermon on September 23, 1838,Wright, Conrad. "Introduction" to ''Three Prophets of Religious Liberalism: Channing, Emerson, Parker''. Boston: Unitarian Universalist Association/Beacon Press, 1986: 30. in the chapel of

Harvard University 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 ...

. He intended it as a response to

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...

Divinity School Address The "Divinity School Address" is the common name for the speech Ralph Waldo Emerson gave to the graduating class of Harvard Divinity School on July 15, 1838. Its formal title is "Acquaint Thyself First Hand with Deity." Background Emerson prese ...

, delivered a few months earlier. Because of the wide circulation of Emerson's address among non-Divinity students, Ware found it necessary, after a lengthy exchange of letters with Emerson, to present his response to the entire University community during the next term. The sermon refuted some of Emerson's

pantheist Pantheism is the belief that reality, the universe and the cosmos are identical with divinity and a supreme supernatural being or entity, pointing to the universe as being an immanent creator deity still expanding and creating, which has ex ...

ideas and reasserted, as the title suggests, the willful personality of

God In monotheism, monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator deity, creator, and principal object of Faith#Religious views, faith.Richard Swinburne, Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Ted Honderich, Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Ox ...

. The sermon is generally regarded as one of Ware's best works and marks a turning point in the perceptions of true

Unitarianism Unitarianism (from Latin ''unitas'' "unity, oneness", from ''unus'' "one") is a nontrinitarian branch of Christian theology. Most other branches of Christianity and the major Churches accept the doctrine of the Trinity which states that there i ...

. Where it had previously been portrayed as liberal or even radical by the

Trinitarians , logo = Trynitarze.svg , logo_size = 150px , logo_caption = Flag of the Trinitarians , image = Signumordinis.gif , image_size = 200px , caption = Mosaic of Jesus Christ us ...

who had just fifty years before controlled the University, the departure of the Trinitarians and the rise of both

transcendentalism Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that developed in the late 1820s and 1830s in New England. "Transcendentalism is an American literary, political, and philosophical movement of the early nineteenth century, centered around Ralph Wald ...

and

secular humanism Secular humanism is a philosophy, belief system or life stance that embraces human reason, secular ethics, and philosophical naturalism while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, and superstition as the basis of morality an ...

now made

the conservative position. Although widely condemned by University faculty, Emerson's address was very popular among students, many of whom, as Unitarian ministers, led their congregations towards Emerson's ideology. Accordingly, Ware's sermon never received the wide attention and study that Emerson's address did.

References

External links

br>''The Personality of the Deity''
Folson, Wells, and Thurston 1838
''Memoir of the Life of Henry Ware Junior''

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

American Unitarian Association The American Unitarian Association (AUA) was a religious denomination in the United States and Canada, formed by associated Unitarian congregations in 1825. In 1961, it consolidated with the Universalist Church of America to form the Unitarian Uni ...

. 1880 {{DEFAULTSORT:Personality Of The Deity, The Christian sermons Harvard Divinity School 1838 in Massachusetts 1838 speeches September 1838 events