BIOGRAPHIES

By Emma R. Crossen

Harvard Divinity School

Akhnaton (14th century B.C.E), or Akhenaten, is credited with the first known attempt at monotheism. During his reign as king of Egypt, he tried to compel the nation to worship Aten (hence the name Akhenaten), a term used to designate the disc of the sun.

Alcuin of York (c. 735–804), had a long career as a teacher and scholar, first at the school at York and later as Charlemagne’s leading advisor on ecclesiastical and educational affairs. From 796 until his death in 804 he was abbot of the monastery of St. Martin of Tours, which he developed into a model of excellence in education.

Lancelot Andrewes (1555–1626) was minister to both Queen Elizabeth I and King James I. During the latter’s reign, Andrewes led the effort to translate the King James Version of the Christian bible.

Maya Angelou (1928– ), hailed as a poet, educator, historian, best-selling author, actress, playwright, civil-rights activist, producer and director, continues to travel the world to international acclaim as a voice of wisdom.

Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109) held the office of Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109. He is called the founder of scholasticism, a movement which originally began to reconcile ancient classical philosophy with medieval Christian theology. Anselm is also famous for originating the ontological argument for the existence of God.

Waldemar Argow, Jr. (1916–1996) was ordained as a minister in June 1941 in Amherst, Massachusetts. He served Unitarian and Universalist congregations in Massachusetts and Philadelphia with his longest tenures in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Toledo, Ohio. His father, Waldemar Argow, Sr., was a Unitarian minister in Baltimore, Maryland.

Aristophanes (c. 456–c. 386 B.C.E.) was a leading actor and writer in ancient Greek comedy. Only eleven of his forty plays survive, but these are the only complete plays that remain from Old Attic Comedy, a reference to the dramas of fifth-century Athens.

Augustine (354–430) is the best-known figure in the development of western Christianity. He is credited with framing the concept of just war. After starting his career as one of the best rhetoricians in the Latin world, Augustine converted to Christianity, gave up his career, and devoted himself to the priesthood. Even after being appointed Bishop of Hippo, he lived a monastic life. One of his many writings, Confessions, is a classic of world literature.

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus (121–180) was emperor of Rome from 161 to his death in 180. He is considered one of the most important Stoic philosophers. Antoninus’ Meditations, which he wrote for his own self-improvement during military campaigns in Greece, is revered as a classic of literature, philosophy, and spirituality.

John Baillie (1886–1960) was a Scottish theologian and minister. During his career, he also served as President of the World Council of Churches and held university posts in the United Kingdom, United States, and Canada. His A Diary of Private Prayer is regarded as a devotional classic.

Karle Wilson Baker (1878–1960), a writer from Texas, became one of the most famous poets in the South through the publication of her poems in national journals like Yale Review, Atlantic Monthly, and Harper’s. During the years 1914-1920, she was the most frequent contributor to the Yale Review.

Joseph Barth (1906–1988) was born in Salina, Kansas and went on to earn degrees from multiple universities before serving as minister at King’s Chapel in Boston, Massachusetts. Beacon Press published his book entitled The Art of Staying Sane.

Monroe Beardsley (1915–1985), an American philosopher, was best known for his work in aesthetics. Beardsley promoted an instrumentalist theory of art. His published works include: Practical Logic (1950), Aesthetics (1958), and Aesthetics: A Short History (1966).

Ludwig van Beethoven (c. 1770–1827) was one of the most influential and famous musicians of all time. As a German composer and virtuoso pianist, he wrote, performed, and conducted orchestral and instrumental masterpieces, even after suffering total hearing loss in 1814. He was attracted to Enlightenment ideas and composed words and music to honor humanity.

Stephen Vincent Benét (1898–1943) was an American author, best known for his poems and short stories. In 1929, he won the Pulitzer Prize for John Brown’s Body, a book-length narrative poem about the American Civil War.

William Blake (1757-1827) was an English mystic, poet, painter and printmaker, known for the philosophical and prophetic visions that informed his work. Although Blake objected to the established church, he had deep respect for religious experience, mythology, and scripture.

Anne Bradstreet (c.1612–1672), an immigrant from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, was the first woman to have her writings published in America. From a prominent Puritan family, both her father and husband served as governors of the colony. Bradstreet wrote on domestic and religious themes. Her poems document the difficulties of being a woman in Puritan New England. She was America’s first published poet.

Marguerite Harmon Bro is the author of children’s books, including the novel Sarah, first published in 1949.

Robert Burns (1759–1796) is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland. Burns Night, a celebration of this beloved Scot, is practically a national holiday. The traditional Burns Night dinner usually begins with “Selkirk Grace” and concludes after the meal with singing of “Auld Lang Syne,” which is also attributed to the poet.

Chief Yellow Lark was a Sioux Indian Chief in the late 19th century. He translated several Sioux prayers into English.

Max Coots (1927- ) is Minister Emeritus at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Canton, New York, where he now creates whimsical ceramic sculpture.

J. Raymond Cope (1905–1988) served for 22 years as the pastor of First Unitarian Church in Berkeley, California, beginning in 1940. He previously taught philosophy at Indiana University. Cope was a community leader in Berkeley and participated nationally in the civil rights movement.

Samuel McChord Crothers (1857–1927) switched to the Unitarian Church in 1882 after beginning his pastoral career in the Presbyterian Church. In 1894 he became minister at First Parish in Cambridge (Unitarian) in Massachusetts. He was a popular preacher and distinguished essayist.

e. e. cummings (1894-1962) was a playwright, painter, and poet, known mostly as the latter. He was raised in a liberal family, his father a Harvard professor and Unitarian minister. He began writing poetry as a young child. Cummings’ poems are marked by unconventional syntax, grammar, and punctuation. He received numerous honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, Bollingen Prize, and guest lectureship at Harvard.

Dadu (1544–1603) was a Hindu guru in Rajasthan, India. His group of followers became known as the Dadu-panth. Many of Dadu’s words refer to natural joy and raising all earthly things to a divine status.

A. Powell Davies (1902–1957) rose to prominence as one of America’s most forthright liberal spokesman from his position as pastor at All Souls Unitarian Church in Washington, DC from 1944 until his death. All Souls attendance grew to overflowing the church building, and seven new churches were established outside the city. He published several books on the Dead Sea Scrolls and America’s Real Religion.

Dionysius of Alexandria (c. 190–265) became bishop of Alexandria in 248. Raised a pagan, he converted to Christianity after receiving a vision that he said persuaded him to study and refute the heresies of the church. Some of his more controversial positions included questioning the authorship of the Book of Revelation, and denouncing the Millenarian idea of Jesus Christ’s return to earth. During his reign as bishop, Dionysius was forced into exile for years at a time during Roman persecution against Christians.

W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963) has been called the early-twentieth century’s most prominent activist on behalf of African Americans. Upon his death, he had published 17 books and edited numerous journals. Du Bois also edited the NAACP journal Crisis (1910-1934) and promoted Pan-Africanism. He travelled to Ghana in 1961 and, after being denied a new U.S. passport, he and his wife became citizens of Ghana, where Du Bois died.

Elgin Cathedral was completed in the 13th century and is now a historic ruin in Moray, north-east Scotland. It was destroyed and rebuilt several times in three centuries. Following the Scottish Reformation in 1560, the building fell into decay until restoration efforts began in the 19th century.

Thomas Stearns (T.S.) Eliot (1888-1965), is one of the most widely-known poets of the twentieth-century. Born a member of a prominent Unitarian family in St. Louis, Eliot became a British citizen and joined the Anglican church around the age of 40. His poems, such as Wasteland and later works reveal a hope informed by his developing religious ideas. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1948.

Epictetus (55-135) was a Stoic philosopher. Born a slave, he established a famous philosophical school in Nicopolis. Much of his work was transcribed by his pupil Arrian in The Discourses and Enchiridion. He encouraged living in accordance with reason and ways of nature.

Eleanor Farjeon (1881-1965), though best known for penning the hymn Morning Has Broken, wrote multiple volumes of poetry, satire, fiction, and drama for younger readers. She spent much of her life among the prestigious literary and theatrical circles of London. Her two novels about the character Martin Pippin are among her most famous.

Arthur Foote II (1911-1999) was a Unitarian Universalist minister at Unity Church in St. Paul, Minnesota from 1945-1970. He continued his family’s tradition of creating new music for the church and also served in national leadership as the Chairman of the Hymnbook Commission of the Unitarian Universalist Association.

Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969), a liberal Baptist minister in New York City, played a central role in the conflict between fundamentalism and liberalism in twentieth-century America. Amid controversy while serving a Presbyterian church, Fosdick was invited by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. to lead what became the interdenominational Riverside Church, where Fosdick was the first minister.

Francis of Assisi (c. 1181-1226) is perhaps the most popular saint for Catholics and persons of other faiths. Born the son of a wealthy businessman, he claimed to have experienced visions and spiritual crises in his twenties (following military service and medical illness) that inspired him to commit to a life of poverty and preaching among the people. He attracted a large group of followers who became the first order of Franciscan friars.

Stephen H. Fritchman (1902-1981), after starting his career in the Methodist Church, was ordained a Unitarian minister in 1930. While he was editor of the AUA journal,The Christian Register, Fritchman’s editorial policies sparked an 18-month controversy in which opponents accused him of promoting communism and Soviet policies. He resigned in 1947 and went on to be minister of The First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles until his retirement in 1969. Under his leadership the church became a center of resistance to the Cold War, vigorously supporting liberal causes in the city and state.

Robert Frost (1874-1963) was a four-time Pulitzer Prize winning American poet of popular and frequently-quoted poems. He spent his adult life in New England, working as a teacher and a farmer. His first book of poems was published in England in 1913. He soon became a sought-after lecturer and poet. Some of his more famous works include “Birches,” “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.”

Max Gaebler (1921- ) was named one of the most influential citizens of the twentieth century in Madison, WI, where he served for 35 years as minister of the First Unitarian Society. During the turbulence of the 1960s, Gaebler was respected as a voice to facilitate inclusive debate on the University of Wisconsin campus. He served as interim minister in several international locations, including Japan, Canada, Australia, and the Vatican. These experiences encouraged Gaebler’s concern and work for interfaith understanding.

Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676) was a German hymn writer, trained to be a Lutheran pastor during the religious conflicts of the 17th century in Germany. He is known as the “sweet singer of Lutheranism” and credited with writing more than 100 hymns and chorales. In the face of political pressure to repudiate certain Lutheran beliefs, he was unwilling to compromise even when it caused him to lose church employment.

Fred Gillis (1940- ) is the Minister Emeritus of the Westminster Unitarian Church of East Greenwich, Rhode Island, which he served for twenty-six years. He was one of the original members of Abraxas, a community developing creative worship materials published as a Book of Hours for retreats.

Joan Goodwin (1926-2006) was an author and leader in liberal religious education. After working in religious education at Unitarian churches in Milwaukee and Cleveland, Goodwin worked at the Unitarian Universalist Association from 1973-1987. Her published works include The Remarkable Mrs. Ripley: The Life of Sarah Alden Bradford.

Edward Grubb (1854-1939) was a historian of Quaker thought and hymn writer. In addition to the hymn published here, Grubb also wrote Quaker Thought and History: A Volume of Essays.

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926- ) is a Buddhist monk, writer, peace activist and acclaimed spiritual leader for followers of his mindful living practices. Hanh is credited with the concept of Engaged Buddhism, by which Buddhists apply insights from meditation to engage in social and political issues as part of their meditation and mindfulness practice. Martin Luther King, Jr. nominated Hanh for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1967.

Georgia Harkness (1891-1974) has been called one of the first significant American female theologians and the first woman professor at an American seminary. In addition to poetry, she published multiple books about such topics as Christian ethics and prayer. Harkness was integral in the movement to gain ordination for women in her own tradition, the Methodist church.

Donald S. Harrington (1914-2005) was a Unitarian minister at Community Church of New York and led New York’s liberal party as state party chairman and candidate for lieutenant governor. Harrington used both political and church pulpits to speak liberal ideals.

John F. Hayward (1918- ) a Unitarian minister, spent most of his career teaching and developing religious studies at universities. His tenure at First Parish in Columbus, Ohio ended sooner than he intended when the University of Chicago Divinity School offered him a faculty position to teach religion and the arts in 1951. Hayward finished his career at Southern Illinois University, where he was professor of philosophy, religion and the arts.

Gerald Heard (1889-1971) pioneered the consciousness-development movement known as Vedanta through writing, lecturing, disciplined meditation, and founding a small community for comparative-religious studies called Trabuco College in California. Heard came to the U.S. from England in 1937 to teach historical anthropology at Duke University. While in England, Heard was the BBC’s first science commentator. He published more than thirty books.

Ralph N. Helverson (1912-2007) led First Parish in Harvard Square during the socially and politically turbulent decades from 1959 to 1977. Under his leadership, several initiatives developed and expanded, including media and social services. For many years, Helverson was the voice of Unitarian Universalism on Boston radio, where his distinctive Sunday morning broadcasts, Window on Harvard Square, brought the message of the liberal church to many people for the first time.

Frank O. Holmes (1898-1983) was ordained a Unitarian minister in 1921. He served parishes in Cambridge and Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, and later in Concord, New Hampshire, and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

John Haynes Holmes (1879-1964) founded the Community Church of New York and helped to found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the American Civil Liberties Union. He is remembered for his pacifism, preaching and writing celebrating the work of Mahatma Gandhi.

John Holmes (1904-1962) was a poet and professor of literature at Tufts University. While his own poetry was published in several volumes and frequently appeared in The New Yorker, Holmes’ was also a pioneer in poetry education. He brought distinguished living poets to the Tufts campus long before poetry readings and poets-in-residence became a standard feature of academia.

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) was a Jesuit priest and English poet. Most of his poetry remained unpublished until after his death, when he was recognized as one of the most daring Victorian poets for his innovative use of meter and imagery.

William de Witt Hyde (1858-1917) spent most of his career as president and philosophy professor at Bowdoin College in Brunsick, Maine. Hyde is credited with transforming the college into a model of higher education. Hyde’s leadership and writings earned him a reputation as a theorist of higher education. His other published works include God’s Education of Man.

James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) was a leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Though best-known as a writer of novels, poetry, and folklore, Johnson was also an accomplished musician, professor, U.S. diplomat, anthropologist, and political activist. He wrote the lyrics to “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” which has since been named the Negro National Anthem by the NAACP.

Daniel Ben Judah (c. 14th-century) was a poet of Jewish liturgy in 14th-century Rome. He composed the well-known hymn Yigdal Elohim Hai containing the thirteen articles of belief of Maimonides, one of the most prominent philosophers in Jewish history.

Kabir (1398 or 1448) was a mystic poet in India whose work remains in many sacred texts. His philosophy synthesized Hindu and Muslim concepts and promoted egalitarianism. He was one of the major inspirations to Sikhism.

Toyohiko Kagawa (1888-1960), Japanese pacifist and social reformer, became a Christian in his teens after taking a Bible class to learn English. He felt called to work among impoverished people and began by living in the slums of Kobe from 1910-1924. He organized unions and established hospitals, churches, and schools. He founded the Anti-War League and devoted his final years after World War II to reconciling democratic ideals with traditional Japanese culture.

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) was a German mathemetician and astronomer whose observations about planetary motion changed astronomy and physics. He was motivated by a conviction that God created the world according to an intelligible plan and that this plan could be understood through reason. He developed the three laws of planetary motion and was the first astronomer openly to defend the views of Copernicus.

Sören Kierkegaard (1813-1855) was a prolific Danish Christian writer who contributed original concepts to theology, philosophy, literature, and psychology. He was especially critical of the state-church and its politics and formalities which, he said, distorted true Christianity.

D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930) was an English poet, novelist, and non-fiction writer. His most famous and famously controversial novel was Lady Chatterly’s Lover. Lawrence’s portrayal of sexuality and human instinct sparked controversy, opposition, censorship, and economic hardship for the author. His fiction is now recognized among the canon of great English novels.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) was the U.S. president (1861-1865) during the Civil War which threatened to dissolve the nation. He is often credited with saving the union of states and ending slavery. Lincoln is the only U.S. president not to claim affiliation with a religious institution. He credited the Declaration of Independence as the text that most inspired him.

Samuel Longfellow (1819-1892) was a Unitarian minister and hymn writer whose sermons and lyrics reflected his transcendentalism. He served churches in Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania and published four hymnals and a biography of his brother, the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

George MacRae (1928-1985) was an internationally known scholar of New Testament studies. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1960 and went on to become the dean of Harvard Divinity School. MacRae served on the international committee that revised the Revised Standard Version of the Bible. He was the first Roman Catholic to be appointed director of the Society of Biblical Literature.

Peter Marshall (1902-1949) was a poor Scottish immigrant who came to the U.S at the age of 24 and became a famous Presbyterian minister and twice chaplain of the U.S. Senate. His wife, author Catherine Marshall, popularized Marshall’s sermons and life story in several books, including A Man Called Peter, which was later made into an Oscar-winning film.

James Martineau (1805-1900) was an English Unitarian minister and educator whose widely influential theology and philosophy helped to shape 19th-century religious thought. His writings and sermons reflected his search for harmony between faith and reason and his emphasis on conscience as the ultimate authority for guiding human behavior.

Sidney Mead (1904-1999) was a historian of religion in the United States. He described the development of American Christianity as a tension between followers of reason and followers of revelation, and gives greater focus to the legacy of “rationalists.” He was raised with American-Baptist affiliation and joined the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations while teaching at University of Chicago.

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) a poet and playwright, was the first woman to receive, in 1923, the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. The publication of her poem “Renascence” attracted the attention that earned her a scholarship to Vassar College, after which she moved to New York City where she wrote her famous volume, The Harp-Weaver and Other Poems, for which she won the Pultizer.

Samuel H. Miller (1900-1968) was a Baptist minister and scholar who served as dean of Harvard Divinity School from 1959 until his death. His published works include Man the Believer in an Age of Unbelief (1968); his final work, Religion in a Technical Age, was published on the day of his death.

Mohammed (c. 570-632) is the founder of Islam, whose followers regard him as the last prophet in line with Adam, Noah, Abraham, and Jesus. The Islamic holy book, Quran, is the collection of revelations that Mohammed received when the prophet was in his forties.

Joachim Neander (1850-1680) was a German Reformed church teacher, theologian, and hymn writer. Many consider him the first important German hymnist after the Reformation.

Diann Neu is a feminist liturgist and psychotherapist and founder of WATER, the Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual in Maryland. She has designed liturgies for international conferences and published articles and books on feminist approaches to ritual and liturgy.

Philipp Nicolai (1556-1608) was a German Lutheran pastor and poet who is best known as a hymn writer and musician. He is said to be the last of the Meistersinger tradition, in which one person composed both the text and melody. Nicolai’s two most famous hymns were the inspiration for two cantatas by J.S. Bach.

Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971) is the best known American theologian of the 20th century. Niebuhr joined the faculty at Union Theological Seminary in New York City in 1928 after thirteen years as a pastor in Detroit, where he worked actively to counter the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the burgeoning city. During World War II, he turned from pacifism toward his ideology of Christian Realism.

Ursula M. Niebuhr (1907-1997) founded the religion department at Barnard College in 1931 and continued as professor and chairwoman there for two decades. Born in Southampton, England, she was the first woman to win a fellowship to Union Theological Seminary. It was there she met the famous theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr, whom she married in 1931.

Else Niemoller is recognized as the wife and supporter of Pastor Martin Niemoller in his work against Nazi Germany. Though initially a supporter of Adolf Hitler, Pastor Niemoller later helped to found the Confessing Church and was imprisoned for 8 years in concentration camps for his opposition to state control of the churches. Else Niemoller died in a car crash in 1961.

John Oxenham (1852-1941) was the pseudonym for William Arthur Dunkerly, a prolific British poet, hymn-writer, and journalist. He used another pseudonym, Julian Ross, for journalism. In addition to hymns, he wrote more than 40 novels and books. Dunkerly was a deacon and teacher at Euling Congregational Church in London.

Theodore Parker (1818-1860) was a Unitarian preacher, lecturer, and public intellectual. Parker’s calls for political, social, and economic reform earned him fame and dislike during his life. He led Boston opposition to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.

Francis Greenwood Peabody (1847-1936) left a legacy of lasting influences to Harvard University as professor (1881-1912) and dean (1901-1906) at the Divinity School. He introduced social ethics to the Divinity School curriculum and led the effort for Harvard to be the first traditional U.S. college to make daily religious service optional.

Leslie T. Pennington (1899-1974) came to Unitarian ministry from a Quaker background. During his 18 years in Chicago, he led church and community efforts that became national models of racial integration.

Folliott Sandford Pierpoint (1835-1917) was a British poet and hymnist. His most well-known composition is “For the Beauty of the Earth.” Pierpoint taught classics and served as a schoolmaster in south-west England.

Plato (c. 428-348 B.C.E.), a student of Socrates and teacher to Aristotle, helped to lay the philosophical foundation for Western culture. He founded the first institution of higher learning in the Western world—the Academy in Athens.

Vivian T. Pomeroy (1883-1961) was a Congregational pastor and author of children’s books. He was ordained in Bradford, Yorkshire, England. In 1923, he came to the United States where he served the First Congregational Parish (Unitarian) in Milton, Massachusetts for thirty years. 

Ramanuja (c. 1020-1140) is revered by Hindus as a leading interpreter of the Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy. Ramanuja interpreted texts and developed a Vedantic philosophy known as Vaishnavism.

Walter Rauschenbusch (1861-1918) was a Baptist minister and leading theologian in the Social Gospel movement of the early twentieth century. He served congregations among impoverished workers in New York City and worked to improve social conditions and end child labor, inspiring leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr., and Mahatma Gandhi.

Martin Rinkart (1586-1649) was a German pastor and prolific hymn-writer during the Thirty-Years War. Rinkart was appointed Archdeacon at Eilenburg in 1917, just as the war began, and died shortly after it ended. Eventually, war, famine, and disease left him the only pastor in the city.

Wallace W. Robbins (1910-1988) was a Unitarian pastor and educator. He was president of Meadville Theological School at the University of Chicago from 1944-1956. After this appointment, he returned to his home state of Massachusetts to serve as minister of First Unitarian Church in Worcester.

Carl Sandburg (1878-1967), an American poet, won his first Pulitzer Prize in 1940 for a four-volume biography, Abraham Lincoln: The War Years, which followed Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years. His second Pulitzer came in 1951 for Complete Poems.

Lew Sarett (1888-1954) was a poet and professor. Audiences knew him as “poet of the wilderness” for his public lectures incorporating costumes and performance poetry to illustrate American Indian culture. At Northwestern University, he taught speech and English and co-authored widely used textbooks.

May Sarton (1912-1995) was an American poet, novelist, and memoirist. She published more than 50 books, including novels, plays, poetry, and memoirs. Sarton was known for probing the ordinary things of life to find deeper truths.

Sarum Primer is a collection of prayers and worship resources developed in Salisbury, England, during the 13th century. “Sarum” is the abbreviation for the Latin word for Salisbury. The collection was used throughout Britain, as well as parts of continental Europe, until the Reformation.

Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957), a British author, is best known for the popular mystery series featuring detective Lord Peter Wimsey. Sayers’ Christian humanism and Anglican tradition are reflected in religious writings like Mind of the Maker and her translation of The Song of Roland. She revolutionized religious play-writing when she portrayed Jesus Christ speaking modern English in the television program The Man Born to Be King, which she wrote for the BBC children’s hour. In her nearly ten-year advertising career, she developed popular campaigns for brands like Guiness and Colman’s Mustard.

William Scarlett (1883-1973 ) was the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri from 1933 to 1952. He is celebrated for his efforts to promote social reform after the Great Depression. Scarlett was also a close friend of theologian Reinhold Niebuhr.

Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) was a theologian, writer, organist and physician. He won the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize for his philosophy of Reverence for Life. Schweitzer became a doctor in order to establish a missionary hospital in what is now Gabon, Africa, in 1914.

Seneca (c. 4 B.C.E-65 C.E.) was a Roman Stoic, government official, philosopher, and dramatist. His stoicism emphasized practical steps to confront life’s dilemmas, especially mortality. His dramas continue to inspire writers today.

Vincent P. Silliman (1894-1979) was a Unitarian minister for 62 years. He edited We Sing of Life.

Socrates (470-399 B.C.E.) is credited with helping to establish the foundation for Western philosophy. He promoted critical reasoning and established the Socratic method of teaching, both of which employ critical questions in the pursuit of truth. Plato was Socrates’ student.

Willard L. Sperry (1882-1954) was Dean of Harvard Divinity School and Minister of Harvard Memorial Church. Among his prolific publications are Religion in America and Reality in Worship.

Starhawk (1951- ) is a pioneer in reviving earth-based spirituality and Goddess religion. She co-founded Reclaiming, an activist branch of modern Pagan religion, based in northern California. She is the author of The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess.

Douglas Steere (1901-1995) was one of the leading Quakers of the twentieth century, a leading figure in the American Friends Service Committee and in the founding of Pendle Hill, a Quaker center outside Philadelphia. He was a professor of philosophy at Haverford College.

Jan Struther (1901-1953) was an English writer and hymnist. Struther created the character Mrs. Miniver in 1937 for a series of columns in The Times of London. The columns were first published in book form in 1939. MGM adapted the tales into the film Mrs. Miniver, the top film of 1942 in the U.S. and Britain..

Malcolm R. Sutherland (1917-2003) was a Unitarian minister, educator, and peace activist. At Meadville Lombard Theological School, he was professor, dean, and president from 1960-1975. Sutherland was recognized for promoting dialogue between religion and science.

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), the 1913 Nobel Prize Laureate from Bengal, India, gained international fame through his poetry and tours in the early 1900s. Tagore supported Indian independence.

Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), was a Spanish Catholic mystic, writer and founder of monastic orders. She was canonized in the 17th century. In 1970, she became the first woman to be honored as a Doctor of the Church, a title designating the church’s most significant writers.

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was a writer best known for his book Walden, a reflection on two-years of simple living in natural surroundings, and the essay, Civil Disobedience, in which he defends individuals right to conscientious objecting in the face of unjust laws. His writings anticipated many elements of ecology.

Howard Thurman (1900-1981) was a minister, writer, and theologian. His most famous work, Jesus and the Disinherited (1949), inspired Martin Luther King, Jr. and laid a theological foundation for the civil rights movement. Thurman co-founded a racially integrated church in San Francisco. He was the first African-American dean of the chapel at Boston University.

Jacob Trapp (1899-1992) was a Unitarian Universalist minister who served congregations in Salt Lake City, Denver, and Summit, NJ. He was the editor of Modern Religious Poems and author of the hymn, “Wonders Still the World Shall Witness.”

Tukaram (c. 1608-c. 1650) is a revered Indian poet and author of numerous texts. He was a devotee of Vitthal, a form of Lord Krishna. He was related to the Bhakti movement of the Maharashtra region of India.

Louis Untermeyer (1885-1977) was an author, poet, anthologist, and editor. He wrote or edited more than 100 books, including anthologies of short stories, humor, poetry, and children’s literature.

Upanishads are part of the Vedas, the oldest sacred texts in Hinduism. The Upanishads are considered divinely inspired poetic liturgies, discussing meditation, the nature of reality, and philosophy. The texts vary in origin, dating from as far back as the seventh-century B.C.E. to the medieval or early modern period.

Herbert F. Vetter (1923- ) is Minister at Large, Emeritus, of the First Parish in Cambridge, Unitarian Universalist, where he founded Cambridge Forum national radio and public television broadcasts and was a chaplain to Harvard University. He is the founder of Harvard Square Library.

Von Ogden Vogt (1879-1964) was minister at The First Unitarian Church of Chicago, adjoining the University of Chicago, from 1925-1944. He was celebrated as a master liturgist and visionary for the architecture of the church’s grand Gothic structure, designed during his tenure. He wrote Art and Religion and Cult and Culture and coedited Hymns of the Spirit and Services of Religion.

Joachim Wach (1898-1955) was a pioneer scholar in the field of religious history. Born in Saxony, Wach was educated in Germany and later became a professor at University of Leipzig and University of Chicago.

Isaac Watts (1674-1748) is recognized as the father of English hymnody and a reknowned logician. He is credited with writing nearly 750 hymns, including “O God Our Help in Ages Past.” He was pastor of a large independent church in London. His religious opinions were more ecumenical than most in his time.

Walt Whitman (1819-1892) is among the most influential and revolutionary poets and writers in American literature. Among his most well-known publications are Leaves of Grass (1855) and O Captain! My Captain! written to honor Abraham Lincoln after the president’s assassination.

David Rhys Williams (1890-1970) was a Unitarian minister in Rochester, New York, from 1928 until his death. Williams was outspoken on social and political issues. Among his controversial opinions, he advocated racial toleration, birth control, labor organizing, and free speech.

Roger Williams (1603-1683) was a co-founder of the colony of Rhode Island. After coming to the United States in 1630, Williams advocated separation of church and state, fair treatment of Native Americans, and liberty of conscience.

End Note

If you discover any errors of omission or commission, please notify Rev. Herbert F. Vetter at www.harvardsquarelibrary.org or hfvetter@post.harvard.edu. Online corrections will be made immediately; print changes will be made as soon as possible in upcoming editions.