Isaac Morgan Atwood  Hosea Ballou

Adin Ballou (1803-1890)

Adin Ballou Adin Ballou

Founder of the utopian community at Hopedale, and a Universalist and Unitarian minister, Ballou was a major contributor to ideas of Christian non-resistance. He was born in Cumberland, Rhode Island on April 23, 1803 into a large extended family of Ballous, many of whom became Universalists. His parents were Ariel and Edilda, farmers who also owned a saw-mill and cider-mill. Adin became a tall farm boy who attended school when he could, often only in the winter. He had to quit altogether when he was 16, and his father later discouraged him from going to college, despite a love for reading. In 1815 the entire family was swept up in a great revival, and all became converted to the Christian Connection. Adin was baptized and his father became a deacon of a newly organized church. Adin remained active with the church, and at 19 felt a call from God to preach, when his deceased brother appeared to him in a dream.

After he became a Christian Connection minister he began to attack the heretic Universalists, especially his distant cousin Hosea Ballou. He decided that he needed to become more familiar with the scriptures and Universalist writings, but unexpectedly the study resulted in his conversion to Universalism. This also helped his love life, as he was able to marry his Universalist sweetheart, Abigail Sayles. After supplying Universalist pulpits, Adin was called to the First Universalist Society in Milford, Massachusetts in 1824. He left to briefly serve in New York, and then returned to Milford. Almost immediately, he became involved with the theological controversy that was embroiling the Universalists. He was a believer in Restorationism, that there would be a period of suffering for sin after death, where the soul is purified and brought into harmony with God. He published a weekly paper, The Independent Messenger, that helped promote this belief. In 1831 the Restorationists withdrew from the denomination, and Ballou was dismissed by his congregation. Almost immediately the Congregational Church in Mendon, Massachusetts invited him to be their pastor. He served there for ten years promoting social justice causes especially temperance and abolition.

Becoming familiar with the ideas of William Lloyd Garrison, Ballou began to advocate non-resistance, and the first organization he participated in was the New England Non-Resistance Society. Ballou became especially committed to the idea of Christian Perfectionism, and split from his fellow Restorationists in 1837. He developed a “Standard of Practical Christianity,” and advocated non-resistance to human government before the Non-Resistance convention in 1839. Ultimately this led to the principle of refusing to obey earthly governments, as the only law is the will of God. Many of his ideas were expressed in The Practical Christian, which he started in 1840. He conceived of living out his faith through an ideal community originally called Fraternal Community Number One. The principles of the new community included belief in the religion of Jesus, never to hate, no taking of oaths, and no participation in war.

In March 1842, 28 people committed themselves to forming a community where all property would be held in common, and all work and profits would be shared. The community, now called Hopedale, because they first occupied an overgrown farm that had no apparent promise, was a relative success. It survived for 14 years with 600 hundred acres added to the original farm. The venture collapsed when its two largest financiers withdrew their capital. This was a lasting disappointment to Ballou. His story of the experiment is recounted in The History of the Hopedale Community (1890). After its collapse, the community continued as a church with Ballou as its minister. It was organized as the Hopedale Liberal Christian Parish (1867), and joined the local Unitarian conference. Ballou was never able to find a community that could truly live out his principles of practical Christianity. For many years he corresponded with the Russian philosopher Leo Tolstoy, who greatly admired Ballou’s thoughts and writings. He died on August 5, 1890.