Andrews Norton
Houghton Mifflin Chronology of US Literature:
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Works by Andrews Norton
(1786-1853)
| 1837 | The Evidences of the Genuineness of the Gospels. An examination of the New Testament canon, using information outside the Bible to defend the idea of divine inspiration. Norton's most important work, it would be published in several editions and helps establish his position in American Unitarianism and his reputation as a scholar. It is one of the earliest American examples of critical studies of biblical literature. |
| 1839 | Discourses on the Latest Form of Infidelity. A condemnation of Transcendentalism and Norton's former student Ralph Waldo Emerson. Norton, an important figure in American Unitarianism, argues against Emerson's assertions that the miracles of the New Testament did not truly occur. Norton's attack was embarrassing and made conservative Unitarians uneasy, but it is for this dispute that he is most remembered. |
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Andrews Norton
Andrews Norton (December 31, 1786-September 18, 1853) was an American preacher and theologian. Along with William Ellery Channing, he was the leader of mainstream Unitarianism of the early and middle 19th century. He was the father of the writer Charles Eliot Norton.
In his early career, Andrews Norton helped to establish liberal Unitarianism in New England, and stridently opposed harshly conservative Calvinism and Trinitarianism. Nevertheless, later in life, he became the chief conservative Unitarian opponent of Transcendentalism. As a vocal and well-published theologian, he earned from some the joking title of "the Unitarian Pope".
He was born in Hingham, Massachusetts, son of Samuel Norton. Norton graduated from Harvard University in 1804 and continued as a graduate student and lecturer there and at Bowdoin College. In 1819, Harvard made him Dexter Professor of Sacred Literature, a position he held until 1830; he also served as Harvard College Librarian from 1813 to 1821.[1]
Norton engaged in vigorous debates with George Ripley in 1836 and Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1838 (over Emerson's Divinity School Address). He opposed himself to the rise of Transcendentalism and insisted on the truth of some of the Biblical miracles, while rejecting "most of those in the Old Testament, and a few in the new", including rejecting the virgin birth.[2] In rejecting the virgin birth he went beyond William Ellery Channing.[3]
References
- ^ Alfred Claghorn Potter, Charles Knowles Bolton (1897), The Librarians of Harvard College 1667-1877, Cambridge, Mass: Library of Harvard University, http://openlibrary.org/books/OL7223959M/The_librarians_of_Harvard_College_1667-1877
- ^ The Oxford Handbook of Transcendentalism Joel Myerson, Sandra Harbert Petrulionis, Laura Dassow Walls p.53
- ^ John White Chadwick William Ellery Channing 1903 p440
External links
- Norton page from early-20th-century Cambridge History of English and American Literature
- Norton capsule biography from The Unitarians and the Universalists by David Robinson
- Guide to Andrews Norton correspondence with Joanna Baillie at Houghton Library, Harvard University
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Houghton Mifflin Chronology of US Literature
The Chronology of American Literature, edited by Daniel S. Burt. Copyright © 2004 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Mentioned in
General Repository and Review
(literature)
Higher Criticism
(American history)
Ralph Waldo Emerson
(literature)
Bible
(American history)
Religious Thought and Writings
(American history)
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