Theodore Parker

PARKER, Theodore. b. Lexington, Massachusetts, 24 August 1810; d. Florence, Italy, 10 May 1860. Born into a farming family, he enrolled at Harvard College, but was unable to take up a place there. He taught in a school at nearby Watertown, Massachusetts, from 1832 to 1834, while studying the Harvard curriculum. Although he passed the examinations, as a non-resident he received no degree; but he then proceeded to the Harvard Divinity School, graduating in 1836. He was ordained as a Congregational minister at West Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1837 (a statue stands outside the church there, now called the Theodore Parker Church). He became an outspoken liberal in theology. His rigorous thinking...