BUSHNELL, HORATIUS

BUSHNELL, HORATIUS. – American Protestant writer, born at Lichfield (Connecticut) on 14 April 1802, died at Hartford on 17 February 1876. He studied law at Yale University, and when he was about to devote himself to the legal profession, he changed his mind and began to study theology. In 1833 he was appointed Congregationalist minister of Hartford (Conn.). During those years the “Christian Alliance” was founded, an American Protestant association for combating Catholicism, condemned in 1844 by Pope Gregory XVI in the Encyclical Inter praecipuas; but B. wrote pamphlets and preached in its support. In 1845 he travelled to Europe, returning thereafter to his congregation in Hartford after an absence of one year. In 1849 he published his first book, God in Christ, containing doctrines tending towards anti-Trinitarianism. He was consequently accused before the central Congregationalist association of Hartford, but three of the five judges declared that his errors were not fundamental. The accusation was presented again in 1850 to the General Association of Connecticut, but this refused to intervene; a third attempt was made in 1852 before the General Association of Danbury, but it declared that it was neither a legislative nor a judicial body, in conformity with the doctrines of the Congregationalists concerning the absolute independence of individual Congregations or Churches. From 1855 to 1856 he travelled throughout the United States, settling in California, where he worked for the founding of the University of California. In 1859 he withdrew into private life in his former congregation of Hartford, where he remained until his death. B. wrote many ascetical, moral, theological, and other books, and towards the end of his life corrected some of his errors. The Protestant Benham says that these books contain good things, but must be read with caution.