Hosea Ballou
From Philosopedia
Ballou, Hosea (30 April 1771 - 7 June 1852)
Ballou was the most influential of the preachers in the second generation of the Universalist movement. His A Treatise on Atonement radically altered the thinking of his colleagues in the ministry and their congregation - it openly rejected the doctrine of the Trinity.
A kindly individual, he was not dogmatic but he was witty - the story is told that a heckler challenged his view concerning universal salvation, saying, “What would you do with a man who died reeking in sin and crime?” Ballou responded, “I think it would be a good plan to bury him.”
Ballou and John Murray had differing theological positions, but Universalism grew during their time. Citing Scripture, he preached that a loving God would not condemn humankind to eternal punishment, feeling instead that the consequences of sin are spiritual, psychological, and physical.
Although they lived in close proximity on Beacon Hill in Boston for many years, it should be noted that Ballou and William Ellery Channing, as far as is known, never had a personal relationship.
Because of Ballou's conviction that the eternal God of love, without question, would save all human beings, he necessarily rejected Arminianism, and adopted a "necessitarian" - in today's parlance a "deterministic" - position. If God was, as claimed, omniscient and omnipotent, he obviously could not be foiled in his plan to save all human beings. This obviously was a further challenge to the Unitarians and to the Arminians among the Universalists, who preferred to believe that they had something to say about their own salvation.
In the pages of the Universalist Magazine in 1819, Ballou published long extracts from Joseph Priestley's A General View of the Arguments for the Unity of God; From Reason, from the Scriptures, and from History, which persuaded him to reject the Arian interpretation of the nature of Christ. Henceforth, Ballou believed that Jesus had been fully human, but that he had been chosen by the deity to preach his love for humanity. Christ's ability to perform miracles demonstrated his divine commission. This, and other changes in his thought, were included in his final reworking of A Treatise on Atonement, published as part of his collected works in 1832.
Toward the end of his thirty-five year ministry in Boston, as issues of reform came to the fore in the United States, Ballou wrote against capital punishment and supported the vigorous anti-slavery preaching of his associate minister, Edwin H. Chapin, and the activities of the Universalist General Reform Association. However, he continued to hold to his belief that only when humanity became convinced of God's eternal love for his children, and his determination to save all souls, would evil be overcome and life on earth be transformed.
By 1846, Ballou’s Boston congregation was growing restless for a new voice with a new perspective in the pulpit. It called a reform-minded rising star, Rev. Edwin Chapin, who began preaching sermons on the topics of the day with only references to the Bible. Hosea Ballou did not like this, and he spent the rest of his days traveling all over New England preaching until he was 81 his understanding of universalism.
After a short illness, he died on 7 June 1852. Hundreds of clergy from many denominations and parishioners attended his funeral. Although he was at first buried in the graveyard on Boston Common, he later was buried with his wife, Ruth, in the “beautiful Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge. The soaring monument, with the figure of Hosea in preaching posture was the tribute of grateful Universalists to their “Father Ballou.”
(See entry for Caleb Rich.
{CE; ER; EU, Paul H. Beattie; FUS; U; U&U; UU}
