Brooks, Phillips
BROOKS, PHILLIPS
Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Massachusetts; b. Boston, Mass., Dec. 13, 1835; d. Boston, Jan. 23, 1893. He was educated at Boston Latin School, Harvard University, and the Virginia Theological Seminary, Alexandria, Va., and was ordained in 1860. He served as rector of Holy Trinity Church, Philadelphia, Pa., before accepting a call to Trinity Church, Boston, in 1869. During this period he combated racial prejudice and advocated full citizenship rights for African Americans. At Trinity Church he won renown as a pulpit orator and frequently preached in churches of other denominations. In his sermons and particularly in the Bohlen lectures, published as The Influence of Jesus in 1879, Brooks stressed personal devotion and regarded dogmatic questions as of little importance. His views incited considerable opposition when he was consecrated bishop of Massachusetts in 1891.
Bibliography: a. v. g. allen, Life and Letters of Phillips Brooks, 2 v. (New York 1900). w. lawrence, Life of Phillips Brooks (New York 1930). j. f. woolverton, The Education of Phillips Brooks (Urbana 1995). s. ahlstrom, A Religious History of the American People (New Haven 1972).
[r. k. macmaster]