Finney, Charles Grandison
FINNEY, CHARLES GRANDISON
American revival preacher; b. Warren, Conn., Aug. 29, 1792; d. Oberlin, Ohio, Aug. 16, 1875. His family migrated in 1794 to Oneida County, N.Y., where he was educated in rural schools. He taught school for several years, attended a private academy in Connecticut, studied law, and practiced as an attorney. Converted in 1821, he studied for the Presbyterian ministry under a local pastor and was ordained in 1824. Finney began preaching revivals in western New York and attracted national attention by his stress on emotional appeal and new measures, such as "the anxious seat." In 1829 he accepted a pastoral charge in New York City and in 1835 published his controversial Lectures on Revivals of Religion. His insistence on freedom of the will and the ability of sinners to repent caused his separation from the Presbyterian Church in 1836 and led to divisions in the church the following year. Finney taught theology at Oberlin College and served as pastor of the Congregational Church in Oberlin until 1872. He was president of Oberlin from 1851 to 1866.
Bibliography: c. f. finney, Memoirs (New York 1876). g. f. wright, Charles Grandison Finney (New York 1891). w. r. cross, The Burned-Over District: The Social and Intellectual History of Enthusiastic Religion in Western New York 1800–1850 (Ithaca 1950). w. g. mcloughlin, Modern Revivalism (New York 1959).
[r. k. macmaster]