Theodore Parker 1810 – 1860
Theodore Parker was an American Unitarian minister, Transcendentalist, and abolitionist and one of the leading public intellectuals of antebellum New England. His sermon on The Transient and Permanent in Christianity in 1841 scandalized the Unitarian establishment by distinguishing the perennial moral teaching of Jesus from doctrinal accretions, and his subsequent ministry in Boston drew enormous audiences. He helped to organize the legal defense of fugitive slaves under the Fugitive Slave Act, supported John Brown, and articulated the famous formulation of the moral arc of the universe later cited by Martin Luther King. He died of tuberculosis in Florence.
Key facts
- Nationality
- American
- Era
- Modern
- Movements
- Transcendentalism
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Theodore Parker:
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
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Attributed to Theodore Parker:
“Truth is so simple that it is regarded as pretentious banality.”
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Attributed to Theodore Parker:
“Democracy is government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people.”
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Attributed to Theodore Parker:
“A new world unfolds itself to the soul whenever a single moral principle is grasped.”
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Attributed to Theodore Parker:
“Slavery is a wrong absolute, no matter what custom or law may say.”