John White Chadwick


John White Chadwick was an American writer and clergyman of the Unitarian Church.

Early life and education

Chadwick was born in Marblehead, Massachusetts in 1840. He left school at age 13 and was apprenticed to a shoemaker for several years. In 1857 he opted to further his academic learning, and entered the State Normal School in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. After graduating in 1859, he attended Phillips Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire. By then he had chosen to become a minister, and enrolled in Harvard Divinity School. He graduated in July 1864. In December of that year, he was ordained and installed as minister of the Second Unitarian Church in Brooklyn, New York.

Career

Chadwick's sermons attracted attention, and he developed a reputation as a radical preacher of Unitarian doctrines. His beliefs were in part shaped by his long friendship and correspondence with the radical Unitarian minister William Channing Gannett.
In 1876, Chadwick published his first book of poems and would continue to write poetry over subsequent decades. In 1885 he was elected Phi Beta Kappa poet at Harvard. For the occasion, he read his poem "A Legend of Good Poets". The following year he preached the alumni sermon at Harvard Divinity School. In 1888 he was awarded an honorary A.M. degree from Harvard.
He remained at the Second Unitarian Church until his death in Brooklyn on December 11, 1904.

Works

In addition to contributing articles to Unitarian journals, Chadwick was a prolific author of books, producing over 30 in his lifetime. They consisted of his sermons and other theological writings, historical and biographical monographs, and volumes of poetry. His best-known collection was titled A Book of Poems. First published in 1876, its tenth edition was released posthumously in 1905 by Little, Brown and Company.
His list of books include:
  • Way, Truth, and Life: Sermons by N. A. Staples
  • The Great Salvation: A Sermon
  • A Book of Poems
  • Thomas Paine: The Method and Value of His Religious Teachings
  • The Bible of To-day
  • The Faith of Reason: A Series of Discourses on Leading Topics of Religion
  • The State of the Nation: A Sermon
  • Some Aspects of Religion
  • An Educated Will
  • The Man Jesus: A Course of Lectures
  • Belief and Life
  • Origin and Destiny
  • In Nazareth Town, a Christmas Fantasy, and Other Poems
  • A Daring Faith
  • The Good Voices: Poems
  • Birth and Triumph of Cupid, with verses by J.W.C.
  • Gnostics and Agnostics: A Sermon
  • The Two Voices: Poems of the Mountains and the Sea
  • The Revelation of God and Other Sermons
  • Charles Robert Darwin
  • Evolution and Social Reform
  • The Power of an Endless Life and Other Sermons
  • Evolution as Related to Citizenship
  • Seeing and Being and Other Sermons
  • George William Curtis: An Address by John White Chadwick
  • Old and New Unitarian Belief
  • Power and Use
  • A Life For Liberty: Anti-Slavery and Other Letters of Sallie Holley
  • Theodore Parker, Preacher and Reformer
  • Women of the Bible
  • William Ellery Channing: Minister of Religion
  • ''Later Poems, by John White Chadwick''