author
C. A. (Cyrus Augustus) Bartol
1813–1900
A Unitarian minister, essayist, and hymnist, this 19th-century Boston writer brought a lively, independent spirit to American religious thought. His books and sermons mixed moral reflection, literary interest, and a strong belief that faith should stay open to fresh ideas.
1 Audiobook
Senatorial Character A Sermon in West Church, Boston, Sunday, 15th of March, After the Decease of Charles Sumner.
by C. A. (Cyrus Augustus) Bartol
About the author
Born in Freeport, Maine, in 1813, Cyrus Augustus Bartol studied at Bowdoin College and then at Harvard Divinity School. He went on to become a Unitarian pastor and spent much of his career in Boston, where he served at the West Church.
Bartol was closely associated with the wider world of New England Transcendentalism. He was known as a preacher and essayist who tried to bring energy, imagination, and a freer spiritual outlook into Unitarian life rather than treating religion as something dry or overly formal.
He also wrote hymns and published a range of books and sermons, including Pictures of Europe, Radical Problems, and Principles and Portraits. He died in Boston in 1900, remembered as a thoughtful religious writer whose work joined ministry, literature, and reform-minded reflection.