author
Francis Greenwood Peabody
1847–1936
A pioneering teacher of social ethics, this Harvard theologian wrote about how religious faith should meet everyday life, public duty, and social reform. His work helped bring moral questions about society into the modern university classroom.
1 Audiobook
Mornings in the College Chapel Short Addresses to Young Men on Personal Religion
by Francis Greenwood Peabody
About the author
Born in Boston in 1847, Francis Greenwood Peabody became a prominent Unitarian minister, teacher, and writer. He studied at Harvard College and Harvard Divinity School, then joined the Harvard faculty, where he spent decades teaching theology and ethics.
Peabody is often remembered as an early leader in the field of social ethics in the United States. Rather than treating religion as something purely private, he argued that faith should engage directly with poverty, labor, education, and the responsibilities of civic life. That outlook shaped both his teaching and his books, which brought serious moral questions to a wide audience.
He remained an influential figure at Harvard and in liberal religious circles well into the early twentieth century. For listeners today, his work offers a thoughtful window into an era when American religious thought was grappling with the demands of modern society.