Hosea Ballou

author

Hosea Ballou

1771–1852

A self-educated preacher from New Hampshire, he became one of the most influential voices in early American Universalism. His sermons and books helped shape a faith centered on God's love and the hope of salvation for all.

1 Audiobook

A Series of Letters, in Defence of Divine Revelation In Reply to Rev. Abner Kneeland's Serious Inquiry into the Authenticity of the Same. To Which is Added, a Religious Correspondence, Between the Rev. Hosea Ballou, and the Rev. Dr. Joseph Buckminster and Rev. Joseph Walton, Pastors of Congregational Churches in Portsmouth, N. H.

A Series of Letters, in Defence of Divine Revelation In Reply to Rev. Abner Kneeland's Serious Inquiry into the Authenticity of the Same. To Which is Added, a Religious Correspondence, Between the Rev. Hosea Ballou, and the Rev. Dr. Joseph Buckminster and Rev. Joseph Walton, Pastors of Congregational Churches in Portsmouth, N. H.

by Hosea Ballou

About the author

Born in Richmond, New Hampshire, in 1771, Hosea Ballou grew up in a Baptist family and had little formal schooling. Even so, he educated himself, entered the ministry while still young, and in 1789 embraced Universalism, the belief that all souls would ultimately be saved.

Ballou went on to become a leading minister and theological writer, serving congregations in Massachusetts and New Hampshire before taking a long pastorate at the Second Universalist Society in Boston. His book A Treatise on Atonement is especially remembered for rejecting the ideas of original sin and substitutionary punishment and for presenting Christ's work as a revelation of God's steady love for humanity.

For more than fifty years, he was a major force in building and defining the Universalist movement in the United States. Remembered for plainspoken preaching and clear, persuasive writing, he helped bring a once-marginal tradition into the center of American religious life.