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Background Early life and education Brooks was born in Boston, Massachusetts . Through his father, William Gray Brooks, he was descended from the Rev. John Cotton ; through his mother, Mary Ann Phillips, a very devout woman, he was a great-grandson of the founder of Phillips Academy , Andover, Massachusetts . Four of the couple's six sons -- Phillips, Frederic, Arthur and John Cotton -- were ordained in the Episcopal Church . Phillips Brooks prepared for college at the Boston Latin School and graduated from Harvard University in 1855 . After a brief period as a teacher at Boston Latin, he began in 1856 to study for ordination in the Episcopal Church in the Virginia Theological Seminary at Alexandria, Virginia . Pastoral career In 1859 he graduated from Virginia Theological Seminary , was ordained deacon by Bishop William Meade of Virginia, and became rector of the Church of the Advent, Philadelphia . In 1860 he was ordained priest, and in 1862 became rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity, Philadelphia, where he remained seven years, gaining an increasing name as preacher and patriot. In addition to his moral stature, he was a man of great physical bearing as well, standing six feet four inches tall. During the American Civil War he upheld the cause of the North and opposed slavery, and his sermon on the death of Abraham Lincoln was an eloquent expression of the character of both men. In 1869 he became rector of Trinity Church, Boston . In 1877 the rebuilding of the church was finished, the architect being his friend Henry Hobson Richardson . Here Phillips Brooks preached Sunday after Sunday to great congregations, until he was consecrated Bishop of Massachusetts in 1891. In 1886 he had declined an election as assistant bishop of Pennsylvania . He was for many years an overseer and preacher of Harvard University . In 1881 he declined an invitation to be the sole preacher to the university and professor of Christian ethics. On April 30 , 1891 he was elected sixth Bishop of Massachusetts, and on the 14 October was consecrated to that office in Trinity Church. He died unmarried in 1893, after an episcopate of only 15 months. He is remembered in the Episcopal Church with a feast day on 23 January . Publications In 1877 Brooks published a course of lectures upon preaching, which he had delivered at the theological school of Yale University , and which are an expression of his own experience. In 1879 appeared the ''Bohlen Lectures on The Influence of Jesus''. In 1878 he published his first volume of sermons, and from time to time issued other volumes, including ''Sermons Preached in English Churches'' (1883). Today, he is probably best known for authoring the Christmas Carol " O Little Town Of Bethlehem ". Influence and legacy Brooks' understanding of individuals of other ways and thought, and of other religious traditions gained for a following across a broad segment of society, and was thus a great factor in gaining increasing support for the Episcopal Church. His influence as a religious leader was unique. The degree of STD had been conferred upon him by Harvard ( 1877 ) and Columbia ( 1887 ), and the Doctor Of Divinity degree by the University Of Oxford , England ( 1885 ). The Rev. A.V.G. Allen , an Episcopal clergyman and professor of ecclesiastical history at the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts , published several biographical works on Brooks. These included ''Phillips Brooks, Life and Letters'' (1901), a two-volume biography published at New York; and the one-volume ''Phillips Brooks'' (1907), also published at New York, an abbreviation and revision of the earlier work. External links References |
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