Minot Judson Savage

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Minot Judson Savage (born June 10, 1841 in Norridgewock , Maine , † May 22, 1918 in Boston , Massachusetts ) was an American writer and theologian and as such an important representative of North American Unitarianism .

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Savage was born on June 10, 1841 in Norridgewock, Maine, the youngest of four children. He grew up in one of Congregationalism dominated environment and started after completion of high school studies at the Theological Seminary in Bangor . During the American Civil War he paused his studies to work for a year as a military chaplain on the side of the northern states . After graduating in June 1864, he worked nine years as a pastor in the congregational churches in San Mateo , Grass Valley (both California ), Framingham ( Massachusetts ) and finally in Hannibal ( Missouri ), where his brother William lived. Here he developed an increasingly critical position regarding the infallibility of the biblical scriptures. He also turned to Darwinism . In 1873 he finally converted to anti-Trinitarian unitarianism. In the same year Savage published Christianity, the Science of Manhood . He eventually worked as a Unitarian pastor in Chicago and Boston. In 1896 he moved to New York to work as a pastor at the Unitarian Church of the Messiah (later Community Church ).

Savage became a well-known preacher, author of several theological writings, and soon held senior positions within the American Unitarian Association . He was also one of the co-authors of the Declaration of the American Unitarians adopted in Saratoga in 1894 , with which the basic Christian orientation of the Church was established against the background of the influence of transcendentalism . The declaration was to remain in force until 1959. In 1896 he received an honorary doctorate from Harvard University . In addition to his theological work, he also appeared as a writer as a supporter of Darwin's theory of evolution . Theologically he argued pantheistically for a God in and through nature .

Savage was married to Ella August Dodge, with whom they had several children. His son Maxwell later became a pastor, and his son Philip Henry Savage became a well-known poet. In the late stages of his life, and especially after the death of his son Philip, he turned to spiritism and the concept of life after death. Savage himself died on May 22, 1918 while staying in Boston.

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personal data
SURNAME Savage, Minot Judson
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer and theologian
DATE OF BIRTH June 10, 1841
PLACE OF BIRTH Norridgewock , Maine
DATE OF DEATH May 22, 1918
Place of death Boston , Massachusetts