Phillips Brooks

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Bishop Phillips Brooks
Brooks Memorial by sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens in front of Trinity Church in Boston

Phillips Brooks (born December 13, 1835 in Boston , Massachusetts , † January 23, 1893 ) was an American bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States of America .

Life

Boston priest and bishop

Brooks was descended from the Puritan John Cotton on his father's side and was a maternal great-grandson of Samuel Phillips, Jr. , the founder of the Phillips Academy in Andover .

After attending school, he studied first at Harvard University and then from 1855 to 1859 at the seminary in Alexandria . After his ordination as a priest , he was first rector of the Church of the Advent in Philadelphia in 1859 , before he became a priest at the Church of the Holy Trinity there in 1862 .

In 1869 he was named rector of the Trinity Church Ward in Boston. During this time, the construction of Trinity Church in Boston by the architect Henry Hobson Richardson and the glass painters William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones was completed in 1873 . In his function as parish priest, he was particularly noticeable for his views on the Low Church , which he presented in sermons in churches of other denominations . In 1878 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

Brooks turned down numerous other positions offered to him, such as a professorship in ethics at Harvard University in 1881 and the office of Assistant Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania , to which he was elected in 1886. Instead, he preferred to stay in the Trinity Church ward to advocate for the faith , especially among young people.

Ultimately, he took over the office of Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts as the successor to Benjamin Henry Paddock in 1891 and held this office for two years until his death in 1893. He was succeeded by William Lawrence .

Publications, Influence, and Honors

Although Brooks only held the office of bishop for two years, his influence on the Episcopal Church was of great importance, especially through his numerous writings. His most famous publications include:

  • Lectures on Preaching (New York, 1877)
  • Sermons (2 volumes, 1878 and 1881)
  • The Influence of Jesus 1879 (1879)
  • Baptism and Confirmation (1880)
  • Sermons preached in English Churches (1883).

Furthermore, he was also known as a poet of hymns known and wrote, among other things, the text to the Christmas carol "O Bethlehem, little city" ( 'O Little Town of Bethlehem'), which he in 1865 after a visit of Bethlehem wrote.

In 1885 the University of Oxford awarded him a Doctor of Divinity (DD). Phillips Brooks was honored, among other things, by posthumous induction into the Hall of Fame for Great Americans in New York . In addition, the Phillips Brooks House Association is named after him, as is the Phillips Brooks School in Menlo Park and the Brooks School in North Andover .

literature

personal data
SURNAME Brooks, Phillips
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American clergyman, Bishop of the Episcopal Church
DATE OF BIRTH December 13, 1835
PLACE OF BIRTH Boston , Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH January 23, 1893