Editing Hosea Ballou

{{Short description|American Universalist clergyman and theological writer}}
{{For|the first President of Tufts University and also universalist author (1796–1861)|Hosea Ballou II}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2013}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Hosea Ballou
| image              = Hosea Ballou 2.png
| caption            = 
| alt                = 
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1771|04|30|mf=y}}
| birth_place        = [[Richmond, New Hampshire]]
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|mf=yes|1852|06|6|1771|04|30}}
| death_place        = [[Boston, Massachusetts]]
| known_for          = [[Christian universalism|Universalist]] clergyman
| spouse             = 
| signature          = Signature of Hosea Ballou (1771–1852).png
}}

'''Hosea Ballou D.D.''' (April 30, 1771&nbsp;– June 7, 1852) was an American [[Christian universalism|Universalist]] clergyman and theological writer.

Originally a Baptist, he converted to Universalism in 1789. He preached in a number of towns in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. From 1817, he was pastor of the Second Universalist Church of Boston. He wrote a number of influential theological works, as well as hymns, essays and sermons, and edited two Universalist journals. Ballou has been called one of the fathers of American Universalism.

==Life and career==
Hosea Ballou was born in [[Richmond, New Hampshire]], to a family of [[Huguenot]] origin. The family claimed to be of [[Anglo-Normans|Anglo-Norman]] heritage. The son of Maturin Ballou, a [[Baptist]] minister, Hosea Ballou was self-educated, and devoted himself early on to the ministry. In 1789 he converted to [[Christian universalism|Universalism]], and in 1794 became pastor of a congregation in [[Dana, Massachusetts]].<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Ballou, Hosea|volume=3|page=282}} This cites:
:The biography by [[Thomas Whittemore (Universalist)|Thomas Whittemore]] (4 vols., Boston, 1854–1855) and that by Oscar F. Safford (Boston, 1889);
:and J. C. Adams, ''Hosea Ballou and the Gospel Renaissance'' (Boston, 1904).</ref> Ballou was also a high-ranking [[freemasonry|freemason]], who attained the position of [[Masonic Lodge Officers#Junior Warden|Junior Grand Warden]] of the [[Grand Lodge of New Hampshire]] in 1811.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.catholicism.org/hosea-ballou-universalism.html |title= Hosea Ballou&nbsp;— Son of Richmond&nbsp;— Father of Universalism |access-date=July 21, 2008 |author= Sister Mary Monica, M.I.C.M., Tert. |work= catholicism.org |date= February 20, 2006 |publisher=Saint Benedict Center, Richmond, New Hampshire}}</ref>

Ballou preached at [[Barnard, Vermont]], and surrounding towns in 1801–1807; at [[Portsmouth, New Hampshire]], in 1807–1815; at [[Salem, Massachusetts]], in 1815–1817; and, as pastor of the Second Universalist Church of Boston, from December 1817 until his death there.<ref name="EB1911"/> He was buried at the [[Mount Auburn Cemetery]].

[[Image:2ndUniversalistChurch SchoolSt Boston.png|thumb|left|Second Universalist Church, [[School Street]], Boston; built 1817]]

He founded and edited ''The Universalist Magazine'' (1819–later called ''The Trumpet''), and ''The Universalist Expositor'' (1831–later ''The Universalist Quarterly Review''), and wrote about 10,000 sermons as well as many [[hymn]]s, essays and polemic theological works. He is best known for ''Notes on the Parables'' (1804), ''A Treatise on Atonement'' (1805) and ''Examination of the Doctrine of a Future Retribution'' (1834). These works mark him as the principal American expositor of [[Universalism]].<ref name="EB1911"/>

Ballou married Ruth Washburn; children included [[Maturin Murray Ballou]].<ref>Safford. 1890</ref>  He is the grand-uncle of [[Hosea Ballou II]], the first president of Tufts University.

==Beliefs==
Ballou has been called the "father of American Universalism," along with [[John Murray (minister)|John Murray]], who founded the first Universalist church in America. Ballou, sometimes called an "Ultra Universalist," differed from Murray in that he divested Universalism of every trace of [[Calvinism]], and opposed [[legalism (theology)|legalism]] and [[Trinitarianism|trinitarian]] views.<ref name="EB1911"/> As he wrote, "Real happiness is cheap enough, yet how dearly we pay for its counterfeit."

Ballou also preached that those forms of Christianity that emphasized God as wrathful in turn hardened the hearts of their believers:
{{blockquote|text=It is well known, and will be acknowledged by every candid person, that the human heart is capable of becoming soft, or hard; kind, or unkind; merciful or unmerciful, by education and habit. On this principle we contend, that the infernal torments, which false religion has placed in the future world, and which ministers have, with an overflowing zeal, so constantly held up to the people, and urged with all their learning and eloquence, have tended so to harden the hearts of the professors of this religion, that they have exercised, toward their fellow creatures, a spirit of enmity, which but too well corresponds with the relentless cruelty of their doctrine, and the wrath which they have imagined to exist in our heavenly Father. By having such an example constantly before their eyes, they have become so transformed into its image, that, whenever they have had the power, they have actually executed a vengeance on men and women, which evinced that the cruelty of their doctrine had overcome the native kindness and compassion of the human heart.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ballou |first=Hosea |title=An Examination of the Doctrine of Future Retribution, On the Principles of Morals, Analogy and the Scriptures |year=1834 |publisher=Trumpet Office |location=Boston |pages=36}}<br/> quoted from: {{cite web |url=http://www.ucsummit.org/Sermons/VRS/20040222.shtml |title=Is There More to Universalism than Universal Salvation? |access-date=December 13, 2006 |last=Southern |first=Vanessa R. |date=February 22, 2004 |publisher=The Unitarian Church in Summit, New Jersey |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060617223949/http://ucsummit.org/Sermons/VRS/20040222.shtml |archive-date=June 17, 2006 |url-status=dead }}</ref>}}

==Hymns==
In 1844 Ballou published ''A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for the Use of Universalist Societies and Families.''<ref>{{cite book |last=Ballou |first=Hosea |date=1844 |title=A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for the Use of Universalist Societies and Families |url=https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=jbt2EZDVyNgC&oi |location= |publisher=BB Mussey |page= |isbn=}}</ref> None of his hymns is included in the Unitarian hymnal ''Singing The Living Tradition'' (1993), but his thoughts appear in Reading #705.<ref>{{cite book |last=The Unitarian Universalist Association |date=1993 |title=Singing The Living Tradition |location=Boston |publisher=Beacon Press |page=705 |isbn=1-55896-260-3}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[List of New Hampshire historical markers (51–75)#59|New Hampshire Historical Marker No. 59]]: Hosea Ballou

==References==
'''Notes'''
{{Reflist}}

'''Bibliography'''
* {{cite BDA1906 |wstitle= Ballou, Hosea (1771–1852) |volume= 1 |pages= 200-201 |short=}}
* Universalist Quarterly and General Review, Volumes 11–12, pg. 176

'''Further reading'''
* Universalist Magazine. [https://books.google.com/books?id=ub4rAAAAYAAJ v.9] (Boston: Henry Bowen, Province House Row, 1827)
* {{cite journal |journal=Gleason's Pictorial |location=Boston, Mass. |url=https://archive.org/stream/gleasonspictoria01glea#page/112/mode/1up |title=Rev. Hosea Ballou |year=1851 |volume=1 }}
* M.M. Ballou. Biography of Rev. Hosea Ballou. Boston : A. Tompkins, 1852. [https://archive.org/details/biographyrevhos02ballgoog Google books]
* M.M. Ballou. Life story of Hosea Ballou: for the young. Boston: A. Tompkins, 1854. Illustrations by [[Hammatt Billings|Billings]]. [https://archive.org/details/lifestoryhoseab01ballgoog Internet Archive]
* Oscar F. Safford. Hosea Ballou: a marvellous life-story, 4th ed. Boston: Universalist Pub. House, 1890. [https://archive.org/details/hoseaballou00unkngoog Google books]
*Bressler, Ann Lee.  ''The Universalist Movement in America, 1770–1880.''  New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

==External links==
{{sisterlinks|s=no|b=no|v=no|species=no|voy=no|d=Q5907257|n=no|wikt=no}}
*The [http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:DIV.LIB:div00128 Ballou family papers] are in the Harvard Divinity School Library at [[Harvard Divinity School]] in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]].
*{{cite web |url=http://www.ballewassn.org/ballou_origins.htm |title=The European Origin of the Ballou Family: A Review of the Evidence |access-date=August 15, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070913103518/http://www.ballewassn.org/ballou_origins.htm |archive-date=September 13, 2007 |url-status=dead }}
*The [http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:DIV.LIB:div00366 historical papers] and [http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:DIV.LIB:div00359 sermons] of Hosea Ballou are in the Harvard Divinity School Library at [[Harvard Divinity School]] in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]].
*{{cite web |url=http://www.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/hoseaballou.html |title=Hosea Ballou |access-date=February 11, 2007 |archive-date=December 13, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213204957/http://www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/hoseaballou.html |url-status=dead }} in {{cite web |url=http://www.uua.org/uuhs/duub |title=''Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography'' |access-date =November 28, 2007}}
*{{cite web |url=http://www.catholicism.org/hosea-ballou-universalism.html |title=Hosea Ballou: Son of Richmond, Father of Universalism|date=February 20, 2006 }} at {{cite web |url=http://www.catholicism.org/ |title=''Saint Benedict Center'' |access-date =September 8, 2008}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=2707| name=Hosea Ballou}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Hosea Ballou}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ballou, Hosea}}
[[Category:1771 births]]
[[Category:1852 deaths]]
[[Category:Writers from Boston]]
[[Category:Clergy from Boston]]
[[Category:19th-century American writers]]
[[Category:Writers from Salem, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Writers from Portsmouth, New Hampshire]]
[[Category:Baptists from New Hampshire]]
[[Category:People from Windsor County, Vermont]]
[[Category:American Christian theologians]]
[[Category:Clergy of the Universalist Church of America]]
[[Category:Christian radicals]]
[[Category:18th-century Christian universalists]]
[[Category:19th-century Christian universalists]]
[[Category:Christian universalist theologians]]
[[Category:Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery]]
[[Category:People from Richmond, New Hampshire]]
[[Category:Former Baptists]]