Thomas Whittemore - Sculpture in Mount Auburn Cemetery - DSC06491

Thomas Whittemore (January 1, 1800 – March 21, 1861, in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

) was a Christian Universalist author, speaker and influential member of the

Universalist Church of America The Universalist Church of America (UCA) was originally a Christian Universalist religious denomination in the United States (plus affiliated churches in other parts of the world). Known from 1866 as the Universalist General Convention, the nam ...

. He founded and was the editor of ''The Trumpet and Universalist'' magazine, which succeeded the ''Universalist'' magazine of Hosea Ballou in 1828. Like Ballou and Ballou's grand-nephew, Hosea Ballou II, first president of

Tufts College Tufts University is a Private university, private research university in Medford, Massachusetts, Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, with additional facilities in Boston and Grafton, Massachusetts, Grafton, as well as Talloire ...

, Whittemore contributed to Universalist historiography by identifying precedents for Universalist beliefs in earlier Christianity. With Thomas J. Sawyer of New York, he co-founded the Universalist Historical Society in 1834. These histories were influential in bringing many readers to regard the Christians of the first centuries as Universalists.

Massachusetts Legislature

From 1831 to 1836, Whittemore served as Cambridge's representative in the Massachusetts legislature, serving as chair of the committee that oversaw the disestablishment of the

Congregational Church Congregationalism (also Congregational Churches or Congregationalist Churches) is a Reformed Christian (Calvinist) tradition of Protestant Christianity in which churches practice congregational government. Each congregation independently a ...

and Unitarian Church, to whose special status Whittemore was opposed, from the privileged position they had been accorded in the

Massachusetts Constitution The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the fundamental governing document of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, one of the 50 individual states that make up the United States of America. It consists of a preamble, declaration ...

. Whittmore held that "no civil government has a right to compel the citizens to support any system of religion whatsoever" and supported calls for a popular referendum on the

separation of church and state The separation of church and state is a philosophical and Jurisprudence, jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the State (polity), state. Conceptually, the term refers to ...

in 1834. The results of that referendum brought Massachusetts into accord with the

First Amendment to the United States Constitution The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prevents Federal government of the United States, Congress from making laws respecting an Establishment Clause, establishment of religion; prohibiting the Free Exercise Cla ...

. He was buried in

Mount Auburn Cemetery Mount Auburn Cemetery, located in Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts, is the first rural or garden cemetery in the United States. It is the burial site of many prominent Boston Brahmins, and is a National Historic Landmark. Dedicated in ...

. His papers are in the Harvard Divinity School Library at

Harvard Divinity School Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's mission is to educate its students either in the religious studies, academic study of religion or for leadership role ...

in Cambridge, Massachusetts; the Thomas Whittemore family papers are at Tufts University's Digital Collections and Archives.

Ideas

"The glory of God, and of His Son Jesus Christ, as manifested in the final holiness and happiness of all men, is the central sun of Universalism." -Thomas Whittemore, ''Plain Guide to Universalism''

Works

* ''The Modern History of Universalism'' 1830, revised 1860 - a companion to Ballou's ''Ancient History of Universalism'' which covers 1500-1800 * ''The plain guide to Universalism: designed to lead inquirers to the belief of the doctrine, and believers to the practice of it'' 1840 * "Universalists Sustain the Bible", in ''The Trumpet and Universalist Magazine'', August 19, 1848John Benedict Buescher, ''The other side of salvation: spiritualism and the Nineteenth-Century Religious Experience'' (2004) * "Decision of the Vermont Convention" in ''The Trumpet and Universalist Magazine'', September 23 * ''Life of Rev. Hosea Ballou'', 1855 * ''The early days of Thomas Whittemore: An autobiography'' 1860 * ''A commentary on the Revelation of St. John, the Divine'' 1848

Notes

External links

*
Plain Guide to Universalism
book outlining his overview of what Universalism {{DEFAULTSORT:Whittemore, Thomas 1800 births 1861 deaths Members of the Universalist Church of America Politicians from Cambridge, Massachusetts Members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives 19th-century Christian universalists 18th-century Christian universalists Christian universalism 19th-century members of the Massachusetts General Court