March 8, 1887 • Death of Controversial Henry Ward Beecher

fter forty years as pastor of Plymouth Church on Brooklyn Heights in New York City, Henry Ward Beecher died of a cerebral hemorrhage on this day, March 8, 1887. He had been one of the most conspicuous public figures of his day--so much so, that 40,000 people viewed his body as it lay in the church before being taken for burial in Greenwood Cemetery.

Born in 1813 in Litchfield, Connecticut, Henry came from a long line of staunch Puritans. His father, Lyman, was a leader of New England Congregationalism, and Henry was raised in a home full of intellectual discussions and staunch Calvinism. But as the years passed, he rejected much of his Puritan background and trimmed his theology to suit contemporary culture.

After Henry became pastor of Brooklyn's Plymouth Church in 1847, it grew into one of the first large, middle-class suburban churches of America. That change was owing in part to his own determination to become a better preacher. Early in his ministry, he had grown dissatisfied with his pulpit delivery and studied Jonathan Edwards and the sermons of the apostles to learn what good preaching consisted of. He became convinced that the secret of success was to bring about a moral and heartfelt change in the listeners.

Evidently people liked what they heard. An average of 2,500 attended Henry's weekly services. Visitors to New York even made a point to stop in and hear him say things like, "A Christian is nothing but a sinful man who has put himself to school to Christ for the honest purpose of becoming better." His sermons were printed and widely circulated. He also poured out his ideas through the Congregational journal the Independent and his own journal, the Christian Union.

Henry believed theology should be adapted to the needs of contemporary culture and that Christianity should progress with the modern age. To him that meant that religion should be more a matter of the heart and ethical principles than of orthodox doctrine. By the 1880's, his sermons were rejecting man's fallen, sinful nature and denying the reality of eternal punishment in hell. He favored the new theories of evolution because they coincided with his optimistic ideas of human nature.

In place of doctrine, Henry tended to emphasize social issues such as women's rights and civil corruption. Like his sister Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry was a strong opponent of slavery. He used his pulpit to raise funds to buy rifles for northern settlers wanting to move to Kansas to establish it a free territory -- the rifles became known as "Beecher Bibles."

Obviously, he was a popular spokesmen for a liberal theology; but just what he actually believed is hard to pin down as it shifted over the years. In 1874, Theodore Tilton, one of Henry's co-workers, sued him for alienating the affections of his wife. The scandal was front page news and generated a book in Henry's defense. When the jury could not agree on a decision, fellow pastors voted to exonerate Henry. He preached for thirteen more years, recognized as one of America's great orators.

Bibliography:

1. Adapted from an earlier Christian History Institute article by Diane Severance, Ph.D.
2. Doyle, J. E. P. Plymouth Church and Its Pastor; or Henry Ward Beecher and His Accusers. Hartford, Connecticut: Park Publishing Co., 1874.
3. Hutchison, W. R. "Beecher, Henry Ward." Encyclopedia of American Biography. New York: Harper and Row, 1974.

Last updated June, 2007