Horace Bushnell is considered the father of American religious liberalism, and he brought to his work a particular New England Puritan heritage. Born in Bantam, Connecticut, on 14 April 1802, he grew up in the nearby farm town of Preston. Wearing his family's homespun clothing, he entered Yale University in 1823. He graduated in 1827, taught, worked briefly in journalism, then returned to New Haven to study law. During an 1831 revival he changed his career and entered Yale Divinity School. He was ordained for service at the North Congregational Church in Hartford on 22 May 1833, and that September he married Mary Apthorp.
Bushnell's beliefs were at variance with both his Puritan ancestors and Transcendentalist contemporaries. For Puritans, there was a kind of one-toone correspondence between words and things. Everything, even an idea or a concept, had some precise word to.....
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