Allen, Joseph Henry
ALLEN, JOSEPH HENRY: American Unitarian;
b. at Northborough, Mass., Aug. 21, 1820; d. at
Cambridge, Mass., Mar. 20, 1898. He was graduated at Harvard in 1840, and at the Cambridge
Divinity School in 1843, and became pastor at
Jamaica Plain (Roxbury), Mass. (1843), Washington, D. C. (1847), and Bangor, Me. (1850). In
1857 he returned to Jamaica Plain, and thenceforth
devoted himself to teaching and literary work,
often supplying the pulpits of neighboring towns,
and with brief pastorates at Ann Arbor, Mich.
(1877-78), Ithaca, N. Y. (1883-84), and San Diego,
Cal. After 1867 he lived in Cambridge and was
lecturer on ecclesiastical history in Harvard University, 1878-82. He was editor of The Christian
Examiner (1857-69) and of The Unitarian Review
(1887-91); with his brother, W. F. Allen, and J. B.
Greenough he prepared the Allen and Greenough
series of Latin text-books. He translated and
edited an English edition of certain of the works
of Renan (History of the People of Israel, 5 vols.,
Boston, 1888-95; The Future of Science, 1891;
The Life of Jesus, 1895; Antichrist, 1897; The
Apostles, 1898); and published, among other works,
Ten Discourses on Orthodoxy (Boston, 1849); Hebrew Men and Times from the Patriarchs to the
Messiah (1861); Our Liberal Movement in Theology,
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chiefly as shown in recollections of the History of
Unitarianism in New England (1882); Christian
History in its Three Great Periods (3 vols., 1882-83);
Positive Religion (1892); Historical Sketch of the
Unitarian Movement since the Reformation (American Church History Series,
New York, 1894); Sequel to ‘Our Liberal Movement’ (Boston, 1897).