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178BROOKS, PHILLIPShis parish in Philadelphia following a Christmas Eve service he attended in Palestinein 1865. Sung to Lewis Redner’s music, the hymn’s simple, peaceful beautyappealed to many Americans in the aftermath of the Civil War.Brooks was one of the leading broad church Episcopalians of his day, and histheological liberalism and social conservatism were well suited to the affluentparish where he served. As a theological liberal, he believed in the essentialgoodness of humanity, and he consistently stressed a person’s potential for spiritualgrowth rather than his or her innate sinfulness. In the pulpit he was notostentatious but warmly persuasive and earnest. He preached rapidly, almost conversationally,yet his words were carefully chosen and aesthetically refined. Holdinga view of the preacher as one who brings “truth through personality,” as hesaid in his famous “Lectures on Preaching” at Yale University in 1877, Brooksattempted to show how faith is relevant to everyday existence. He embraced apragmatic approach to religious truth, and he emphasized ethical behavior overstrict adherence to orthodoxy. Never a theological trailblazer, he was stronglyinfluenced by the thinking of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Frederick Denison Maurice,and Horace Bushnell.Brooks was elected bishop of the diocese of Massachusetts in April 1891. Apreacher of Christian tolerance, his eagerness to enter into cordial relations withother denominations caused concern among Anglo-Catholics, who actively opposedhis election to the episcopate. This dispute in the Episcopal Church receivedextensive coverage in the Boston newspapers, which regularly backed their localpastor against his Anglo-Catholic opponents. Brooks’s election was eventuallyconfirmed, and he was consecrated bishop at Trinity Church in October 1891.Barely more than a year into his tenure as bishop, however, he died in January1893. On the day of his funeral, businesses closed throughout Boston as thousandsof people gathered to watch his funeral procession move through the city. Brookswas later memorialized by the noted sculptor Augustus St. Gaudens, who depictedhim in his preaching gown with Jesus standing at his back, laying his hand dramaticallyon Brooks’s shoulder.BibliographyA. Papers at Houghton Library of Harvard University; “A Sermon on the Nature of theChurch,” Theology Today 12 (1955): 57–67; Lectures on Preaching (New York,1877); The Influence of Jesus (New York, 1879); Sermons Preached in EnglishChurches (New York, 1883); Twenty Sermons (New York, 1886); The Light of theWorld (New York, 1890); Essays and Addresses: Religious, Literary, and Social,ed. John Cotton Brooks (New York, 1895); The Law of Growth (New York, 1902).B. ANB 3, 623–25; DAB 3, 83–88; DARB, 80–81; DCA, 191–92; EARH, 82–83; EDC, 59;NCAB 2, 304; SH 2, 274; SPCK, 93–97; NYT, 24 January 1893; Jerome F. Politzer,“Theological Ideas in the Preaching of Phillips Brooks,” HMPEC 33 (1964): 157–69; Gillis J. Harp, “The Young Phillips Brooks: A Reassessment,” Journal of EcclesiasticalHistory 49 (1998): 652–67; Robert B. Slocum, “The Social Teachingof Phillips Brooks,” ATR 84 (2002): 135–46; Alexander V.G. Allen, Life and Let-