Hosea Ballou (1771 - abt. 1852)

Born 30 Apr 1771 in New Hampshire

Ancestors

Husband of Ruth (Washburn) Ballou — married 15 Sep 1796 in Hardwick, Worcester County Massachusetts, United States

Descendants

Died about 7 Jun 1852 at about age 81 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States

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Hosea Ballou is Notable.

Biography

Hosea Ballou grew up the son of a widowed preacher who did not accept pay for his services. The large family was poor. During Hosea's childhood, there was no school in his town, and he worked to help support his family. A story is told that he taught himself to write using charcoal on birch bark.

In his late adolescence, a school opened in the Quaker meeting-house, and Hosea set to work studying as much as possible. Next, he attended the Chesterfield (NH) Academy for a few months. After receiving a certificate there, he became a teacher in Bellingham, MA.

Hosea described his early Baptist upbringing as one that preached that humans were "wholly depraved," and that no more than one in a thousand would be saved from eternal suffering. By the age of 19, he came to believe in (and started to preach) universal salvation, and was excommunicated from his father's church.

For a few years, Hosea would teach school during the week and preach Universalism on Sundays. At the age of 24, he gave up teaching and became a full-time preacher, travelling through New England and preaching on most days of the week. He held part-time positions at several congregations in Massachusetts and Vermont before settling full-time as minister in Portsmouth, NH, then in Salem, MA.

During this period he prepared and published a book that became a foundational document in American Universalism: A Treatise on Atonement (1805). It also rejected the doctrine of the Trinity, making Ballou a Unitarian Universalist.

Orthodoxy considered sin to be infinite evil and punishment for sin to be eternal. Ballou, on the other hand, regarded both sin and its punishment as finite. He argued that humans come to the best understanding of moral good that they can, and God metes out punishment on earth for sinners who do not follow this moral good. But God is a parent to be loved, not a tyrant to be feared: and this punishment is a temporary, earthly one.

Ballou also argued that Christ's death released a great spirit of love into the world, making men and women better able to atone for their sins and be reconciled with God. And this atoning spirit of love was available to all people, irrespective of "names, sects, denominations, people, or kingdoms." In no case would anyone be sent to eternal punishment by a loving God; salvation was universal.

The Treatise made a strong and immediate impact, giving Universalists a common theological base from which to spread their message. Ballou was quickly recognized as the leader of the Universalist movement.

In 1817, Hosea Ballou was installed as minister of the Second Universalist Society of Boston, at the age of 44. He remained there for over 35 years. In Boston, he founded and edited The Universalist Magazine (1819—later called The Trumpet), and The Universalist Expositor (1831—later The Universalist Quarterly Review).

Death

June 7, 1852 Boston, age 82^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ Vital Records From Brown Diary, Woodstock, 1777-1900 (Connecticut State Library) Page 10

• Ballou, Adin. An elaborate history and genealogy of the Ballou family in America.
• Howe, Charles. 2005. "Universalist Manifesto." UU World, May/June 2005.
• Paige, Lucius. History of Hardwick, Massachusetts (Houghton, Mifflin and Co., Boston, 1883) Page 330
• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 20 July 2020), memorial page for Rev Hosea Ballou (30 Apr 1771–7 Jun 1852), Find A Grave: Memorial #7397993, citing Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA ; Maintained by Eric Thomsen (contributor 29506898) .
• Wikidata: Item Q5907257