Andrews Norton

{{Short description|American theologian (1786–1853)}} {{infobox person/Wikidata|fetchwikidata=ALL|dateformat=mdy|onlysourced=yes|list=hlist}} '''Andrews Norton''' (December 31, 1786 – September 18, 1853) was an American preacher and theologian. Along with [[William Ellery Channing]], he was the leader of mainstream [[Unitarianism]] of the early and middle 19th century, and was known as the "Unitarian Pope".<ref name=papers/> He was the father of writer [[Charles Eliot Norton]].

==Biography== In his early career, Andrews Norton helped to establish liberal Unitarianism in New England, and stridently opposed harshly conservative [[Calvinism]] and [[Trinitarianism]]. Nevertheless, later in life, he became the chief conservative [[Unitarianism|Unitarian]] opponent of [[Transcendentalism]]. As a vocal and well-published theologian, he earned from some the joking title of "the Unitarian [[Pope]]".

He was born in [[Hingham, Massachusetts]], son of Samuel Norton. Norton graduated from [[Harvard University]] in 1804 and continued as a graduate student and lecturer there and at [[Bowdoin College]]. He was elected a Fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1815.<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter N|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterN.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|accessdate=September 9, 2016}}</ref> He was named Dexter Lecturer on Biblical Criticism in 1813, and in 1819, Harvard made him the first Dexter Professor of Sacred Literature, a position he held until 1830; he also served as Harvard College Librarian from 1813 to 1821.<ref>{{Citation|publisher = Library of Harvard University|location = Cambridge, Mass|author = Alfred Claghorn Potter, Charles Knowles Bolton|title = The Librarians of Harvard College 1667–1877|date = 1897|ol = 7223959M}}</ref><ref name=papers>{{cite web|url=http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~hou01492|title=Norton, Andrews, 1786-1853. Andrews Norton papers, 1768-1890: Guide|publisher=Harvard University|access-date=2018-05-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180703141434/http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~hou01492|archive-date=2018-07-03|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[File:Houghton MS Am 1506 (15) - Cranch.jpg|thumb|Andrews Norton attacks Transcendentalism in a caricature by [[Christopher Pearse Cranch]], {{Circa|1836–1838}}]] Norton engaged in vigorous debates with [[George Ripley (transcendentalist)|George Ripley]] in 1836 and [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] in 1838 (over Emerson's ''[[Divinity School Address]]''). He opposed himself to the rise of [[Transcendentalism]] and insisted on the truth of some of the [[Bible|Biblical]] [[miracle]]s, while rejecting "most of those in the Old Testament, and a few in the new", including rejecting the [[Virgin birth of Jesus|virgin birth]].<ref>''The Oxford Handbook of Transcendentalism'' [[Joel Myerson]], Sandra Harbert Petrulionis, [[Laura Walls|Laura Dassow Walls]] p.53</ref> In rejecting the [[Virgin birth of Jesus|virgin birth]] he went beyond [[William Ellery Channing]].<ref>John White Chadwick ''William Ellery Channing'' 1903 p440</ref>

He died in 1853 in [[Newport, Rhode Island]].<ref name=papers/>

==References== {{reflist|30em}}

==External links== *[http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL.Hough:hou01164 Guide to Andrews Norton correspondence with Joanna Baillie] at [https://web.archive.org/web/20111121125844/http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/ Houghton Library], [[Harvard University]] * [http://www.bartleby.com/226/1309.html Norton page] from early-20th-century ''Cambridge History of English and American Literature'' * [http://www.webuus.com/timeline/Andrews_Norton.html Norton capsule biography] from ''The Unitarians and the Universalists'' by David Robinson * [http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:DIV.LIB:div00382 Sermons] by Andrews Norton are in the Harvard Divinity School Library at [[Harvard Divinity School]] in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]].

{{DEFAULTSORT:Norton, Andrews}} [[Category:1786 births]] [[Category:1853 deaths]] [[Category:American librarians]] [[Category:American theologians]] [[Category:American Unitarians]] [[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] [[Category:Bowdoin College faculty]] [[Category:Harvard University alumni]] [[Category:Harvard Divinity School faculty]] [[Category:Harvard University librarians]] [[Category:People from Hingham, Massachusetts]]