Quotes by Horace Bushnell:

Horace Bushnell graduated from Yale in 1827 and was an accomplished author and pastor in Hartford, CT. In Hartford there is even a Horace Bushnell Memorial Hall. Click here to see more. At the bottom of this post there is an excerpt from Britannica Encyclopedia about Bushnell as well.

Bushnell was an accomplished intellect and his teachings were more aligned with Oneness theology concerning Christ and God. He remained, however, a Congregational pastor until death. Here are some notable quotes from The Character of Jesus and God in Christ. I will try to post more later.

God in Christ:

"God exceeds our measure and, and must, until either He becomes less than infinite or we more than finite."

"Our imagination is passive, stored with forms, colors and types of words from without, borrowed from the world we live in. But all such forms, God has in Himself, and this is the Logos, the Word, elsewhere called the Form of God. Now, this Word, this form of God, in which He sees Himself, is with God, as John says, from the beginning. It is God mirrored before His own understanding, and to be mirrored, as in fragments of the mirror before us...What we call the creation, is, in another view, a revelation only of God. His first revelation."

Character of Jesus:

Speaking of Jesus, Bushnell says the "sacred writings" show Him "reigning, as a Regenerator and Restorer of the broken order of the world."

Bushnell says the "truest of all truths" is "Jesus, the Divine Word, coming out from God, to be incarnate with us, and be the vehicle of God and salvation to the race."

Horace Bushnell

American theologian

born April 14, 1802, Bantam, Conn., U.S. died Feb. 17, 1876, Hartford, Conn.

Main

Congregational minister and controversial theologian, sometimes called “the father of American religious liberalism.” He grew up in the rural surroundings of New Preston, Conn., joined the Congregational Church in 1821, and in 1823 entered Yale with plans to become a minister. After his graduation in 1827, however, he taught school briefly, served as associate editor of the New York Journal of Commerce, and studied law at Yale. Not until 1831, after he had qualified for the bar, did his religious doubts diminish sufficiently for him to begin his theological education. He entered Yale Divinity School and in 1833 was ordained minister of the North Congregational Church in Hartford, where he served for more than 20 years until ill health forced his resignation.