Hosea Ballou

Universalist clergyman and theologian, born in Richmond, New Hampshire, USA. Raised in poverty, brought up a Baptist, and self-educated, he was for many years a circuit-riding preacher in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. He settled in Boston (1817) where he helped found the Universalist Church, edited Universalist publications, and developed a liberal theology that denied original sin and the full deity of Christ. From 1827 until his death he was pastor of the Second Universalist Society of Boston.

Hosea Ballou (April 30, 1771-June 7, 1852) was an American Universalist clergyman and theological writer.

Hosea Ballou was born in Richmond, New Hampshire.

He preached at Barnard, Vermont and surrounding towns in 1801—1807; and as pastor of the Second Universalist Church in Boston from December 1817 until his death there.

He founded and edited The Universalist Magazine (1819 -- later called The Trumpet), and The Universalist Expositor (1831 -- later The Universalist Quarterly Review), and wrote about 10,000 sermons as well as many hymns, essays and polemic theological works.

Ballou has been called the "father of American Universalism," along with John Murray, who founded the first Universalist church in America. Ballou, sometimes called an "Ultra Universalist," differed from Murray in that he divested Universalism of every trace of Calvinism, and opposed legalism and trinitarian views.