Abner Kneeland

Abner Kneeland (1774-1844), born in Gardner, Massachusetts, began as a Baptist lay preacher before converting to Universalism and becoming a minister, serving congregations in New England and later in Philadelphia and New York, compiling hymn collections, and publishing his own translation of the New Testament. His growing skepticism eventually carried him out of the ministry into freethought and pantheism; as editor of the Boston Investigator he was prosecuted under the Massachusetts blasphemy law and in 1838 served sixty days in jail, the last person imprisoned for blasphemy in the United States. He spent his final years at Salubria, a community he founded in Iowa, where he died in 1844.

Kneeland in his Universalist prime — a decade and a half before his drift into freethought made him the last man jailed for blasphemy in Massachusetts. These Philadelphia lectures argue the doctrine of universal benevolence with the aggressive logic that marked everything he did; he was then a colleague of Ballou and co-compiler of the 1808 hymnbook (also in this collection). The book preserves the Universalist career that his later notoriety eclipsed.

(Note: this summary was automatically generated and may be inaccurate.)