Abraham Norwood

Abraham Norwood (1806-1880) was an American Universalist preacher and writer. His satirical Acts of the Elders, Commonly Called the Book of Abraham, first published in 1842 and reprinted in several editions, recounts in mock-biblical chapter and verse the opposition he met from orthodox clergy. He later published The Pilgrimage of a Pilgrim, for Forty Years (1849), an autobiographical account of his passage out of the orthodox churches and through sixteen years in the Universalist ministry.

A satire in King James idiom: Norwood recounts his persecution by the orthodox 'elders' in mock-scriptural chapters and verses, with the Universalist as the apostle and the establishment as the Pharisees. The movement's counterpart to the era's political scripture-parodies, and proof that the controversy was fought with ridicule as well as exegesis.

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