Background
Luther was born on September 27, 1838 at Orono, Penobscot County, Me.
He was son of Luther K. and Mary True (Call) Townsend, both natives of New Hampshire.
Luther was born on September 27, 1838 at Orono, Penobscot County, Me.
He was son of Luther K. and Mary True (Call) Townsend, both natives of New Hampshire.
In his early boyhood he attended various public schools in central New Hampshire, but at twelve, because of his father's death, he was forced to go to work. At sixteen he had become a fireman on a locomotive.
In 1855, however, after spending a year at the New Hampshire Conference Seminary at Tilton, he entered Dartmouth College and in 1859 received the degree of A. B. Three years later he completed the regular course at the Theological Seminary, Andover, Massachussets.
He then enlisted with the 16th New Hampshire Volunteers, XIX Army Corps, and served as private and adjutant in the Department of the Gulf, taking part in some of the severest battles of the Southwest. At the expiration of the period of enlistment he was offered a colonelcy but declined it.
He was ordained deacon in the Methodist Episcopal Church on April 10, 1864, and elder on April 1, 1866. From 1864 to 1868 he served churches in Watertown, Malden, and Boston, Massachussets, attracting wide attention by his ability as a preacher. Though he read his sermons, he did so with such perfect art that he seemed to be speaking extemporaneously.
In 1868 he became professor of Hebrew and New Testament Greek in the Boston Theological Seminary (later Boston University School of Theology), transferring in 1870 to the department of church history, and in 1872 to the department of practical theology. Few teachers of practical theology have made a more marked impression than he upon his students; his class lectures were rich in content, admirably organized, and unusually stimulating. In 1893 he resigned in order to devote himself to literary work. Throughout his life, however, he remained active as a preacher and lecturer, serving leading churches in different parts of the country for limited periods of time.
In 1897-98 he was associate editor of the Baltimore Methodist.
It was as the author of books on a variety of subjects that he was best known. Among them are The Chinese Problem (1876), The Art of Speech (2 vols. , 1880 - 81), and Clerical Politics in the Methodist Episcopal Church (1892). But for the most part he dealt with theological topics. His first and perhaps most widely read book was Credo (1869). Others are Lost Forever (1875), Bible Theology and Modern Thought (1883), The Story of Jonah (1887), The Collapse of Evolution (1905), and New Theologies Only Bubbles (Boston, 1906). As these titles suggest, he was an ardent champion of the older authoritarian type of theology. He read widely and had rare gifts of popular exposition, but he made no significant contribution to theological thought. It is as an effective popular apologist for the traditional evangelical theology that he is chiefly to be remembered.
He died in Brookline, Massachussets.
(Excerpt from God-Man: Search and Manifestation The quota...)
(Excerpt from Lost Forever We are free to confess, howeve...)
(The leading genius of the People sC ollege at Chautauqua ...)
(Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)
He was somewhat short of stature, dark-skinned, with rather boldly chiseled features, wavy hair and beard, and large dark eyes, overhung with noticeable eyebrows. His appearance was dignified and impressive.
He was married on September 27, 1865, to Laura C. Huckins of Watertown, Massachussets, who died in 1917. He had three daughters, only one of whom survived him.
