Synopsis
Autobiography Of Rev. Abel C. Thomas: Including Recollections Of Persons, Incidents, And Places by Abel Charles Thomas is a comprehensive memoir that traces the life of a 19th-century American Universalist minister and printer. The narrative blends intimate family recollections, travels, and religious controversies with broad sketches of American religious life from the Quaker and Universalist movements. Beginning with Abel Thomas’s forebears—a Quaker grandfather and a lineage of devout family members—the book follows the author from his youth in Berks County, Pennsylvania, through schooling, apprentice printing, and his early teaching in the Pine Barrens, to his conversion to Universalism. It recounts debates with opponents such as Elias Hicks and Dr. Ely, his ministry in Philadelphia, New York, Lowell, Brooklyn, Cincinnati, and back to Philadelphia, and his years of missionary activism, writing, and editorial work. Throughout, the author interlaces travelogue with reflections on theology (universal salvation, the modal Trinity, the nature of judgment and probation) and the practical duties of a pastor, journalist, and citizen. It is a window into a pivotal era when religious liberalism intersected with social reform and personal faith.
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