William Henry Furness

William Henry Furness (April 20, 1802 – January 30, 1896) was an American clergyman, theologian, Transcendentalist, abolitionist, and reformer.

Biography Furness was born in Boston, where he attended the Boston Latin School and developed a lifelong friendship with schoolmate Ralph Waldo Emerson. He graduated from the Harvard Divinity School in 1823. He preached in Watertown and Boston, Massachusetts and in Baltimore, Maryland in early 1823. At the age of 22 he became the minister of the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia, which had operated without a minister for 29 years. He served there from 1825 until his retirement in 1875. The congregation grew substantially during his ministry, moving to a larger building in 1828 and an even larger building in 1886, which was designed by his son Frank Furness. He was a prominent speaker at the Martyr Day vigil in Philadelphia in 1859, which marked the execution of John Brown, who had attempted to spark a slave uprising in the South.

Furness was a student of the life of Jesus, about whom he published several books. He asserted that the miracles attributed to Jesus in the Christian Bible were natural events with rational explanations. He was a hymnwriter and published numerous popular hymns.

Furness promoted outreach to the Jewish community in Philadelphia. His son Frank Furness was the architect for the new building for Congregation Rodeph Shalom.

He died on January 30, 1896, and was interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.

Selected works Notes on the Four Gospels (1836) The Unconscious Truth of the Gospels Jesus and His Biographers (1838) Domestic Worship, James Kay, Jun. & Brother, Philadelphia (1840) Schiller's Song of the Bell, a New Translation by W.H. Furness (1851) The History of Jesus (1853) Thoughts on the Life and Character of Jesus of Nazareth (1859) The Blessings of Abolition (1860) The Veil Partly Lifted (1864) The Voice in Speaking, J.B. Lippincott, Philadelphia (1875) The Power of Spirit Manifest in Jesus of Nazareth, J.B. Lippincott, Philadelphia (1877) Jesus, the Heart of Christianity (1882) The Story of the Resurrection of Christ Told Once More (1885) Verses, Translations and Hymns (1886) The Life of Seth Conkling, Philadelphia (1892)