Josephus Flavius Cook
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Josephus Flavius Cook (January 26, 1838 – June 24, 1901), commonly known as Joseph Cook, was an American philosophical lecturer, clergyman, and writer.
Life and career
Born in Ticonderoga, New York, he attended Phillips Academy, and then entered Yale College, later transferring to Harvard College, from which he graduated in 1865.<ref name="Remplap">L.T. Remplap, ed., The Gospel Awakening (1885), p. 44.</ref> He married Georgiana Hemingway on June 30, 1877.<ref name=Progress>Template:Cite book</ref>
A descendant of Pilgrims,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Cook started his ascent to fame by way of Monday noon prayer meetings in Tremont Temple in Boston that for more than twenty years were among the city's greatest attractions. In the lectures, Cook attempted to convey recent developments in European science and philosophy in a way that reconciled them to Protestant belief; his commentary stressed social amelioration and civic responsibility. He later travelled the world; his lectures were published and translated into several languages.<ref name=Progress/>
In 1871, Cook's work exposing the poor conditions in factories in Lynn, Massachusetts was publicly praised by Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of The First Church of Christ, Scientist,<ref>Safronoff, Cindy (2015). Crossing Swords: Mary Baker Eddy vs Victoria Clafin Woodhull and the Battle for the Soul of Marriage - The Untold Story of America's Nineteenth-Century Culture War. Seattle: This One Thing. p. 197.</ref> however, Cook later became a noted critic of Eddy and her ideas. Eddy responded with a pamphlet, later expanded into the book No and Yes which opposed Cook's views on the subject. Eddy also spoke at one of Cook's Tremont Temple lectures in defense of Christian Science.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Roger Eastman. ed. (1993). The Ways of religion : an introduction to the major traditions. New York : Oxford University Press. pp. 452, 468-470</ref> Stephen Gottschalk identified the speech as a key moment in the history of the church.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Cook died at his summer home in Ticonderoga, New York on June 24, 1901.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Selected works
- Cook, Joseph (1878). Transcendentalism, with Preludes on Current Events. London: Dickinson.
References
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Further reading
- Guelzo, Allen C. (2004). "Joseph Cook." American National Biography. Retrieved September 17, 2007.