John H. Dietrich

John Hassler Dietrich (1878 - 1957) was a Unitarian minister, born at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, is called the "Father of Religious Humanism".^[1] He was educated at Franklin and Marshall College and at the Lancaster Theological Seminary in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, ordained in the ministry of the Reformed Church in 1905, and defrocked in 1911 for failing to affirm primary Christian beliefs. His religious development evolved to Humanism and Unitarianism, in which he served various pastorates, including First Unitarian Society of Spokane (1911-1916), and then First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis (1916-1938). He retired to Berkeley, California, where he died. He is buried in the crypt of First Unitarian Church of Chicago. He was the author of:

• The Gain for Religion in Modern Thought (1908)
• The Religion of a Sceptic (1911)
• Substitutes for the Old Beliefs (1914)
• From Stardust to Soul (1916)
• The Religion of Evolution (1917)
• The Religion of Humanity (1919)

See also

• Religious humanism
• Humanist Manifesto I
• Unitarian Universalism
• Heresy in the 20th Century

External links

• John Hassler Dietrich UUA
• John H. Dietrich: Religion Without God?
• HUUmanists
• The Founding of the Humanist Church and the History of Religious Humanism

References

1. Mason Olds, American Religious Humanism (Fellowship of Religious Humanists 1996) Chapter 4: John H. Dietrich: The Father of Religious Humanism, p 53

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gilman, D. C.; Thurston, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). "^{article name needed}". New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.