Phillips Brooks Statue

Phillips Brooks wrote “O Little Town of Bethlehem” – but as David Larsen pointed out, “like his preaching, even the hymn lacks strong Christological affirmation.”

Larsen quotes from his successor’s biography of Brooks:

His mother had in the earlier years of his ministry feared for his faith, and she had prayed mightily that he might remain true. She warned him against a certain volume of sermons, “They tear the view of Christ’s vicarious suffering all to pieces. I hope you do not own the book, but if you do, I want you to burn it with Frederick [his brother] present to witness and exult over it.” No, my dear child; remember, you have promised to preach Christ and Him crucified in the true meaning of the words, and I charge you to stand firm.

Instead, Brooks “produced a bland religion of reassurance” and “emasculated Christianity.”

Image Credit: Sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907). Daderot took this photograph., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons