Joseph Fort Newton

Who was Joseph Fort Newton?

Joseph Fort Newton was born in Decatur, Texas, the son of a Baptist minister turned attorney. He attended Southern Baptist Seminary, and Harvard University. While at Harvard he studied under William James. Newton held the honorary degrees of Doctor of Hebrew Literature, Doctor of Divinity, Doctor of Humane Letters, and Doctor of Laws.

Newton was ordained a Baptist minister in 1895. He held Baptist pastorates in Texas, and lead non-sectarian and Universalist congregations in Illinois and Iowa. While in Iowa, he taught English literature at the extension campus of the University of Iowa in Cedar Rapids. While in Cedar Rapids, many of Newton's sermons were published and gained wide circulation. Their popularity in England lead him to be called to the pulpit of the City Temple in 1916. During his four years at City Temple, he made trips throughout the British Isles and gained international fame through sermons in which he urged understanding between England and the United States as a basis of world order and abiding peace.

In 1920, Newton returned to the United States and assumed the pulpit at the Universalist Church of the Divine Paternity, New York City, NY.