John Fletcher Hurst (1834-1903) was a bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States and first Chancellor of the American University in Washington, D.C. He graduated from Dickinson College in 1854, and in 1856 went to Germany to Study at the University of Halle and the University of Heidelberg. From 1858 to 1866 he was engaged in pastoral work in America, and he filled a five-year appointment as Professor of Systematic Theology at the Martin Mission Institute in Germany. In 1870, he was chosen to teach Historical Theology at Drew Theological Seminary in New Jersey, where he was elected President in 1873, serving until elected to the Episcopacy in 1880. As bishop he was assigned to Iowa. He subsequently served as the first chancellor of the American University in Washington, D.C., where through his work finances were secured and the university first opened. He served as chancellor from 1891 until his death. He wrote History of Rationalism (1865), Martyrs to the Tract Cause: A Contribution to the History of the Reformation (1872), Outlines of Bible History (1873), and Outlines of Church History (1874). He also edited The Wedding Day (1889).
John Fletcher Hurst (1834-1903) was a bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church and first Chancellor of the American University in Washington, D.C. An excerpt from this text on rationalism reads, "The author would probably never have studied the genetic development of Rationalism in Germany, and its varied forms in other countries, if he had not been a personal witness to the ruin it had wrought in the land of Luther, Spencer, and Zinzendorf. In compliance with the instruction of a trusted medical adviser, he sailed for Germany in the summer of 1856, as a final resort for relief from serious pulmonary disease. But, through the mercy of God, he regained health so rapidly that he was enabled to matriculate in the University of Halle in the following autumn, and to be a daily attendant upon the lectures of such men as Tholuck, Julius Mueller, Jacobi, and Roediger. From some theologians he heard Rationalism defended with an energy worthy of Wolff and Semler; from others with a devotion worthy of the beloved Neander. In the railroad car, the stage, the counting-room, the workshop, the parlor, and the peasant-hut, Rationalism was found still lingering with a strong, though relaxing grasp. The evangelical churches were attended by only a few listless hearers. His prayer to God was, May the American Church never be reduced to this sad fate.
This book contains a brief history of English and American literature, it was written by Henry Augustin Beers and also contains an introduction and supplementary chapters on the Religious and Theological Literature of Great Britain and the United States by John Fletcher Hurst.
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