Hosea Ballou (1771-1852) was one of the most influential figures in American religious life of the 19th century. A convert from the Calvinistic Baptists, he was to become an outstanding leader of the forces which strove to overturn the orthodox theories of the atonement of Christ and to humanize man's thought of God. His conception of the Deity as a loving Father who will save all His children did much to undermine the Calvinistic theory of the salvation of an elect few and to mitigate the harsher features of the religion of Americans of the early nineteenth century. He was himself a man of the common people, of meager formal education; and his pungent, argumentative writings and vigorous preaching were responsible for a great upsurge of liberalism among the lower classes, which were mostly untouched by the more literate liberalism of the day. Outside of the Universalist denomination, Hosea Ballou today is practically unknown. No biography of him has been published since 1889. The present work is designed to fill this very serious gap in our understanding of the religious and intellectual history of the early years of the United States. - Preface.