The Life of Rev. Charles Fletcher Dole

Please join the Jamaica Plain Historical Society for this presentation about Reverend Charles F. Dole by Paul T. Burlin who has recently completed a new book Charles F. Dole, Liberal Theology and Reform: A Life Well-Lived.  

Charles Fletcher Dole was a long-time Jamaica Plain resident (he lived at 14 Roanoke Street on Sumner Hill) and minister of the First Church in Jamaica Plain  Dole was born in 1845 and died in 1927. Dole was raised in an “ultra-orthodox” religious family in rural Maine but moved to the radical wing of Unitarian theology. He served the First Congregational Society of Jamaica Plain - Unitarian for forty years from 1876-1916.  His theology served as the rationale for his engagement with a wide range of contested issues including temperance, race, gender, imperialism, and war. Dole authored over thirty books including textbooks used in many high school civics and economics courses.  Burlin’s new book is dedicated to recovering and analyzing Dole’s extraordinary life.

Paul T. Burlin is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of New England. His research and writing have focused on 19th and early 20th-century American history, particularly as related to imperialism, including the role played by missionaries. He published Imperial Maine and Hawai’i in 2006 and he co-edited, with Clifford Putney, The Role of the American Board in the World in 2012. It was during his work on the first book that the Reverend Charles F. Dole came to his attention.

This event is co-sponsored with the First Church in Jamaica Plain Unitarian Universalist (the congregation Rev Dole served). It is free and open to the public and light refreshments will be served. This event will be in a hybrid format - you can attend in person or via Zoom. Please register for the Zoom option here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_rHuJHbJSQLyn08NLs3d2dA