Anton Theophilus Boisen

Title

Anton Theophilus Boisen

Birth Date

29 October 1876

Death Date

1 October 1965

Occupation

Chaplain

Biographical Text

Anton Theophilus Boisen was born to Louisa Wylie and Hermann Balthasar Boisen in Bloomington, Indiana, on 29 October 1876. Anton lived in the Wylie House during much of his childhood, and he, his mother, and his sister lived there permanently after his father died in 1884. Anton graduated from Indiana University in 1897 and taught there from 1898 to 1903 before suffering the first of several major psychotic episodes. He worked for the U.S. Forest Service from 1905 to 1908 before suffering a second psychotic episode. He graduated from Union Theological Seminary in New York City in 1911 and then worked as a Presbyterian Board of Home Missions field investigator and pastor at the State College in Ames, Iowa. In 1917, Anton experienced another breakdown. After recovering, he moved to North Dakota to conduct a rural survey for the Interchurch World Movement. In 1920, Anton again fell victim to psychosis, and his family had him hospitalized at the state hospital in Westborough, Massachusetts, where he spent fifteen months recovering and experienced a call to bring religion and medicine closer together. From 1922 to 1924, he studied the psychology of religion at Andover Theological Seminary outside Boston. He then began lecturing in the social ethics department of Chicago Theological Seminary and became chaplain at Elgin State Hospital near Chicago in 1932. After Anton died on 1 October 1965, some of his ashes were scattered at the Elgin Hospital Cemetery, and the rest were sent to Chicago Theological Seminary.

Files

Anton Theophilus Boisen, 1876-1965.jpg

Citation

“Anton Theophilus Boisen,” Wylie House Exhibits, accessed March 28, 2024, https://collections.libraries.indiana.edu/wyliehouse/items/show/451.

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