George Bush (June 12, 1796 – September 19, 1859) was a prominent biblical scholar, preacher and controversialist. He graduated from Dartmouth in 1818 and went on to study at the Princeton Theological Seminary. Bush was ordained at the Salem Presbytery , Indiana in 1825 and was appointed pastor of a church in Indianapolis. There his 'liberal' or 'progressive' religious views came into conflict with those of his more conservative parishioners, leading to the termination of his services for the church.

From 1831 to 1847, Bush was Professor of Hebrew and Oriental Literature at New York University. He also began several works, including the Life of Mohammed (1830), A Grammar of the Hebrew Language (1835), an extensive series of commentaries on books of the Old Testament, and the highly controversial Anastasis: or, the doctrine of the resurrection of the Body, rationally and scripturally considered (1844). Mr. Bush was also a committed advocate for the abolition of slavery.

In 1845 Bush converted to the New Jerusalem Church . He quickly became a prominent spokesman of the church, and helped the spread of the church's magazine. Bush served as editor for the New Church Review and the spiritualist magazine, The Hierophant, and he authored and helped disseminate a large number of Swedenborgian tracts, including the widely read Statement of reasons for believing the doctrines and disclosures of Emanuel Swedenborg (1846) and Mesmer and Swedenborg (1847). Bush continued his promotional work for the New Church until his death, following a protracted and debilitating illness, in 1859.

See also

Bush family

External links

• Free book by George Bush: The life of Mohammed; founder of the religion of Islam, and of the empire of the Saracens
• University of Michigan Library's collection
• Biography from a New York Public Library exhibition guide