_ (1858), in which he
discussed miracles and endeavoured to "lift the natural into the
supernatural" by emphasizing the super-naturalness of man; _The Vicarious
Sacrifice_ (1866), in which he contended for what has come to be known as
the "moral view" of the atonement in distinction from the "governmental"
and the "penal" or "satisfaction" theories; and _God in Christ_ (1849)
(with an introductory "Dissertation on Language as related to Thought"), in
which he expressed, it was charged, heretical views as to the Trinity,
holding, among other things, that the Godhead is "instrumentally
three--three simply as related to our finite apprehension, and the
communication of God's incommunicable nature." Attempts, indeed, were made
to bring him to trial, but they were unsuccessful, and in 1852 his church
unanimously withdrew from the local "consociation," thus removing any
possibility of further action against him. To his critics Bushnell formally
replied by writing _Christ in Theology_ (1851), in which he employs the
important argument that spiritual facts can be expressed only in
approximate and poetical language, and concludes that an adequate dogmatic
theology cannot exist. That he did not deny the divinity of Christ he
proved in _The Character of Jesus, forbidding his possible Classification
with Men_ (1861). He also published _Sermons for the New Life_ (1858);
_Christ and his Salvation_ (1864); _Work and Play_ (1864); _Moral Uses of
Dark Things_ (1868); _Women's Suffrage, the Reform against Nature_ (1869);
_Sermons on Living Subjects_ (1872); and _Forgiveness and Law_ (1874). Dr
Bushnell was greatly interested in the civic interests of Hartford, and was
the chief agent in procuring the establishment of the public park named in
his honour by that city.

An edition of his works, in eleven volumes, appeared in 1876-1881; and a
further volume, gathered from his unpublished papers, as _The Spirit in
Man: Sermons and Selections_, in 1903. New editions of his _Nature and the
Supernatural, Sermons for the New Life_, and _Work and Play_, were
published the same year. A full bibliography, by Henry Barrett Learned, is
appended to his _Spirit in Man_. Consult Mrs M.B. Cheneys _Life and Letters
of Horace Bushnell_ (New York, 1880; new edition, 1903), and Dr Theodore T.
Mungers _Horace Bushnell, Preacher and Theologian_ (Boston, 1899); also a
series of papers in the _Minutes of the General Association of Connecticut_
(_Bushnell Centenary