Phillips Brooks was a prominent 19th-century American Episcopal clergyman, author, and hymnwriter. Born in Boston in 1835, he became a highly influential preacher during the Gilded Age, serving as the rector of Trinity Church in Boston before his election as the Bishop of Massachusetts. Known for his oratorical skill and ability to connect religious truths with personal experience, he sought to make Christian teachings more relevant to his contemporaries through a liberal theological approach.