Nathaniel W. Taylor papers, circa 1822

Nathaniel William Taylor was a prominent Protestant theologian, professor, and founder of Yale Divinity School. Born on June 23, 1786 in New Milford, Connecticut, Taylor occupied an influential place in Protestant history in New England, as well as in the history of religious studies at Yale University. After graduating from Yale College in 1807 (he had entered when he was only fourteen years old), Taylor became a pastor at the First Church of New Haven in 1812. Taylor eventually returned to Yale and, under the mentorship of college president Timothy Dwight, founded a Theological Department at the university, which would later become Yale Divinity School. Upon the school's creation in 1822, Taylor became the seminary's first Dwight Professor of Didactic Theology. Taylor was admired in his role both as a teacher and leader within the new seminary, blending rhetorical skills with philosophical ideas.Taylor also presided over the School's rhetorical society, which brought together students for evening debates that he moderated and judged. Many of these debates centered on the "peculiar institution" of slavery and its maintenance in American society at that time, with Taylor often judging in favor of the institution, a stance he would later recant.

Taylor was an early supporter of revivalist theology during the Second Great Awarkening, and played a major role in repudiating Calvinistic leanings across several denominations, particularly the concept of determinism in "Old Calvinist" camps. Taylor and Dwight's concomitant embrace of this aspect of revivalism (which prioritized human freedom over omnipotence) led to the formation of New Haven Theology, also called Taylorism. Taylor and Dwight's leanings were complimented by the theology of significant figures in the Awakening such as Charles Finney, and animated the trend of theological liberalism across New England congregations during his lifetime. Nathaniel W. Taylor was the author of a number of lectures, books, and practical sermons, all published posthumously. He died on March 10, 1858 at the age of 71.