Norman Vincent Peale

Norman Vincent Peale was an American Protestant clergyman and author born on May 31, 1898, in Bowersville, Ohio. The eldest of three sons of Charles and Anna Peale, he grew up in a Methodist household shaped by his father, a physician who became a Methodist minister in southern Ohio. Peale graduated from Bellefontaine High School in 1916, earned his bachelor’s degree at Ohio Wesleyan University, and worked as a newspaper reporter in Findlay, Ohio, and Detroit, Michigan, before entering Boston University School of Theology in 1921.

Ordained in 1922, Peale first served a small church in Berkeley, Rhode Island, and later received degrees from Boston University in 1924. His early ministry moved quickly from assistant pastor at St. Mark’s Methodist Church in Brooklyn to leadership of a struggling Brooklyn congregation. There he built a new church, Kings Highway Church, and saw membership rise from about 40 people to around 900. In 1927 he became pastor of University Methodist Church in Syracuse, New York, where he was among the first American clergymen to bring sermons to commercial radio.

In 1932 Peale was invited to preach at Marble Collegiate Church in New York City, which had been without a pastor for two years. Church leaders offered him the position, and he accepted that October, transferring to the Reformed Church in America. He began with service attendance of about 200, and the congregation grew into the thousands as his energetic preaching drew listeners. Peale remained pastor of Marble Collegiate Church for more than half a century, retiring from pastoral work in 1984.

Peale became best known for popularizing positive thinking, especially through The Power of Positive Thinking, published in 1952. His media work helped carry his message far beyond his church. In New York, his radio programs began in 1935 and led to The Art of Living, sponsored by the National Council of Churches on NBC Radio Network, which reached millions and lasted for 54 years. From 1952 to 1968, he and his wife, Ruth Stafford Peale, hosted the television show What’s Your Trouble?. He also edited Guideposts magazine, which Ruth co-founded, and his sermons were mailed monthly to a large readership.

His thinking was shaped not only by ministry but also by contact with psychology and psychiatry. After the 1929 market crash, facing congregants with complex problems, Ruth urged him to find a psychiatrist who could help parish members. In 1937 Peale founded a psychiatric clinic with psychoanalyst Smiley Blanton, later the American Foundation of Religion and Psychiatry. The two co-wrote Faith Is the Answer in 1940 and The Art of Real Happiness in 1950, though Blanton later declined to endorse The Power of Positive Thinking.

Peale’s public life also brought criticism. Some psychiatric professionals, church theologians, and leaders challenged his ideas after 1952, and Reinhold Niebuhr sharply criticized both his theology and his opposition to John F. Kennedy’s presidential candidacy. Peale retracted his statement after public criticism. Yet his influence remained wide: he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ronald Reagan on March 26, 1984. Peale died on December 24, 1993, in Pawling, New York, at age 95. His words still speak to readers who want faith joined to action, especially lines such as, “Change your thoughts and you change your world.”