Joseph Murphy (author)

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Joseph Murphy
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Joseph Denis Murphy (May 20, 1898 – December 16, 1981) was an Irish author and New Thought minister, ordained in Divine Science and Religious Science.

Early life

Joseph Denis Murphy (May 20, 1898 – December 16, 1981) was an Irish author and New Thought minister, ordained in Divine Science and Religious Science. Murphy was born in

Church of the Healing Christ (part of the Church of Divine Science), where Emmet Fox had become minister in 1931.[1]

Career

Murphy traveled to India and spent a lot of time with Indian sages, learning Hindu philosophy. He later on formed a new church in America with Hindu ideologies.

In the mid-1940s, he moved to Los Angeles, where he met Religious Science founder Ernest Holmes, and was ordained into Religious Science by Holmes in 1946, thereafter teaching at Rochester, New York, and later at the Institute of Religious Science in Los Angeles. A meeting with Divine Science Association president Erwin Gregg led to him being re-ordained into Divine Science, and he became the minister of the Los Angeles Divine Science Church in 1949, which he built into one of the largest New Thought congregations in the country.[citation needed]

When the United States entered World War II, Murphy enlisted in the Army and was assigned to work as a pharmacist in the medical unit of the 88th Infantry Division. At that time, he renewed his interest in religion and began to read extensively about various spiritual beliefs. After his discharge from the Army, he chose not to return to his career in pharmacy. He traveled extensively, taking courses in several universities both in the United States and abroad.

A person who had a particularly strong influence on Murphy was Thomas Troward, who was a judge as well as a philosopher, doctor, and professor.[citation needed] Troward became Murphy's mentor. From him he not only learned philosophy, theology, and law, but also was introduced to mysticism and particularly, the Masonic order. He became an active member of this order, and over the years rose in the Masonic ranks to the 32nd degree in the Scottish Rite.

Murphy chose to become a minister and bring his broad knowledge to the public. As his concept of Christianity was not traditional and ran counter to many of the Christian denominations, he founded his own church in Los Angeles. He attracted a small number of congregants, but it did not take long for his message of optimism and hope rather than the “sin-and-damnation” sermons of so many ministers to attract many men and women to his church.

Murphy was a proponent of the New Thought movement. This movement was developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by many philosophers and deep thinkers who studied this phenomenon and preached, wrote, and practiced a new way of looking at life and obtaining desires.

Murphy wrote more than 30 books. His most famous work, The Power of Your Subconscious Mind, was first published in 1963. It became an immediate bestseller and sold millions of copies worldwide.

Personal life and death

In the 1950s, Murphy married, earned a

PhD in psychology from the University of Southern California
and started writing.

After his first wife died in 1976, he remarried to a fellow Divine Science minister who was his longstanding secretary. He moved his ministry to Laguna Hills, California, where he died in 1981. His wife, Dr. Jean Murphy, continued in this ministry for some years afterwards.

Bibliography

See also

References

  1. ^ Gale Group "Joseph Murphy" Religious Leaders of America, 2nd ed. Gale Group, 1999. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2009. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC
  2. OCLC 1090990237
    .
  3. ISBN 978-1578989140
    .
  4. ^ The Perfect Answer. Church of Religious Science. 1946. p. 22.
  5. ISBN 978-1441593207
    .
  6. ^ St. John Speaks. Los Angeles: Willing Publishing Co. 1948.
  7. OCLC 710799238.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  8. OCLC 881382578.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  9. ISBN 978-1888262674
    .
  10. OCLC 881383072.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  11. OCLC 1124417108
    .
  12. OCLC 76886962
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  13. OCLC 1079366942.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  14. OCLC 1099253536.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  15. OCLC 881327502.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  16. OCLC 14348360
    .
  17. OCLC 1124491240
    .
  18. OCLC 1100021244
    .
  19. OCLC 868904647.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  20. OCLC 1192471766
    , retrieved 2021-01-04
  21. OCLC 1124378189
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  22. OCLC 1124436433
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  23. OCLC 1100027990
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  24. OCLC 43227434
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  25. OCLC 52489851
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  27. OCLC 949755046
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  28. OCLC 970389335
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  29. OCLC 1035665839
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  30. OCLC 649707700
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  31. OCLC 210823.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  32. OCLC 388653
    .
  33. OCLC 622595
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  34. OCLC 961098690.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  35. OCLC 3004087
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  36. OCLC 4499866
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  37. OCLC 6446541
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  38. OCLC 10725946
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  39. OCLC 10533691
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  40. OCLC 18323174
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External links
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