Born in Keene, New Hampshire, Jonathan Myrick Daniels was the child of a Phillip Brock Daniels (14 July 1904 - December 1959), a Congregationalist physician and Constance Weaver (20 August 1905 - 9 January 1984). Daniels joined the Episcopal Church as a young man and considered a career in the ministry as early as high school. He graduated from the Virginia Military Institute after graduating from Keene High School, where he began to question his religious faith during his sophomore year, possibly because his father died and his sister Emily suffered an extended illness at the same time. He graduated as valedictorian of his class and, in the fall of 1961, entered Harvard University to study English Literature. In the spring of 1962, Daniels was attending an Easter service at the Church of