Robert Elliott Speer (10 September 1867 – 23 November 1947) was an American Presbyterian religious leader and an authority on missions.
Biography
He was born at
Huntingdon, Pennsylvania
Huntingdon is a borough in and county seat of Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, in the Middle Atlantic states region of the Northeastern United States. It lies along the Juniata River about east of larger Altoona and west of the state capita ...
on 10 September 1867. He graduated from
Phillips Academy
Phillips Academy (also known as PA, Phillips Academy Andover, or simply Andover) is a Private school, private, Mixed-sex education, co-educational college-preparatory school for Boarding school, boarding and Day school, day students located in ...
in 1886 and from
Princeton
Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...
in 1889, and studied at
Princeton Theological Seminary
Princeton Theological Seminary (PTSem), officially The Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church, is a Private university, private seminary, school of theology in Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Establish ...
in 1890–91.
He became active as an itinerant recruiter for the
Student Volunteer Movement (SVM) from 1889 to 1890.
In 1891, he was appointed secretary of the
American Presbyterian Mission. He visited missions in
Persia
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
, India, China, Korea, and Japan in 1896–97, and in South America in 1909 and later made similar tours. In Princeton he was greatly influenced by
Arthur Tappan Pierson
Arthur Tappan Pierson (March 6, 1837 – June 3, 1911) was an American Presbyterian pastor, Christian leader, missionary and writer who preached over 13,000 sermons, wrote over fifty books, and gave Bible lectures as part of a transatlantic p ...
. Under his leadership, the foreign missions of the Presbyterian church became remarkably successful. Speer retired in 1937.
He married Emma Doll Bailey in 1893 and, together, they had five children, one of whom, Elliot Speer (1898 – 1934), became headmaster of
Northfield Mount Hermon School
Northfield Mount Hermon School (abbreviated as NMH), is a co-educational college-preparatory school in Gill, Massachusetts. It educates boarding and day students in grades 9–12, as well as post-graduate students. It is a member of the Eight ...
, where he was murdered in his home on campus, on 14 September 1934. Their daughter
Margaret Bailey Speer (1900–1997) was dean of
Yenching Women's College in China in the 1930s, and headmistress of the
Shipley School
The Shipley School is an independent pre-K12 college preparatory school in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, United States, approximately 10 miles west-northwest of Philadelphia.
History
Hannah Shipley, Elizabeth Shipley, and Katharine Shipley, all siste ...
from 1944 to 1965.
He died on 3 November 1947, in
Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania
Lower Merion Township is a Township (Pennsylvania), township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of the Philadelphia Main Line. The township's name originates with the county of Merionethshire, Merioneth in north Wales ...
.
Theology
Although he published two articles in ''
The Fundamentals
''The Fundamentals: A Testimony To The Truth'' (generally referred to simply as ''The Fundamentals'') is a set of ninety essays published between 1910 and 1915 by the Testimony Publishing Company of Chicago. It was initially published quarterly i ...
'', some have called him liberal because he sided with the
Presbyterian Church (USA)
The Presbyterian Church (USA), abbreviated PCUSA, is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination, denomination in the Religion in the United States, United States. It is the largest Presbyterian denomination in the United States too. Its th ...
and opposed
John Gresham Machen during the
anti-liberal/modernist controversies of the 1930s. Speer affirmed traditional Christian doctrines such as the historical accuracy of the Bible, the Virgin Birth, and the Resurrection of Christ, yet also embraced a social vision of Christianity which placed him closer to theological liberals than some conservatives would tolerate. He is quoted to have said that
Karl Barth
Karl Barth (; ; – ) was a Swiss Reformed theologian. Barth is best known for his commentary '' The Epistle to the Romans'', his involvement in the Confessing Church, including his authorship (except for a single phrase) of the Barmen Decl ...
offered "an essential recovery of aspects of truth which will not so easily be lost again."
Influence
Speer wrote numerous sermons, articles, pamphlets, and books among which are biographies, biblical commentaries and books on Christian living. Most deal with missionary principles and practices but some tackle controversial social problems.
[ He coined the famous four principles of Jesus which became embedded in Moral Rearmament] and in Alcoholics Anonymous as the "Four Absolutes" or the "Four Standards". Basing his views on his own biblical research, Speer regarded these four principles as one of Jesus' key teachings: Purity, Honesty, Unselfishness and Love. While the initiator of Moral Rearmament, Dr Frank Buchman
Franklin Nathaniel Daniel Buchman (June 4, 1878 – August 7, 1961), best known as Frank Buchman, was an American Lutheran who founded the First Century Christian Fellowship in 1921, renamed as the Oxford Group in 1928, that was transformed und ...
, held Robert E. Speer in high regard,[ he used a version of the four principles which had been reworked by Pr Henry Burt Wright from ]Yale
Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...
.
Publications
*
The Man Christ Jesus
' (1896)
* ''A Memorial of a True Life: Biography of H. M. Beaver'' (1898)
*
The Man Paul
' (1900)
* ''Presbyterian Foreign Missions'' (1901)
*
Christ and Life
' (1901)
*
Missionary Principles and Practice
' (1902)
*
The Principles of Jesus: applied to some questions of today
' (1902)
* ''A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin
Horace Tracy Pitkin (1869–1900) was a missionary in China of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Chinese Boxers killed him during the Boxer Uprising in 1900. Yale China Mission, (now the Yale-China Association), was founded ...
'' (1903)
*
A Young Man's Questions
' (1903)
* ''Missions and Modern History'' (two volumes, 1904
vol. 1
vol. 2
*
Young Men Who Overcame
' (1905)
*
The Marks of a Man
' (1907)
*
The Master of the Heart
' (1908)
*
The Deity of Christ
' (1909)
*
Christianity and the Nations
' (1910)
*
The Light of the World
' (1911)
*
South American Problems
' (1912)
*
Men Who Were Found Faithful
' (1912)
*
Studies of Missionary Leadership
' (1914)
* ''John's Gospel'' (1915)
* ''The Stuff of Manhood'' (1917)
*
The Christian Man the Church and the War
' (1918)
*
The Gospel and the New World
' (1919)
* ''A Missionary Pioneer in the Far East'' (1922)
*
Of One Blood
' (1924)
*
Seeking the Mind of Christ
' (1926)
* ''The Unity of the Americas'' (1926)
* ''Some Living Issues'' (1930)
* ''The Finality of Jesus Christ'' (1933)
* ''Five Minutes a Day'' (1943)
* ''George Bowen of Bombay'' (1938)
See also
* History of religion in the United States
Religion in the United States began with the religions and spiritual practices of Native Americans. Later, religion also played a role in the founding of some colonies, as many colonists, such as the Puritans, came to escape religious persecuti ...
*Protestant missions in China
In the early 19th century, Western colonial expansion occurred at the same time as an Evangelicalism, evangelical revival – the Second Great Awakening – throughout the English-speaking world, leading to more overseas missionary activity. The ...
*List of Protestant missionaries in China
This is a list of notable Protestant missionaries in China by agency. Beginning with the arrival of Robert Morrison in 1807 and ending in 1953 with the departure of Arthur Matthews and Dr. Rupert Clark of the China Inland Mission, thousands of ...
*Christianity in China
Christianity has been present in China since the early medieval period, and became a significant presence in the country during the early modern era. The Church of the East appeared in China in the 7th century, during the Tang dynasty. Catholic C ...
Robert Elliott Speer Manuscript Collection at Princeton Theological Seminary
Notes
References
*
*
*
;Attribution
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Speer, Robert Elliott
People from Huntingdon, Pennsylvania
Princeton University alumni
American Presbyterian missionaries
American religious writers
American theologians
1867 births
1947 deaths
Burials at Brookside Cemetery (Englewood, New Jersey)
Moderators of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America