Rufus Anderson (August 17, 1796 – May 23, 1880) was an American
minister who spent several decades organizing overseas
missions.
Personal life
Rufus Anderson was born in
North Yarmouth, Maine, in 1796.
His father, also named Rufus Anderson, was
Congregationalist pastor
A pastor (abbreviated to "Ps","Pr", "Pstr.", "Ptr." or "Psa" (both singular), or "Ps" (plural)) is the leader of a Christianity, Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutherani ...
of the church in North Yarmouth. His mother was Hannah Parsons. He graduated from
Bowdoin College
Bowdoin College ( ) is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. It was chartered in 1794.
The main Bowdoin campus is located near Casco Bay and the Androscoggin River. In a ...
in 1818, and from
Andover Theological Seminary in 1822, and was ordained as a minister in 1826.
He married Eliza Hill (1804–1880) on January 8, 1827.
Career in missions
He worked at the
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was among the first American Christian mission, Christian missionary organizations. It was created in 1810 by recent graduates of Williams College. In the 19th century it was the l ...
(ABCFM) as an assistant while studying at Andover. In 1822 he applied to go to
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
but was asked to remain at headquarters and later appointed assistant secretary. In 1832 he was given total responsibility for overseas work
as a Secretary of the ABCFM. In this capacity, he corresponded with missionaries from around the world.
He traveled in Latin America (1819,1823-1824), the Mediterranean and Near East (1828-1829, 1843–1844), India, Ceylon, Syria, and Turkey (1854-1855), and Hawaii (1863). During the winter of 1843–1844, he visited the ABCFM's mission stations in Turkey.
He resigned as ABCFM secretary in 1866 but continued on the ABCFM Prudential Committee until 1875. From 1867 to 1869 he delivered at Andover seminary lectures on foreign missions. In 1868
Dartmouth college
Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...
conferred upon him the degree of
LL.D., and he was made a fellow of the
American Oriental society
The American Oriental Society is a learned society that encourages basic research in the languages and literatures of the Near East and Asia. It was chartered under the laws of Massachusetts on September 7, 1842. It is one of the oldest learned ...
.
Theology of missions
Anderson believed that "missions are instituted for the spread of a scriptural self-propagating Christianity". Missions were for:
*
converting lost men,
* organizing them into
churches,
* giving these churches a competent native
ministry,
* conducting them to the stage of independence and (in most cases) of self-propagation.
Anything beyond this, he felt, was secondary. The end of the mission was to be "a scriptural, self propagating Christianity" the test of which is seen in evidence of a religious life, a genuine change in the church and the individual.
He wrote that Bible translation, literature, schools, press and all other activities should be directed to building a mature local church which evangelized and sent out others as missionaries. He also prohibited any mission becoming engaged with a government or engaging in any kind of business. He advocated cooperation with other societies to avoid the waste of people and money. To Anderson, civilization was not a legitimate aim of the mission but would come as an impact of the gospel, this went against the nature of mission in his time which started with civilization of the natives.
The missionary was not to be a pastor or ruler but an evangelist, moving on to the next place as soon as possible; their business was with unbelievers, not believers. The society existed solely to help the missionary discharge their duty rather than making them a servant. Native ministers were to be the spiritual leaders.
Though there is dispute as to who wrote about the idea first, the "three-self" method is attributed to both Anderson and
Henry Venn. They both wrote about the need for creating churches in the missions field that were self-supporting, self-governing, and self-propagating.
He published several books, as well as many articles in ''
The Missionary Herald''. He is remembered in
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
for shutting down
American Ceylon Mission's popular
Batticotta Seminary because it was not converting enough locals to Christianity.
He traveled from Boston to the
Hawaiian Islands in 1863, crossing the Panama Isthmus by rail, later describing the trip in a book. After retiring in 1866 wrote a history of the
missions there.
He died in 1880 in
Boston
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
and was buried in
Forest Hills Cemetery after a funeral at
Eliot Congregational Church.
[
]
His son Edward Anderson became a chaplain in the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
.
See also
*
Indigenous church mission theory
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Rufus
American Congregationalist missionaries
1796 births
1880 deaths
Bowdoin College alumni
American Ceylon Mission
People from North Yarmouth, Maine
Burials at Forest Hills Cemetery (Boston)