The Reverend Edwin William Smith FRAI (1876 – 1957) was a

Primitive Methodist The Primitive Methodist Church is a Methodist Christian denomination with the holiness movement. It began in England in the early 19th century, with the influence of American evangelist Lorenzo Dow (1777–1834). In the United States, the Primiti ...

missionary/anthropologist and author who was born in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, studied at

Elmfield College Elmfield College, York (1864–1932), originally called Connexional College or Jubilee College (or School) in honour of the Primitive Methodist Silver Jubilee in 1860, was a Primitive Methodist college on the outskirts of Heworth, York, Engla ...

from 1888, and then worked in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. The scholar of African Christian history,

Adrian Hastings Adrian Hastings (23 June 1929 – 30 May 2001) was a Roman Catholic priest, historian and author. He wrote a book about the "Wiriyamu Massacre" during the Mozambican War of Independence and became an influential scholar of Christian history in ...

refers to 1925–1950 as "the age of Edwin Smith".Bower, Paul, ed. 2018. Review of "Young, John; ''The Quiet Wise Spirit: Edwin W. Smith (1876–1957) and Africa''" p. 721. ''Christian Reflection in Africa: Reflection and Engagement.'' Carlisle, UK: Langham Global Library.

Life

He was born at

Aliwal North Aliwal North (officially Maletswai) is a town in central South Africa on the banks of the Orange River, Eastern Cape Province. It is a medium-sized commercial centre in the northernmost part of the Eastern Cape. History Sir Harry Smith, then ...

, South Africa, on 7 September 1876. His parents were missionaries of the Primitive Methodist Connexion. His father, John Smith (1840–1915), went to Aliwal North in 1874 and spent ten of the next fourteen years there. Returning to London, he became secretary of the Primitive Methodist Missionary Society in the 1890s and president of the Primitive Methodist Conference in 1898. In 1899 he married Julia, daughter of James Fitch of Peasenhall, Suffolk. He served in Africa as a missionary of the Primitive Methodist Church, 1898–1915.

Major works

(selected from thirty-five titles) *1907 ''Handbook of the Ila Language''. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press. *1915 ''Ila New Testament'' (trans.). London: British and Foreign Bible Society. *1920 (with Andrew Murray Dale). ''The Ila-Speaking Peoples of Northern Rhodesia''. London: Macmillan. *1923 ''The Religion of Lower Races''. New York: Macmillan. *1926 ''The Christian Mission in Africa''. London:

International Missionary Council The International Missionary Council (IMC) was an ecumenical Protestant missionary organization established in 1921, which in 1961, merged with the World Council of Churches (WCC), becoming the WCC's Division of World Mission and Evangelism.Arthur P ...

. *1926 ''The Golden Stool''. London: Holborn Publishing House. *1929 ''

Aggrey of Africa Aggrey is both a surname and a given name. The term means powerful and complete. Notable people with the name include: Surname * James Aggrey (1875–1927), Ghanaian missionary and teacher * Jimmy Aggrey (born 1978), English professional footbal ...

''. London: Student Christian Movement. *1929 ''The Secret of the African''. London: Student Christian Movement. *1929 ''The Shrine of a People's Soul''. London: Church Missionary Society. *1936 ''African Beliefs and Christian Faith''. London: Lutterworth Press. *The Mabilles of Basutoland. Hodder and Stoughton, 1939 *''The secret of the African. United Society for Christian'', 1943 (Seven lectures delivered as "Long lectures" in 1927–28, at the invitation of the Church Missionary Society.) *''African beliefs and Christian faith''. United Society for Christian, 1943 *''Knowing the African''. United Society for Christian, 1946 *''The life and times of

Daniel Lindley Daniel Lindley (August 24, 1801 – September 3, 1880) was an American missionary in South Africa. He and his wife Lucy founded the Inanda Seminary School in 1869. Lindley was pastor to the first Dutch Reformed Church in the Orange Free State. He ...

1801-80''. The Epworth Press 1949 *''The Blessed Missionaries'': Being the Phelps-Stokes Lectures delivered in Cape Town in 1949; with foreword by Sir Herbert Stanl. Kapstadt: Oxford U.P, 1950 * ''African Ideas of God''. London: Edinburgh House Press. *''Great Lion of Bechuanaland'': the Life and Times of Roger Price, Missionary and Statesman, London 1957 Archival materials on Smith are to be found in three locations: * (1) The Methodist Missionary Society Archives, the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. These items include diaries, translation work, journalistic material, photograph albums, and some unpublished material. * (2) Bible Society Archives, Cambridge, England. These items include diaries and reports for India, 1938–39, correspondence, and drafts of John 1–6 in Basic and Simplified English. * (3) In the Hartford Seminary Archives, Hartford, Connecticut.

Works About Edwin W. Smith

*McVeigh, M. ''God in Africa: Conceptions of God in African Traditional Religion and Christianity''. Cape Cod, Mass.: Claude Starke, 1974. *Peel, J. D. Y. "Edwin Williams Smith." In Dictionary of National Biography, Missing Persons. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1993. *Young, W. John. "Edwin Smith: Pioneer Explorer in African Christian Theology." ''Epworth Review'', 1993, pp. 80–88. *-----. ''The Integrative Vision of a Pioneer Africanist, Edwin W. Smith (1876-1957).'' M.A. thesis, Univ. of Bristol, July 1997. *-----. "The Legacy of Edwin W. Smith." ''International Bulletin of Missionary Research'' 25.3 (2001): 126–130. *-----. ''The Quiet Wise Spirit: Edwin W. Smith (1876–1957) and Africa''. Norwich: Epworth Press, 2002.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Edwin W. 1876 births 1957 deaths People from Aliwal North South African people of British descent Methodist missionaries in South Africa South African anthropologists South African Methodist missionaries Fellows of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Presidents of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland

Life

Major works

Works About Edwin W. Smith

See also

References