Dr. Robert Richardson (1806 – 1876) was an American
medical doctor
A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
who spent much of his life teaching and working as an administrator at
Bethany College. He served as family physician for
Alexander Campbell, noted
Restoration Movement pioneer, for well over 30 years. He was also associate editor for Campbell's ''
Millennial Harbinger
The ''Millennial Harbinger'' was a religious magazine established by the early Restoration Movement leader Alexander Campbell in 1830.Douglas A. Foster and Anthony L. Dunnavant, ''The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement: Christian Church ( ...
'' magazine for nearly 30 years.
Contribution to the Restoration Movement
In the early 1840s Richardson spoke out against what he felt to be the Restoration Movement's mistaken focus on
doctrines and theories. Richardson felt the movement relied heavily upon a system that trusted, “belief in correct intellectual views...; as respect to the mind rather than to the heart.”
Richardson attributed this development, in large measure, to the influence of
John Locke
John Locke (; 29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "father of liberalism ...
's philosophy. Locke taught that true knowledge was gained through the five senses and that human reason must be our last judge and guide in everything.
Richardson labeled the popular philosophy as ''dirt philosophy''. He called it that because of its insistence that God could influence human beings only through material objects or through revealed words.
References
''Distant Voices: Discovering a Forgotten Past for a Changing Church'' by C. Leonard Allen: ACU Press; 1993
Members of Restoration Movement denominations
1806 births
1876 deaths
American primary care physicians
Bethany College (West Virginia)
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