Richard Roberts (theologian)

Richard Roberts (31 May 1874 - 10 April 1945) was a Christian theologian and author expounding the social responsibilities of the Christian conscience. He was “one of the most influential pacifists in Canada during the interwar years”.[1]

Richard Roberts
Born(1874-05-31)May 31, 1874
Blaenau Ffestiniog, North Wales[1]
DiedApril 10, 1945(1945-04-10) (aged 70)[1]
New York, USA
EducationLiverpool Institute, 1887-91; University College of Wales, 1891-94; B.D., Bala Theological College, North Wales, 1896
Occupationevangelist, Forward Movement, Wales, 1896-97; minister, Presbyterian and United Church of Canada, England, 1897-1915, New York City, 1917-20, Canada 1921-39; assistant principal, Bala Theological College, 1898-1900; secretary, Fellowship of Reconciliation, 1915-17; editor, The Venturer, 1915-17, The World Tomorrow, 1917-20; moderator, United Church of Canada, 1934-6; lecturer, Pine Hill Divinity College, Halifax, 1939; writer

With the outbreak of World War I, Roberts joined with Henry Hodgkin and others to launch the Fellowship of Reconciliation and he served as its first secretary. In part to help spread the organization to America, he emigrated from the United Kingdom to the United States in 1917. In New York City he joined Reinhold Niebuhr and Kirby Page on the editorial board of The World Tomorrow. He acted as a liaison between British and American pacifists throughout the war.[2][3]

In 1922, Roberts emigrated to Montreal where in 1926 he wrote The Christian and War, “the definitive Canadian pacificist statement of the period”.[1] Soon afterwards he moved to Toronto where he established a new chapter of the Fellowship of Reconciliation at Sherbourne Street United Church. In the early 1930s, Roberts drafted the United Church of Canada’s endorsement of the World Disarmament Conference.[3][4]

References
  1. Josephson, Harold (1985). Biographical Dictionary of Modern Peace Leaders. Connecticut: Greenwood. pp. 810–811. ISBN 0-313-22565-6.
  2. Gifford, W.A. (1926). The Christian and War. Toronto.
  3. Socknat, Thomas P. (1981). 'Witness Against War': Pacifism in Canada, 1900-1945 (Thesis). McMaster University.
  4. Richard Roberts Papers, United Church of Canada Archives, Toronto


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