Barton, James Levi (1855-1936)

Missionary and executive of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM)

James Barton Barton was born into a Quaker family in Charlotte, Vermont. He graduated from Middlebury College (1881) and, having developed a keen interest in questions of theology and modern thought, he entered Hartford Theological Seminary. Convinced that foreign missions could make a great contribution to human well-being, at his graduation in 1885 he applied for overseas service, married Flora Holmes, and sailed for Turkey. For seven years he supervised a large system of schools at Harpoot. He was elected president of Euphrates College, Harpoot, in 1892, but when his wife’s ill health prevented continuing residence in Turkey, Barton became foreign secretary of the ABCFM. First among equals on the board staff, Barton believed that the primary need of indigenous Christian communities was well-trained leadership. Before his retirement in 1927, he helped secure permanent funds for the support of twenty-one international, interdenominational institutions of higher learning, including two medical schools. Barton had wide-ranging interests and signi James Barton ficant contacts with secular leaders. He was a principal architect of Near East Relief after World War I, represented the Foreign Missions Conference of North America at the London Conference in 1921, and attended the Lausanne Conference (1922-1923), where an American treaty to end the war with Turkey was framed. Barton held five honorary degrees from four colleges.

David M. Stowe, “Barton, James Levi,” in Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, ed. Gerald H Anderson (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 1998), 46.

This article is reprinted from Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, Macmillan Reference USA, copyright © 1998 Gerald H. Anderson, by permission of Macmillan Reference USA, New York, NY. All rights reserved.

Bibliography

Digital Primary

Barton, James L. The Christian Approach to Islam. Boston: The Pilgrim Press, 1918.

_____. Educational Missions. New York: Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions, 1913.

_____. Human Progress through Missions . New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1912.

_____. The Story of Near East Relief (1915-1930): An Interpretation. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1930.

_____. The Unfinished Task of the Christian Church: Introductory Studies in the Problem of the World’s Evangelization. New York: Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions, 1908.

Digital Secondary

Zwemer, S.M., E.M. Wherry, and James L. Barton, eds. The Mohammedan World of To-day: being papers read at the First Missionary Conference on behalf of the Mohammedan World held at Cairo April 4th-9th, 1906. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1906.

Primary

Barton, James L. The Christian Approach to Islam. Boston: The Pilgrim Press, 1918.

_____. Daybreak in Turkey. Boston: Pilgrim Press, 1908.

_____. Educational Missions. New York: Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions, 1913.

_____. Human Progress through Missions. New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1912.

_____. The Missionary and His Critics. New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1906.

_____. The Story of Near East Relief (1915-1930): An Interpretation. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1930.

_____. The Unfinished Task of the Christian Church: Introductory Studies in the Problem of the World’s Evangelization. New York: Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions, 1908.

Links

A biographical sketch of James Barton with a link to his essays on Islam