Frederick Bohn Fisher

Background

He was born in Greencastle, Pennsylvania, the second of four children (all boys) of James Edward and Josephine (Bohn-Shirey) Fisher. His father, who was of English colonial descent, was a railroad employee, but Fisher's ancestors included generations of ecclesiastics.

Raised in Muncie, Indiana, Fisher was a serious, reflective lad who at seventeen pledged his life to the ministry

Education

He was educated in the public schools and at Asbury College, where he received a B. S. degree in 1902 and a B. A. in 1903.

In 1906 he returned to the United States and entered the Boston University School of Theology, gaining the S. T. B. degree in 1909.

His association with Professor Borden Browne was particularly close, and he also attended lectures by Josiah Royce and William James [qq. v. ]

Career

He was then licensed to preach at small Methodist missions in Kokomo and Hopewell, Ind. Two years later he was ordained a deacon and assigned to India.

In 1906 he returned to the United States and entered the Boston University School of Theology, gaining the S. T. B. degree in 1909. His association with Professor Borden Browne was particularly close, and he also attended lectures by Josiah Royce and William James at Harvard. During this period of advanced study Fisher served a pastorate in North Cohasset, Massachussets, and was then invited to First Methodist Church, Boston, a signal honor for a young man of twenty-five.

In 1910 he left a promising preaching career for an administrative position in his church. There followed a decade of conventions and campaigns, lecturing and traveling. He served with distinction in a variety of posts: field secretary and associate secretary, Board of Foreign Missions; secretary and associate general secretary, Laymen's Missionary Movement; secretary, India Mass Movement Commission; secretary, Campaign Committee of Joint Centenary Committee; director, Industrial Relations Department, Interchurch World Movement. His energy, executive ability, eloquence, and zeal were apparent in all of these positions.

His courage was evidenced by his unflinching support of the Interchurch World Movement's report on the steel strike of 1919. This report, severely criticized by the business community, justly stands as a landmark in church-labor relations.

In 1920, at the age of thirty-eight, Fisher was elected to the episcopate and became resident bishop in Calcutta. His interest in India was unbounded. His volume That Strange Little Brown Man Gandhi (1932), which was suppressed by the British authorities, measures the depth of his admiration for the Indian leader.

Indeed, his devotion to the Indian cause exposed him to the charge of underestimating British achievements and difficulties. But if Fisher opposed British colonialism, he was not unaware of the defects in American missionary activities. And perhaps his most farsighted crusade was to make the Christian churches in India autonomous: churches peopled, led, and supported by the Indians themselves.

In 1930 Fisher startled the Methodist world by resigning the bishopric, although his colleagues accepted the decision without rancor. His restless, adventurous spirit required a freedom the episcopal office could not afford.

Upon his resignation he went to First Methodist Church, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and thence, in 1934, to Central Methodist Church, Detroit.

He died of a heart attack in Detroit. The high Himalayas, Muncie, and Detroit hold the ashes of this tireless Christian servant.

Achievements

• During this his last pastorate he succeeded in breathing new life into a decaying Methodist stronghold. He read widely, ordered his waking hours as carefully as Wesley, wrote some eleven books, held various lectureships, and was honored with degrees from six colleges and universities.

Works

More photos

• book

  • That strange little brown man Gandhi,

    (6X9", 239pgs some main contents: 1 A Statesman of Peace 2...)

  • The Way To Win: Successful Methods In The Local Church...

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • Personology: The Art of Creative Living,
  • Personology; the art of creative living,
  • The Man that changed the world
  • Which road shall we take?: A frank discussion of Methodism's international polity,
  • The living Christ in the modern world (Fondren lectures)

Religion

He was then licensed to preach at small Methodist missions in Kokomo and Hopewell, Ind.

Politics

He served with distinction in a variety of posts: field secretary and associate secretary, Board of Foreign Missions; secretary and associate general secretary, Laymen's Missionary Movement; secretary, India Mass Movement Commission; secretary, Campaign Committee of Joint Centenary Committee; director, Industrial Relations Department, Interchurch World Movement.

Views

Yet he made few lasting contributions to theology or scholarship. The cloister was not for him. In this he was representative of American Protestantism, which in the high tide of the social gospel accorded the place of honor to the prophet rather than the monk.

Fisher belongs to that band of dedicated, driving churchmen who sought social justice, racial brotherhood, and international cooperation in the name of their Master.

Personality

A handsome man, of great vitality, with a strong face and stocky build, Fisher was also a scholar.

Connections

On February 4, 1903, he married Edith Jackson, who died in India in 1921. On June 18, 1924, he married Welthy Honsinger. He had no children.

Father:

James Edward Fisher

mother Josephine (Bohn-Shirey) Fisher

1st wife:

Edith Jackson

2nd wife Welthy Honsinge

References

• Frederick Bohn Fisher: World Citizen
• Frederick Bohn Fisher World Citizen (Protestant Bishop)