Edwin Lewis

Who was Edwin Lewis?

Edwin Lewis was an American Methodist theologian primarily associated with Drew University in New Jersey.

Born in Great Britain, Lewis traveled to Canada as a missionary before continuing his education in the United States. He eventually became a professor of theology at Drew.

Lewis' early work demonstrates the influence of Boston personalism, a school of Protestant liberal theology widespread among Methodists during the first half of the 20th century, and British idealism. His book Jesus Christ and the Human Quest is an example of his early perspective. In the book, Lewis argues that the Christian faith has its foundation in the nature of persons and personhood.

In 1929 he was named editor of the Abingdon Bible Commentary. While preparing the massive reference work, Lewis claimed to have "rediscovered the Bible" for himself. He reacted strongly to the 1931 Laymen's Missionary Report, which he believed hampered the Christian missionary effort, in his article "The Re-thought Theology of the Re-thinking of Missions" which appeared in the Christian Century.

Growing more suspicious of the subjective theological liberalism of the day, he published A Christian Manifesto in 1934.