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Kirby Page (1890–1957) was an American Disciples of Christ minister, an author, and a peace activist. ==Life== In 1890 Kirby Page was born in Hamlet, Texas after which his family moved frequently. The father deserted the family when Kirby was nine years old. In 1905 his mother moved the family to Pasadena, Californian for two years and then returned to Texas. In Houston, Kirby attended a business college and succeeded in advancing in the YMCA to the position of assistant to the general secretary. He became engaged to Mary Alma Folse. In 1911 he began studies at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, focusing on Bible literature and the social sciences, the languages of Greek and German, and missionary work within Drake's Student Volunteer Movement. Following graduation as a Phi Beta Kappa, he was ordained as a minister in the Disciples of Christ.〔Page, Kirby. ''Kirby Page and the Social Gospel'' (Charles Chatfield & Charles DeBenedetti, eds.) Garland Publishing, Inc., 1976〕 In his continued work with the YMCA, he would become the personal secretary to Sherwood Eddy, the evangelism secretary. Together, they ministered to Allied soldiers in Britain and France and traveled on evangelistic campaigns in the Far East.〔 In 1919, as pastor of the Brooklyn-based Ridgewood Heights Church of Christ Kirby was able to build a neighborhood community center, the plans for which he described in his article Page, Kirby. "The Challenge of New York City."〔"The Challenge of New York City," ''World Call'' 1 (July 1919)〕 In 1921, with support from Sherwood Eddy, he began a career as an independent social evangelist for the Social Gospel at a time when "a mere fraction of clergymen felt impelled to enter the zone of controversy as spokesmen for the social ethics of our Lord."〔Page, Kirby and Fey, Harold Edward. ''Social Evangelist: the Autobiography of a 20th Century Prophet for Peace'' Fellowship Press (1975)〕 Page and Eddy led the Christian pacifist group called "Fellowship for a Christian Social Order" in 1921.〔(Foster, Douglas A., "Page, Kirby (1890-1957)", ''The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement'', Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2004, ISBN 9780802838988 )〕 This organization was later to merge with the Fellowship of Reconciliation in 1928.〔Brock, Peter Brock and Young, Nigel, ''Pacifism in the Twentieth Century'', Syracuse University Press, New York, 1999 ISBN 0-8156-8125-9 (p.135)〕 According to Gaustad and Noll's ''A Documentary History of Religion in America'',〔, pp. 134-135.〕 after World War I,
In 1927 Page warned that that U.S. interests in imperial expansion would lead to entanglement in the international war system.〔Kirby Page, ''Imperialism and Nationalism'', George H. Doran Co. (1925)〕 He supported to some extent, the outlawry of war movement, led by men such as Salmon Levinson, John Dewey, Charles Clayton Morrison, Senator William E. Borah and Raymond Robins, but argued that it would remain an insufficient unilateral action without international organizations for enforcement and cooperation.〔 As the movement came to fruition in the Kellogg–Briand Pact of 1928, Page exposed shortcomings of the agreement, and criticized the movement's continued focus on nationalism.〔Kirby Page, ''The Renunciation of War'', Doubleday, Doran & Company (1928)〕 He supported the League of Nations and the World Court, but with reservations, recognizing their limitations in a context of the rival military industrial empires. He believed that the League consisted of an excessively restricted membership of war-victors, and that politics too severely limited the Court's powers.〔 In 1929 Page's ''Jesus or Christianity: A Study in Contrasts'' he contrasts the simple faith of a historical Jesus with the historical development of formal religious organizations and their clergy. He portrays the resulting dogma and actions of respective religious leaders as being in diametric opposition against their nominal founder. He argued that this devolution was a result of historical forces effecting the social development and political survival of these organizations. In his words, "Christianity, it has accumulated so many alien and hostile elements as to make it a different religion from the simple faith of its founder." He declares: "As long as ministers and laymen labor under the delusion that contemporary Christianity is the same religion that Jesus practiced, they will remain immunized against his way of life and will lack the vision." He proclaims to Christians: "Live to-day as if the ideal society has already come to pass. The Kingdom of God is within you. It is all about you." He says, "The Father of the prodigal son could never consign his child to eternal flames." He maintained that historically the peaceful message of Christ was distorted into a religion of war by Constantine the Great, by the Crusades, and by the Church being deeply embedded in the medieval feudal system. He states that Christianity became a religion based upon magic and borrowed pagan beliefs. "By the Fourth Century many forms of magic had crept Into the Christian church. Mariolatry and the worship of saints was widespread. Exorcism of evil spirits had been long practiced, frequently in ways very similar to pagan rites. By the ignorant and uncultured, baptism was often thought to possess magical efficacy. In the Holy Communion the miracle of transubstantiation was thought to occur."〔 Page, Kirby. ''Jesus or Christianity: A Study in Contrasts'' Doubleday, Doran & Co., Inc.〕 In 1933 Page warned that due to the economic collapse from the depression; fascism, anarchy and communism were looming on the horizon, and recommended that capitalism be replaced by democratic socialism. He expressed his interpretation of this aspect of the Social Gospel in ''Individualism and Socialism'' as follows:
Kirby Page believed that true Christians should work tirelessly, not only for faith in, but in active social progress toward, the Kingdom of God on earth. His convictions rested on the belief that man, as a child of God, must work toward developing his inherently good nature as revealed by the life of Jesus.〔 Working as a community or family of God, man must "lay hold of spiritual resources and relieve human misery, transform unjust social systems, gain vision and serenity through silence... and run risks."〔Page, Kirby. ''Living Creatively'' Farrar & Rinehart (1932)〕 Kirby Page died in 1957 and his contributions were attributed to him in a memoriam by Nevin Sayre on March 1, 1957.〔"In Memoriam: Kirby Page," ''Fellowship'' 24 (March 1, 1958)〕 He was survived by his wife, Mary Alma (Folse) Page, Kirby Page, Jr., and Mary Page Raitt. A (collection ) of his correspondence, manuscript, newspaper clippings and his incompleted autobiography are held at the Claremont School of Theology library. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kirby Page」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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