Edward Bosworth

Edward Increase Bosworth was born on January 10, 1861, in Dundee, Illinois. He graduated in 1877 with first honors from Elgin Academy in Illinois. Ill health kept him from entering college for two years.

He became a student at Oberlin College in 1879, and received an A.B. from Yale in 1883. He returned to Oberlin and got his Bachelors of Divinity in 1886. He was ordained to the ministry the same year, and pastored Mt. Vernon Congregational Church of Ohio.

In 1887, he became a member of the faculty at Oberlin. In 1890, he was a student at the University of Leipzig; and in 1891 married Bertha Belle McClure. He was a student at the University of Athens till 1892, travelling throughout the region before returning to Oberlin.

In 1892 he was appointed Professor of New Testament Language and Literature, a position he held until 1927. In 1903, he became the dean of the Seminary. He did several lecture tours throughout the world.

In 1918-1919, he was the president of Oberlin. In 1924, his wife died.

In 1927, we was delivering lectures in the Springtime at the School of Religion in Athens, when he was called upon to return to Oberlin because the President of the School was failing in health and needed to retire. He was the honorary marshal for the College Commencement and retirement ceremonies in June. On July 1st, he died.

Unfortunately, he was one who felt rationalism was the means whereby salvation is attained. So, although he had some good roots in Biblical and devotional training, and the opportunity to appreciate the Word of God, he tossed too much aside to welcome a philosophical approach to salvation, theology, and Christian living. The end result of this philosophy opened the door to liberal theology and resulted in the demise of Oberlin’s Theological Seminary, and a slide of the whole school into gross immorality.