Robert Hardie

Life

Hardie was born in 1865 in Ontario, Canada. He is reported to have lost both of his parents by about the age of ten. After completing school in Caledonia, he worked briefly as a teacher, and in 1886 he entered the medical school of the University of Toronto. While a student, he was influenced by the Student Volunteer Movement, and at the urging of James Gale, a University of Toronto graduate who had preceded him to Korea as a missionary, he resolved to pursue foreign missions.

After graduating from medical school in the spring of 1890, he was sent out by the University of Toronto Medical School YMCA and arrived in Korea on September 30 of that year. Because he was an independent missionary not affiliated with any denomination, he struggled with insufficient mission funds and poor health. After stays in Seoul and Busan, he moved to Wonsan in November 1892. In 1898 he transferred to the mission of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and served in Kaesong, Seoul, and Wonsan. He was ordained a minister in 1900. After about forty-five years of work in Korea, he returned to the United States around 1935, and he died in Lansing, Michigan, in 1949.

Ministry and Achievements

Hardie initially worked as a physician, but from around 1900 he devoted himself to evangelism and pastoral ministry. Even after his ordination, his work in Wonsan bore little fruit, and he is said to have become deeply discouraged.

Beginning on August 24, 1903, seven Methodist and Presbyterian missionaries in Wonsan held a joint Bible conference (a gathering for Bible study and prayer) and asked Hardie to preach. Participants included M. C. White, a woman missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, who had come from China, and Miss McCully, a woman missionary of the Canadian Presbyterian mission. While leading the meetings with Luke 11:13 as his text, Hardie testified that he experienced baptism in the Holy Spirit and conversion. Then, at a Sunday worship service, he stood before the Korean congregation, confessed his pride, hardness of heart, and lack of faith, and asked for their forgiveness. He described this as a "painful and humiliating" experience. The missionary's public repentance made a profound impression on the believers and became the catalyst for the spread of the repentance movement beyond Wonsan.

From the fall of 1907 he taught at the Methodist Union Theological Seminary and the Pierson Bible Institute. In 1913 he became president of the Union Theological Seminary (the predecessor of present-day Methodist Theological University), and he also served as president of the Pierson Memorial Bible Institute. In addition, he took part in literature ministry, the rural movement, and ecumenical cooperation among several denominations.

Influence on the Korean Church

The Wonsan Revival is frequently cited as the beginning of the revival movement that led to the Great Pyongyang Revival of 1907. Churches reported to have been founded through Hardie's evangelism—including Chongkyo Church, Supyogyo Church, Kwanghuimun Church, Gangneung Central Church, Yangyang Church, Ganseong Church, and Seokgyo Church—have formed a memorial association to honor him. The Korean Methodist Church designated 2023 as the "120th Anniversary of the Hardie Spiritual Awakening" and held commemorative gatherings and publication events.

Assessment

Methodists regard the Wonsan Revival as the starting point of the Great Pyongyang Revival and honor Hardie as "the father of the revival movement in the Korean church." Presbyterian scholars also address the significance of the Wonsan Revival, and in doing so they cite Hardie's own recollection that the fire of revival began while Methodist and Presbyterian missionaries were praying together. For this reason, some view the Wonsan Revival not as the achievement of a single individual but as a cooperative movement brought about by missionaries of several denominations. Scholars have also analyzed his ministry within the framework of Wesleyan theology or examined his revival experience against the criteria of "true religious affections" set forth by Jonathan Edwards.