Zwemer, Samuel Marinus (1867-1952)

Apostle to Islam

One of the most celebrated Protestant missionaries of the twentieth century, Zwemer made his home in Arabia and Egypt for most of 38 years (1890-1929). Initially an evangelist, he became a writer, publisher, and peripatetic conference speaker who, as much as anyone, introduced twentieth-century Christians to Islam. The son of Dutch immigrant parents, he was born in Vriesland, Michigan, where his father was a Reformed pastor. He graduated from Hope Academy and College (B.A. 1887; M.A., 1890) and New Brunswick Seminary (B.D., 1890) and became an early recruit of the Student Volunteer Movement (SVM). In 1889, when Zwemer and his classmate James Cantine could find no agency to send them as missionaries to Muslims, they established the American Arabian Mission, which five years later the Reformed Church agreed to sponsor. Zwemer lived for a time in the United States (1905-1910) serving primarily as a promoter, recruiter, and publicist for the Arabian Mission, field secretary for the Reformed Board, and traveling secretary for the SVM. Besides writing twenty-nine books and coauthoring another nineteen, Zwemer founded, and edited for 37 years, the journal The Moslem World. He organized two major missionary conferences on Islam, one in Cairo (1905) and one in Lucknow (1911). In 1929 Zwemer accepted the professorship of the history of religion and Christian missions at Princeton Theological Seminary, continuing in that post until 1937. After formal retirement, he moved to New York City and taught at the Biblical Seminary of New York and the Nyack Missionary Training Institute. A lifelong student of Islam, Zwemer never ceased to contend for the finality of Christ. Though unusually prolific as a writer and effective in recruiting missionaries and inspiring interest in missions, particularly in the Muslim world, Zwemer saw only a few Muslims openly profess the Christian faith.

Alan Neely, “Zwemer, Samuel Marinus,” in Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, ed. Gerald H. Anderson (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 1998), 763.

This article is reprinted from Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, Macmillan Reference USA, copyright © 1998 Gerald H. Anderson, by permission of Macmillan Reference USA, New York, NY. All rights reserved.

Bibliography

Digital Texts

Zwemer, Samuel M. The Mohammedan Controversy . Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1897.

_____. Raymond Lull: First Missionary to the Moslems. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Co., 1902.

_____. Topsy-Turvy Land; Arabia Pictured for Children. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1902.

_____. Islam A Challenge to Faith: Studies on the Mohammedan Religion and the Needs and Opportunities of the Mohammedan World from the Standpoint of Christian Missions. New York: Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions, 1907.

_____. The Nearer and Farther East: Outline Studies of Moslem Lands and of Siam, Burma, and Korea. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1908.

_____. Daylight in the Harem: A New Era for Moslem Women. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1911.

_____. The Unoccupied Mission Fields of Africa and Asia. New York: Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions, 1911.

_____. The Moslem Christ: An Essay on the Life, Character, and Teachings of Jesus Christ According to the Koran and Orthodox Tradition. New York: American Tract Society, 1912.

_____. Childhood in the Moslem World. New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., [c1915].

_____. The Disintegration of Islam. New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1916.

_____. Mohammed or Christ: An Account of the Rapid Spread of Islam in All Parts of the Globe, the Methods Employed to Obtain Proselytes, its Immense Press, its Strongholds, & Suggested Means to be Adopted to Counteract the Evil. London: Seeley, 1916.

_____. The Influence of Animism on Islam: An Account of Popular Superstitions. New York: Macmillan Company, 1920.

_____. A Moslem Seeker After God: Showing Islam at its Best in the Life and Teaching of al-Ghazali, Mystic and Theologian of the Eleventh Century. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1920.

Zwemer, Samuel and Annie Van Sommer, eds. Our Moslem Sisters: A Cry of Need from Lands of Darkness. New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1907.

Wherry, E. M., S. M. Zwemer and C. G. Mylrea (eds.). Islam and Missions: Being Papers Read at the Second Missionary Conference on behalf of the Mohammedan World at Lucknow, January 23-28, 1911. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1911.

Primary

Zwemer, Samuel M. Arabia, the Cradle of Islam. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1900.

_____. A Moslem Seeker After God: Showing Islam at its Best in the Life and Teaching of al-Ghazali, Mystic and Theologian of the Eleventh Century. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1920.

_____. Dynamic Christianity and the World Today. London: The Inter-Varsity Fellowship of Evangelical Unions, 1939.

_____. The Law of Apostasy in Islam: Answering the Question Why There Are So Few Moslem Converts, and Giving Examples of Their Moral Courage & Martyrdom. London and New York; Cornwall, UK: Marshall Brothers; Diggery Press, Ltd., 1924; 2006.

_____. The Solitary Throne: Addresses Given at the Keswick Convention on the Glory and Uniqueness of the Christian Message. London: Pickering & Inglis, 1937.

_____. The Glory of the Manger: Studies on the Incarnation. New York: American Tract Society, [1940].

_____. “The Glory of the Impossible.” In Princeton Seminary Bulletin 42, no 4. (Spring 1949): 10-16.

_____. “Francis of Assisi and Islam.” In Muslim World 39, no. (October 1949): 247-51.

Zwemer, Samuel M. “Calvinism and the Missionary Enterprise.” In Theology Today 7 (1950): 206-21.

Zwemer, Samuel and Amy E. Wilkes Zwemer. Moslem Women. West Medford, MA: Central Committee on the United Study of Foreign Missions, [1926].

Zwemer, Samuel M. and James Cantine. The Golden Milestone: Reminiscences of Pioneer Days Fifty Years in Arabia. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1938.

Secondary

Eddy, Sherwood. Pathfinders of the World Missionary Crusade. New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1945.

Hubers, John. “Samuel Zwemer and the Challenge of Islam: From Polemic to Hint of Dialogue.” In International Bulletin of Missionary Research 28, no. 3 (2004): 117.

Kidd, Thomas S. American Christians and Islam: Evangelical Culture and Muslims from the Colonial Period to the Age of Terrorism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009.

Mason, Alfred DeWitt and Frederick J. Barney. The History of the Arabian Mission. New York: Board of Foreign Missions, Reformed Church in America, 1926.

Nickel, Gordon. “Samuel Zwemer’s Theological Judgments.” In International Bulletin of Missionary Research 29, no. 4 (2005): 178.

Wilson, J. Christy. Apostle to Islam: A Biography of Samuel M. Zwemer. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1952.

_____. The Significance of Samuel Zwemer. [Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1967.]

_____. Flaming Prophet: The Story of Samuel Zwemer. New York: Friendship Press, 1970.

_____. “The Legacy of Samuel M. Zwemer.” IMBR 10 (July 1986): 117-121.

_____. The Story of Samuel Zwemer. Pasadena, CA: Zwemer Institute of Muslim Studies, [1995].

Link

Digital versions of The Moslem Doctrine of God (1905), The Moslem Christ (1912), The Influence of Animism on Islam (1920), Studies in Popular Islam (1939), Islam A Challenge to Faith (1911), The Law of Apostasy in Islam (1924), Heirs of the Prophets: An Account of the Clergy and Priests of Islam the Personnel of the Mosque and “Holy Men” ([1946]), Call to Prayer (1923), “The Use of Alms to Win Converts” (1932), Raymond Lull, First Missionary to the Moslems (1902), and “Atonement by Blood Sacrifice in Islam” (1946):

http://answering-islam.org/Books/Zwemer/