![\"Carey,](\"\/missiology\/files\/2013\/04\/image013.jpg\" "\\"Carey,")
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Born into an Anglican home in rural Northamptonshire, England, Carey was largely self-taught in geography and European languages. Drawing from the thinking of Baptist and Dissenting pastor-theologians in the Edwardsian tradition, such as Philip Doddridge, Andrew Fuller, and John Sutcliff, he challenged the hyper-Calvinist view, prevalent among British Baptists, that God would bring the nations to Christ without human assistance. In 1792, as a young Baptist pastor in Leicester, he published An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians, to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens<\/em> (1792). This missiological pamphlet argued that Christians should undertake evangelistic missions overseas. Expecting \u201cgreat things\u201d from God, he urged the leaders of the Northampton Baptist Association to found a \u201csociety for propagating the gospel among the heathen.\u201d Thus was a Particular Baptist voluntary society born in 1792 that became known as the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS).<\/p>\n Carey, the first Baptist missionary of the modern era, arrived in colonial Calcutta in November 1793 without any travel permits. His family managed to survive because he accepted employment as manager of an indigo plantation in the interior of Bengal. After missionary colleagues arrived from England in 1799, he moved to the Danish colonial enclave of Serampore, 13 miles up to the River Hooghly from Calcutta. There he spent the rest of his life with Joshua Marshman<\/a> and William Ward<\/a> in a unique partnership dubbed by mission promoters \u201cthe Serampore Trio.\u201d A strange combination of stiff political opposition and unusual emoluments from the East India Company significantly shaped the nature and work of the mission Carey established at Serampore. He spent well over half his time working as a professor of Bengali and Sanskrit at Fort William College, Calcutta. In partnership with several veteran colleagues and scores of Indian pundits, he accomplished much in the areas of philology, Bible translation (into dozens of languages), Orientalism, literacy, education (founding Serampore College in 1818), publishing, technology, relief work, social reform, botany, evangelization, and mission promotion. During his last 20 years, he was stymied by rampant dissension between younger and veteran Baptist missionaries that led to a costly split between Serampore and the London-based BMS in 1827. He died like a humble patriarch and has been highly revered by generations of Bengalis for his contributions to the renaissance of their culture.<\/p>\n A. Christopher Smith, “Carey, William,” in Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions<\/em>, ed. Gerald H. Anderson (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 1998), 115.<\/p>\n This article is reprinted from Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions<\/em>, Macmillan Reference USA, copyright \u00a9 1998 Gerald H. Anderson, by permission of Macmillan Reference USA, New York, NY. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n Anderson, Christopher. A Discourse Occasioned by the Death of the Rev. William Carey, D. D. of Serampore, Bengal<\/em>. Delivered in Charlotte Chapel on the evening of the 30th November, 1834.<\/a><\/p>\n Anderson, Rev. William. <\/em>Kings of Society; or, Leaders of Social, Intellectual, and Religious Progress<\/em><\/a>. London: Elliot Stock, 1866.<\/p>\n Barnes, Lemuel Call. Two Thousand Years of Missions before Carey, based upon and Embodying many of the Earliest Extant Accounts<\/em><\/a>. <\/em>1900.<\/p>\n Carey, William. <\/em>An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians, to use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens. <\/em>In Which the Religious State of the Different Nations of the World, the Success of Former Undertakings, and the Practicability of Further Undertakings, Are Considered<\/em><\/a>.<\/em> Leicester: Ann Ireland, 1792.<\/p>\n Carey, William. Serampore Letters<\/em>: Being the Unpublished Correspondence of William Carey and Others with John Williams, 1800-1816<\/em><\/a>. <\/em>Edited by Leighton and Mornay Williams; with an introd. by Thomas Wright.<\/p>\n Hervey, Rev. G. Winfred. <\/em>The Story of Baptist Missions in Foreign Lands: From the Time of Carey to the Present Date<\/em><\/a>. St. Louis: Chancy R. Barnes, 1884.<\/p>\n Holcomb, Helen H. Men of Might in India Missions; the leaders and their epochs, 1706-1899<\/em>. <\/a>New York, Chicago [etc.]: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1901.<\/p>\n Schirrmacher, Thomas. <\/em>Be Keen to Get Going: William Carey’s Theology<\/em><\/a>. <\/em>Hamburg: Reformatorischer Verlag Beese, 2001. Online version is a resource of the World Evangelical Association.<\/p>\n![\"Carey,](\"\/missiology\/files\/2013\/04\/careyteach.jpg\" "\\"William")
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