| Birth Date: | 17 June 1879 |
| Birth Place: | Southampton, England[1] |
| Death Place: | St Marys, Ontario, Canada |
| Education: | B.D., University of Oxford, 1904 |
| Occupation: | minister, Methodist and United Church of Canada: England, 1904-14, Bermuda, 1914-17, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, 1917-25, Ontario, 1925-49 |
Robert Edis Fairbairn (17 June 1879 - 30 May 1953) was a Canadian minister, writer, and pacifist.[2] [3]
Fairbairn became a committed pacifist after "firsthand exposure to the reactions of young men in bayonet drill",[1] and within a decade of the First World War he emerged as "one of the most prolific pacifist writers in Canada".[1] Later, Fairbairn helped R. B. Y. Scott and Gregory Vlastos to produce [//openlibrary.org/books/OL9859219M/Towards_the_Christian_Revolution Towards the Christian Revolution] (1936). In his chapter, he argued that one of the primary functions of the Christian faith was to generate opposition to war. In 1939, Fairbairn drafted a manifesto entitled Witness Against War, ultimately signed by over 150 United Churchmen.
Fairbairn was often critical of the church for its failure to oppose escalating violence throughout the world.[4] By the end of his career, he had become "the most outspoken radical pacifist in Canada".[1]
Regarding his contributions to Christian pacifism: