Oxnam, Garfield Bromley

Oxnam, Garfield Bromley

(ŏk`snăm, –snəm), 1891–1963, American Methodist bishop, b. Sonora, Calif., grad. Univ. of Southern California (B.A., 1913) and Boston Univ., 1915. He was ordained in 1916. After teaching at the Univ. of Southern California (1919–23) and at Boston Univ. (1927–28), he was (1928–36) president of DePauw Univ. In 1936 he was elected bishop of his denomination. After serving as resident bishop in the Omaha, Boston, and New York areas, he was assigned to the Washington (D.C.) area in 1952. From 1948 to 1954 he was president of the World Council of Churches. A liberal on social problems, he wrote Preaching in a Revolutionary Age (1944), I Protest (1954), and A Testament of Faith (1958).

Oxnam, Garfield Bromley

(1891–1963) Protestant religious leader, educator; born in Sonora, Calif. He graduated from the University of California in 1913 and studied at Harvard and abroad. Ordained a Methodist Episcopal minister in 1916, he was a pastor, professor of social ethics, and, from 1928–36, president of DePauw University in Indiana. Elected a bishop in 1936, he served in Omaha, Boston, and, from 1952 until his retirement in 1960, Washington, D.C. A theological and political liberal, he headed the World Council of Churches (1948–54) and authored many books, including A Testament of Faith (1958).