Carman, Albert

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Goldwin S. French, “CARMAN, ALBERT,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 14, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. See full biography at: https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/carman_albert_14E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Methodist minister, educator, and administrator; b. 27 June 1833 in Matilda (Iroquois), Upper Canada, son of Philip Carman and Emeline (Emmeline) Shaver; m. 19 July 1860 Mary Jane Sisk, and they had three sons and one daughter; d. 3 Nov. 1917 in Toronto.
    • Albert Carman was a quintessential Upper Canadian. His father, a self-educated tanner and farmer, was a grandson of an officer in the King’s Royal Regiment of New York, and his mother was a granddaughter of another “Royal Yorker.” The Carmans and Shavers were among the loyalist families who settled on crown grants in Matilda Township in 1784, and the Carmans were also among the earliest converts to Methodism in the colony. Carman never lost touch with his rural and loyalist roots and his family’s commitment to Methodism.
    • The religious climate at Victoria was strongly evangelical, and Carman was converted in the winter of 1854 at the height of a period of intense preaching and spiritual introspection. He wrote to his father immediately, telling him what “the Good Lord” had done and asking for advice. A member of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada, established in 1834 by those who opposed the union of the Upper Canadian Methodist Episcopal conference with the British Wesleyans, Philip Carman encouraged his son to join that church, which Albert did.
    • The Methodist Church of Canada, inaugurated formally on 1 June 1884, was the largest Protestant denomination in Canada. A religious community whose activities extended from Newfoundland to Japan, its members believed that “‘the world for Christ’ must be our motto, and to win it for Him our settled aim,” and that “God’s remedy for the woes and wants of men” was the continued promulgation of the evangelical message at the core of the Methodist tradition. But in the years of Carman’s ascendancy the context within which that message was proclaimed as well as its content changed greatly. On the one hand, Canadian Methodists were confronted with the demands of a Canadian society that was becoming not only more urban and industrial but also characterized by increasing ethnic, cultural, and religious diversity. On the other hand, the foundations of Christian belief and doctrine were being questioned by historical and scientific research. As a result, Methodist preaching and practice underwent a subtle process of adaptation and adjustment – a development in which Carman played an influential but cautious part.
    • Dedicated, vigorous, and tenacious in thought and action, Carman obstructed but did not prevent the reshaping of Canadian Methodist theology in response to new currents in biblical scholarship and philosophy. His rearguard action, one that probably reflected the majority opinion in his church, combined with his tacit support of diverse attempts at innovation, may in fact have facilitated acceptance of new ways of defining the evangelical tradition. His administrative skills were a major factor in enabling his church to fulfil its changing and increasingly complex role. His aggressive leadership both within the church and outside it in temperance, sabbath observance, and other organizations gave substance to the Methodists’ image as uncompromising adversaries of routine wickedness such as dancing, card-playing, and gambling, as well as of that great evil, alcohol. Yet, within the limits of his office and authority, Carman endeavoured to make Canadian Methodism a vibrant embodiment of the work of the Holy Spirit where charity in the fullest sense would be understood and practised. Ironically, his authoritarian, dogmatic style obscured his goal, and his theology, based on a traditional view of the Bible and the “facts” of religious experience, had become obsolete in his own lifetime.
  • Great Grandson of proven United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=1281
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/235422642/albert-carman