Edward Wilmot Blyden
1832-1912 · Liberation · Known
Blyden worked as an educator, diplomat and Presbyterian minister in Liberia. Every race carries a distinct gift from God, he held, and Africans could develop theirs only on African soil under African institutions. He rejected cosmopolitanism, calling nationality an ordinance of nature. In Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race (1887) he argued, as a Christian clergyman, that Islam had served Africa better, arriving without racial subordination.
Signature
The position Blyden is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Meaning
- strongly leans Inherent
- Primary Bond
- Nation
Positions on the 7 axes the sources answer
- Society
- leans Collectivism (12 on a 0–100 scale from Collectivism to Individualism)
- Meaning
- strongly leans Inherent (100 on a 0–100 scale from Constructed to Inherent)
- Order
- mildly between Vertical and Horizontal (58 on a 0–100 scale from Vertical to Horizontal)
- Ground of Being
- leans Transcendence (80 on a 0–100 scale from Immanence to Transcendence)
- Nature
- leans Harmony (75 on a 0–100 scale from Mastery to Harmony)
- Ethics
- leans Means (85 on a 0–100 scale from Ends to Means)
- Allegiance
- leans Local (15 on a 0–100 scale from Local to Global)
13 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Blyden refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Theology
- Trinitarian Monotheism
What is your position on the existence and nature of God or gods? - Agency
- Divine Providence
What is the nature of human agency and freedom? - Human Nature
- Imago Dei
What is human nature? - Primary Bond
- Nation
What is your primary bond and loyalty?