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Editor, author, traveler and Presbyterian minister, John Thomson Faris was born 150 years ago today on January 23, 1871 at Cape Girardeau, Missouri. John studied at several schools, including Princeton and McCormick Theological Seminary. His father, William Wallace Faris, was both a Presbyterian minister and an editor, in whose footsteps, in both capacities, John would follow. John’s brother, Paul Patton Faris, also became a minister and an author.
In the field of journalistic publishing, John worked for The Talk, Anna, Illinois (1890); The Occident, San Francisco, (1891–1892); and The North and West, Minneapolis (1892). Ordained to the ministry in 1898, John ministered in Mt. Carmel, Illinois and St. Louis, Missouri, before taking on official journalistic duties for the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA). He saw the importance of Sunday School, and this would become a focus of his labors.
He served as editor of the Sunday School Times, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1907–1908); and editor of the Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath School Work, Philadelphia (1908–1923). He was the Director, Editorial division, of the Board of Christian Education of the PCUSA (1923–1937). Finally, he served as General Director of the editorial department of the Presbyterian Board of Christian Education, and as President of the Sunday School Council of the Evangelical Denominations.
He had a special affinity for J.R. Miller, whose biography he authored, and several of whose works he posthumously edited and published.
John T. Faris traveled extensively, and wrote prolifically. He published over 60 books, many of which highlighted the history and the geography of America. He focused on the romance of the past, and the virtues needed for the present, as well as the value of Sunday School for the strengthening the work of the kingdom. He seemed to have a vision for reaching people through words and imagery that evoked the best virtues in his readers. He died on April 13, 1949, and is buried in the same cemetery at Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania as where J.R. Miller is interred. We continue to add Faris’ writings to Log College Press, but today we remember that while his mortal life began 150 years ago, his legacy through the written word endures.
