R. A. Hardie

Robert Alexander Hardie (; June 11, 1865 – June 30, 1949) was a Canadian physician and Methodist evangelist who for 45 years served as a missionary in Korea. He is recognized as the catalyst for the Wŏnsan Revival and also inspired the Great Pyongyang Revival (1907) in what is now North Korea.

Early life and education Hardie was born on June 11, 1865, in Haldimand County, Ontario, south of Toronto. Of Scottish descent, he was the first of six children born to James and Abigail Hardie. Both his parents died before he was ten years old. Hardie was then raised by his aunt and uncle, Thomas and Fannie Shaw. He attended a school in Seneca, Haldimand County, earning a teacher's certificate in 1884, and worked as a teacher in Seneca for two years.

In 1886, Hardie enrolled at the Toronto School of Medicine. Hardie graduated from University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Medicine degree in 1890. Hardie spoke of prayer and the Holy Spirit. He read from Luke 11:13 and confessed about his low spirits and disappointment with his efforts to proselytise the Kangwon Province.

Academic career In 1905, Hardie started a mobile theological school named Sinhakdang (Hall of Theology). The school initially had no defined physical location as he travelled between Inch'ŏn, Kongju, Pyongyang, and Seoul to teach several months-long sessions. In 1909, he moved to Seoul and began teaching at the Pierson Memorial Bible School and the Methodist Biblical Institute. In 1913, he founded the Hyŏpsŏng sinhakkyo (Union Theological School) in Seoul. He served as the president of the school until 1922 and left the school in June 1923. From 1916, he also published a magazine entitled Sinak saekye (The World of Theology). In 1923, Hardie became the editor-in-chief of the Chosŏn Yesukyo Sŏhoe (now known as the Korean Christian Literature Society).

Family and later years When the Hardies arrived in Korea, they had with them a two-year-old daughter named Eva, their second child. Their first son Arthur Sidney had died as an infant in 1888. Their second daughter Annie Elizabeth was born in Seoul during the first year of their missionary life. The Hardies' third daughter Marie Mabel died only a day old but they had two more daughters, Gertrude Abigail and Sarah Grace, who lived to adulthood. Their seventh child Robert and youngest daughter Margaret Joy died at eleven and six years old, respectively. The Hardie family also adopted a Korean girl named Chuponia.

In 1935, Hardie retired from missionary work and moved with his wife to Lansing, Michigan, to live with their daughter Grace. In total, he had served as a medical and then an evangelical missionary for about 45 years of his life. Margaret died in 1945 and Robert on June 30, 1949.