New College

BULLETIN YEARS e ee om what is now d fr ch. oss the courtyar 160eviously been successively the Fr esting as new news – and life-changing? ee High and Chur , as colleagues help us to look back at a heritage of mor YEARS 0 & 7 since its Library was moved acr the Martin Hall to what had pr High, United Fr So this anniversary Bulletin is deliberately short on news and long on history than 160 years. Old news may be as inter TE YEARS 60 WE CELEBRA 1 since the foundation stone of New College was laid

From The Head of From The Principal The School of Divinity of New College

This has been a year of loss and gain. Two of our most First, a word of thanks to David Lyall who preceded me distinguished professors emeriti – John McIntyre and Alec as Principal, and who generously acted in my place throughout Cheyne – passed away and tributes appear to them elsewhere 2005, when I was on sabbatical leave. I hope he will think the in the Bulletin. Together they aggregated nearly sixty years commentary on Samuel, which he helped along, worth a return of service and we plan to honour their achievements at a day to New College office. conference later this year. Next, the sad recollection that in recent months we have At the same time, we welcome into our midst several seen the passing of two much-loved and much-respected former distinguished colleagues who have been appointed during professors. John McIntyre and Alec Cheyne each graced New the current academic year. Professor Oliver O’Donovan FBA, College classrooms and so many other university contexts for currently Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral some thirty years. And in the same time we have taken our in the University of Oxford, will take up the chair of Christian farewells of Jean and Judith, widows of Hugh Anderson and Ethics and Practical Theology in September. Already with John O’Neill. us are Professor Hans Barstad from Oslo, appointed to the Then, a short curricular report. Our MA in Religious established Chair of Hebrew and Old Testament Studies, and Studies was launched around 1970, in the familiar Scottish MA Dr Cecelia Clegg, lecturer in Practical Theology and Director pattern of two years of more specialised study based on two of the Centre for Theology & Public Issues. It is also gratifying years of more general study, and our MA in Divinity more to record the University’s decision to promote to personal recently in the same pattern. These new degrees have had a chairs Dr Marcella Althaus-Reid and Dr Jim Cox. In taking continuing impact on the three-year BD taken by graduate up a Chair in Contextual Theology, Marcella becomes the first candidates. After many years of maintaining the traditional woman professor at New College, while Jim’s promotion to BD pattern of two more general years and one year of Honours a Chair in Religious Studies will ensure that this burgeoning classes, we changed in the mid-nineties from a 2+1 model to subject area is represented at professorial level. To both we 1+2. But we were not sure that we were offering our candidates offer our congratulations. enough of the ‘basics’. Semesterisation has allowed us a fresh The generation of McIntyre and Cheyne did much to attempt to pour two half-litres into a 750cc jug; and our 2005 secure the future of the historic New College buildings as the entrants are the guinea pigs. Watch this space. home of the Faculty (now School) of Divinity. In this regard, And finally, a warm welcome back to the College on I am pleased to note the University’s further investment in the Mound in the middle of June, to help us celebrate another our premises. The exterior masonry of the Ramsay Lane Wing ten years. Since 1996, we have lost eight former colleagues: (formerly the Tolbooth Parish School) has been rebuilt with Professors Norman Porteous, George Anderson, Hugh fresh sandstone from , while the interior will undergo a Anderson, John O’Neill, and James Torrance, and Dr Ian complete refurbishment during the summer months. This McDonald, in addition to John McIntyre and Alec Cheyne. will provide much improved postgraduate study and office Only Porteous had known New College Library in its original accommodation, especially when next year the School vacates position and been in post when it moved across the quadrangle; the premises in Bank Street currently leased from the Free but all of the others were among its supporters, and most of Church of . Painting and decorating of the main Library them were to serve as its Curator. We will hold a communion Hall, the Martin Hall, and the foyer area are also scheduled for service in their memory at the time of our celebrations – at 4.15 the vacation. In addition to all this, we have pm on Saturday 17 June, in the Martin Hall, where they had all been informed that the courtyard will be completely restored taken their turn to preside at the sacrament. I look forward to to something akin to its nineteenth-century appearance by seeing many of you again at that time. a major programme of works to commence in September. Ramsay Lane Wing made new Graeme Auld This will cause a good deal of disruption to users of the building in the forthcoming semester but we look forward to the end result. Whether the Victorian restoration requires the replacement of cars by horse-drawn carriages is not yet clear, but either way I hope still to find a space somewhere for my bicycle! Student numbers continue to exceed our forecast figures, and we are anticipating a record intake at postgraduate level next session. This is largely attributable to the success of the taught Masters programmes. Plans are now well ahead for the School reunion in June, and we very much look forward to welcoming former students and other friends to these events. D av id Fergus son

The teaching of theology and divinity has a very long history victorious faction and Masters of Works were appointed Scotland, helping to develop the federal theology which played in , of which the New College phase forms only the in December. In June 1583 the burgh was taxed to pay for such an important role in the Scottish Kirk from the seventeenth Teaching Theology latest chapter. The Dominicans began the tradition of formal alterations to the buildings of the former Trinity Collegiate century onwards. theological instruction in Edinburgh with the foundation of their Church [where Waverley station now stands] to create a home In a far cry from the football field or the golf course, friary in 1230, the first to be opened in Scotland. By the sixteenth for the Tounis College. In September of that year the first Rollock's students spent their Saturday afternoons listening to in Edinburgh: century, the Blackfriars' buildings, which were in the Cowgate, appointment of a regent, or teacher, was made and on 10 him reading from Beza's Questiones and after the sermon on included a particularly fine hall, spacious enough to be the October the College opened its doors to the first students. Sunday they were trained in the Heidelberg Catechism. This meeting place for the Councils of the Scottish Church called in By that time the Ruthven regime had fallen and a new was in addition to the lectures during the week starting at the The Beginnings 1549, 1552 and 1559. The hall was probably used on a daily basis town council had been put in place dominated by the opposite bracing time of 5 a.m. Not surprisingly, the courses suffered to accommodate part of the comprehensive educational training faction. This drove a number of Presbyterian clergy into exile from a high drop-out rate. However, in 1587 the first batch of undertaken by the friars, although they generously made way in England including James Lawson, who died in London the forty-seven men graduated and a further thirty followed the each year for the Scottish Exchequer and its accounting sessions. following year. Consequently, from its inception the new College next year, having survived the plague that had hit Edinburgh During the 1550s there were attempts to make more was under close scrutiny by the burgh council and the royal and closed the College in 1584-5. After this initial bulge, in the provision for higher education in the capital. One initiative court and its curriculum probably reflected a compromise, 1590s graduate numbers averaged 25 a year. In the first decade came from the Queen Regent, Mary of Guise, mother of Mary, providing both a liberal arts education and theological training of the university's existence 103 of the 259 graduates went into Queen of Scots, who founded two public lectureships, one in for the ministry. Robert Rollock, the first member of staff, was the ministry, helping to fill the post - vacancies in Greek and another in civil and canon law, both regarded at careful not to antagonise the virulently anti-Presbyterian regime Scotland's parishes and ensuring that by the end of the sixteenth the time as firmly ecclesiastical subjects. The second initiative of the earl of Arran. His bending like a willow in the face of the century most parishes had a minister. Subsequently, the number flowed from the noted humanist Robert Reid, bishop of Orkney, current political wind later produced the acerbic comment from of Edinburgh graduates entering the ministry dropped to one in who left provision in his will in 1558 for a college with a the hard-line Presbyterian historian, David Calderwood, that five, reflecting a decrease in vacancies. In those early years the Dr Jane Dawson, Senior Lecturer, distinctly non-clerical emphasis to be erected in Edinburgh he was 'a Godly man, but simple on the matters of Church liberal arts components of the curriculum were important in Ecclesiastical History to teach humanism or the 'new learning'. Government, credulous [and] easily led by counsel'. their own right and not viewed solely as the preparation for These plans did not come to fruition for another thirty In 1586, Rollock was made Principal of the College with theological training. This encouraged a wide range of students years by which time a great deal had changed. The first wave a salary of 400 merks [£266 Scots] p.a. in addition to the student to study at the Tounis College, ensuring its survival and of the Reformation with its scramble to create the new Kirk was fees whilst the second regent, Duncan Nairn, had to survive on enabling it to grow. Although theology was a high-profile, over and rifts were opening concerning control over the Kirk. the pittance of 40 merks and fees. The Principal had plenty of and frequently contentious, strand within the curriculum and The political scene was unstable as the teenage king, James VI, time to write his books since he only had to teach the final or entering the ministry one option for its graduates, from the was growing out of his minority and taking power into his own B.D. year that followed the M.A., which was all taught by Nairn. beginning it formed part of the broad community of scholarship hands; it was a bumpy ride. The establishment of the 'Tounis During the 1590s Rollock produced a series of biblical commen- that comprised Edinburgh's university. College' [Edinburgh University] in 1583 took place during one taries on the Pauline epistles, employing the Ramist method of especially big bump and the new foundation was part of the logical analysis to the interpretation of Scripture and earning faction fighting infecting the royal court and the Edinburgh the praise of his Genevan counterpart and leading Reformer, burgh council. Four years earlier, James Lawson, 's . As well as being Edinburgh's first Principal, Thomas Wode’s Psalter, EUL Special Collections successor as minister at St Giles' had revived the plans for a Rollock is regarded as the first proper covenant theologian in college in the capital. The Edinburgh ministers, all living 'collegially' near St Giles', already formed a block of theological expertise and were probably running a mini-seminary helping train future clergy. They were the original recipients of the considerable library amassed by Clement Litill, a Protestant lawyer, who died in 1580. The 276 volumes, mostly theological, were handed over in 1584 to the Tounis College, where they formed the basis of the University Library and have remained in Special Collections to this day. Each book is stamped with a clear expression of Litill's wishes, 'I am gevin to Edinburgh & Kirk of God be Maister Clement Litil Thair to Reman, 1580'. Thanks to Litill's own theological interests and his European contacts, the collection is a fine representation of the theological debates of the 1550s-70s. Unfortunately, in the following decades money was tight and few volumes were added to the Library's collection. Although there was a library by 1580, as yet there was no university. Led by Lawson, the Edinburgh's vociferous presbytery was pushing the town council to accept its plans for a theological seminary. Others wanted a college that had greater emphasis upon the liberal arts catering for the civic needs of the burgh, especially its expanding legal and mercantile elite. In August 1582 the political situation was changed dramatically One of Clement Litill’s books in EUL Special Collections by the 'Ruthven Raid', when the earl of Ruthven and his pro- www.lib.ed.ac.uk/about/bgallery/Gallery/records/fifteen/litill.html Presbyterian allies seized power and imprisoned James VI. The Edinburgh Presbyterians had a field day, staging a triumphalist welcome home for John Durie, their previously- banished minister. A procession started at the Netherbow and marched around the burgh singing in four-part harmony, Psalm124, 'Now Israel may say'. This harmonised setting of the metrical psalm had originated in Thomas Wode's beautifully-illustrated, manuscript part-books of the Psalter and other spiritual songs, now held in Edinburgh University Library. Plans for the college were immediately pushed ahead by the Painting of Theodore Beza from portraits of the Reformers hanging in EUL (colour picture in The : An Illustrated History)

On 20 May 1843, the first Free Church on the broad and deep principles of scheme, in 1845-46, a total of 40 College was to sow political dissension General Assembly appointed an humanity and fraternity’. scholarships were awarded. About or undermine the social order. Although The Making of Educational Committee under the For , New 100 students presented themselves not revolutionary in a political sense, convenership of , a Church College was an opportunity not only in Edinburgh at the end of October, however, New College was to be historian who had relinquished his to advance higher education in Scotland, and sat a series of examinations. committed to social improvement, New College: Edinburgh University chair at the but also to champion the Reformed These examinations were modelled on preparing ministers who would be Disruption. Reporting to the Assembly Faith in the wider world against those at the Oxford and Cambridge intellectually equipped to promote the only five days later, Welsh’s committee atheism and materialist philosophy. colleges, and their aim was ‘to hold forth faith among the educated classes, but 1843-46 recommended the immediate Under Chalmers’s guidance, New such rewards and such stimulants as who would find their highest role in establishment of a college in Edinburgh College embraced and implemented might act throughout and on the whole serving the poor and marginalised in for training Free Church ministers. ambitious programmes, intended to body of our students, and thus evoke Scottish society. ‘The youth who Stewart J Brown Despite the many difficulties it prepare it for this world mission. the rising energies of the Hall’. frequent our classes’, Chalmers insisted, Professor of faced in the aftermath of the Disruption, ‘will with all earnestness and emphasis Ecclesiastical History the Assembly agreed to the college THE CORE CURRICULUM DREAMS IN STONE: THE CITADEL be told, that the Christian minister is a project and proceeded during the ON THE MOUND man of no rank, because a man of all THE summer to appoint four professors. As Principal, Chalmers expanded ranks; and that although he should have The famed Thomas Chalmers, who the faculty to include five permanent Along with the new academic an education which might qualify him The New College was born amid had resigned his Chair of Theology at theological chairs—, programmes came plans for a new for holding converse with princes and religious conflict. It emerged out of the Edinburgh University at the Disruption, Apologetics and Practical Theology, building. In May 1844, the General peers, it is his peculiar glory to be a Disruption of 1843, when over a third was named Principal and Senior Church History, Hebrew and Old Assembly approved a proposal to collect frequent visitant of the poor man’s of the ministers and perhaps half the lay Professor of Theology. David Welsh Testament, and New Testament Exegesis. money for erecting ‘a college which humble cottage, and to pray by the membership left the established Church became Professor of Church History. Each professor taught two classes each would be a credit to the Church’. poor man’s dying bed.’ ‘Let’, he added, of Scotland in protest against what For the Chair of Hebrew and Old year in his subject—a junior and a senior The College managed to purchase, ‘kings retain their sceptres, and nobles they viewed as efforts by the state to Testament, the Committee selected John class. Students would progress systemat- at a bargain price of £10,000, a site on their coronets,—what we want is a undermine the Church’s spiritual Duncan, a respected scholar of ancient ically through a defined four-year the Mound in Edinburgh’s Old Town. more elevated ground-floor for our independence. The outgoing clergy and and Semitic languages, who had been programme of study, which would David Welsh approached a number of general population’ laity formed the Free , serving with the Church of Scotland include two years of study in each of wealthy Free Church members—inviting Chalmers’s speech has been which was to be a national Church, free mission to the Jews in Hungary. It was the core disciplines. This core curriculum donations of £1,000 from each. He died of criticised for its acceptance of social from the trammels of state patronage said of Duncan that, with his mastery included a special focus on the study heart disease in early 1845, but by then he inequality. He was, to be sure, a man of and acknowledging only the headship of languages, he could ‘talk’ his way of the Bible in its original languages. had collected £21,000, a large amount at his time. But what was most important of Christ. from Scotland to the Great Wall of In addition to this theological that time. The Free High Church congre- was Chalmers’s emphasis on social The new Church faced a hard . Finally, William Cunningham, curriculum, New College also began gation in the Old Town, moreover, agreed engagement. In the summer of 1844, struggle. Many of its congregations, an Edinburgh clergyman and formidable providing instruction in a range of arts to share the costs of developing the site, Chalmers had begun a home mission especially in the Highlands, were poor controversial author and speaker, became subjects. It appointed professors in in return for including their church operation in the West Port, then one and vulnerable. Many landowners Junior Professor of Theology. He was three arts disciplines—Moral Philosophy, among the college buildings. of the most impoverished districts in viewed the Free Church as a radical then sent for several months to the Logic and Natural Science. Natural The Free Church commissioned Edinburgh. By January 1845, he was movement challenging the social order, United States, in part to study at first Science became a required course in the celebrated Edinburgh architect, recruiting New College students as and they denied sites for Free Church hand ‘some of the most eminent of the the core curriculum, to be taken by all William Henry Playfair, to design the voluntary workers for the mission. After buildings. Some Free Church tenant American Theological Institutions’. students during the first year. The buildings. His plan, as presented to the December 1847, the newly formed New farmers lost their farms; many Free The Education Committee course emphasised natural theology, General Assembly in May 1846, called College Missionary Society began work Church labourers were dismissed from purchased rooms at 80 George Street or the study of the natural world as for three quadrangles, each at a different in the West Port, extending their social employment. Opponents confidently in Edinburgh’s New Town, with a class evidence of a benevolent Creator. level, rising from the level of the Mound work to the Grassmarket and Cowgate by predicted that the Free Church could not room and a library containing books The professors of Moral Philosophy to that of the Castle Hill, and providing the early 1850s. Such work was viewed survive for long against the combined donated by well-wishers. The college and Logic introduced students to Scottish accommodation for a full university. as part of the New College education. hostility of the landlords and the state. opened for its first session in November common sense philosophy. There were The first quadrangle would provide By 1846, three years after the These opponents, however, failed to 1843 with 168 students. also plans to establish chairs of Latin, the public face for the building, so that Disruption, New College was well account for the religious and moral Greek and Mathematics, with still more if the Free Church should later decide established. By now eight professors A FREE CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY? fervour roused by the Disruption. chairs to follow. It was a time of great to restrict itself to theological education, had been appointed, five in theology aspirations. The brilliant young the first quadrangle would in itself ‘form and three in arts. A comprehensive core THE FREE CHURCH During its first session, in 1843-44, philosopher, Alexander Campbell Fraser, an entire and elegant edifice’. At a time curriculum was in place. Further, there EDUCATIONAL IDEAL New College was by necessity a modest was convinced to accept the profes- when the Free Church was still struggling was a library with over 13,000 volumes operation. For many in the Free Church, sorship of Logic in 1846 by the vision against powerful opposition, its leaders and a natural history museum, while an this was sufficient: a small college to of New College as a ‘great free felt it was important that New College imposing new building was rising on the provide some basic theological training university, founded on the broad and should be an imposing edifice, a symbol Mound. Student numbers were high—178 to aspiring ministers. Others, however, deep principles of humanity in union of their Church’s permanence. Playfair Free Church divinity candidates in 1846- raised their sights much higher. They with ’. designed the building so that, viewed 47, with additional divinity students from envisaged a great free Christian In 1845, New College sought from Hanover Street, its two towers overseas, as well as over 200 arts university, destined not only to train to promote the highest standards of would frame the massive tower of the students. All this had been achieved at ministers, but to advance Christian scholarship by introducing a system of historic Tolbooth Church, expressing a time when the Free Church was also scholarship across a range of disciplines competitive bursaries. In the past, most a sense of continuity with the past. building hundreds of new churches and and to educate professional and civic Scottish university bursaries had been schools, and expanding its number of leaders for a new Scotland. ‘Build a awarded to students on the basis of THE SOCIAL MISSION clergy. By the early 1850s, the Free College for yourselves’, the philosopher, financial need, or according to often Church had decided to drop the John Stuart Blackie, advised the Free arbitrary criteria set by the donors. Chalmers laid the foundation stone for aspirations for a complete university Church leaders in 1843, ‘You will perform The New College bursaries, however, the new buildings at a public ceremony on the Mound. New College now settled an essential service to Scotland, and reap were to be awarded only after on 4 June 1846. In his speech on the into its role as a leading theological no small glory to yourselves, by erecting competitive examination, as ‘rewards occasion, he denied the widespread college, with a strong social commitment a Free University in this country, founded of merit’. During the first year of the allegations that the aim of the New and a world outreach.

held the Divinity Chair from 1709 to parish ministry in Fife to the Chair of John Baillie sustained a flow of The holders of the Divinity Chair 1732. Hamilton has been described Moral Philosophy in St Andrews before publications from the 1920s to the 1960s in the twentieth century have each had Theology In as representing the transition in settling in Edinburgh. In the theology which displayed his dominant theological lengthy tenures and exercised a major Scotland from the religious wars of of Flint, we encounter a set of problems interests. If his most enduring work was influence on the institution. This is the seventeenth century to the verbal with which modern theologians are the Diary of Private Prayer, his most true especially of John McIntyre who, Edinburgh: A conflicts of the eighteenth. In considering familiar. He grappled with secularisation, creative is Our Knowledge of God succeeding Baillie in 1956, held the his career, one is aware of a different the evolutionary science of Darwin, the published in 1939. Here we see a position for thirty years. McIntyre’s social and intellectual milieu. There is relationship of politics to religion, and departure from his earlier position with early theological work on history and Brief Overview greater political stability within the issues raised by a growing awareness of a much greater recognition of the contex- on Anselm display many of the character- union, growing economic prosperity other world religions. Much involved in tuality of theological knowledge. This is istics and themes which are evident in Edinburgh, and a confidence in the the ninth edition of the Encyclopaedia developed through the idea of ‘mediated throughout his life’s work. These include David A S Fergusson power of reason to demonstrate in a Britannica, he displays a serious immediacy’, a concept which enables an ability to analyse a problem from Professor of Divinity spirit of civility the ‘truth and excellency theological interest in the world religions, Baillie to speak of an apprehension of the different angles, an awareness of the of the Christian religion’. The appeal to an interest already evident in the work divine presence but one which is always complex relationship of theology with reason and external evidences indicates of Principal Robertson a century earlier. mediated by created realities such as the other disciplines, and a sense of the At the foundation of the university a more confident rationalist spirit; this Flint also appears to have been one of the natural world, other people and the variety of theological tasks including in 1583, the teaching of theology was contributed much to the climate of first Scottish theologians to interact with Christian story. The need to explore both the study of Christian doctrine entrusted to the Principal. The first Moderate church life during the socialism, his teaching providing much common ground with the sceptic, with and the task of apologetics to which he holder of the office, Robert Rollock, was . impetus to a more critical political practitioners of other disciplines, with remained wholly committed. Largely an able commentator on Scripture and Already established as the leading theology in the Scottish churches. Both other religions, and with contemporary under the leadership of McIntyre, an early exponent of the federal theology churchman in the land and a preacher of socialism and Christianity, he claimed, society and its various forms of discourse New College became a more ecumenical that was to dominate European Reformed international renown, Thomas Chalmers express a fundamental human solidarity, is present in almost all Baillie’s writings. and theologically diverse institution. thought in the seventeenth century. succeeded to the Divinity Chair in 1828. a sense of the evil that can arise from One senses that his mid-century audience A significant marker was set down in On reading Rollock and his work in Chalmers’ theology might be viewed as unbridled competition, and a stress on is becoming increasingly pluralist and 1979 with the appointment of James Edinburgh, one is conscious of the extent combining the traditions of seventeenth the necessity of the spirit of co-operation. secular. It has become dissociated from Mackey, a Roman Catholic theologian to which the university was in its early and eighteenth-century Scottish thought. Flint was succeeded in 1903 by the Christian faith of its upbringing and laicised priest, to the Thomas years an ecclesial community. There is an evangelical commitment to W. P. Paterson who had earlier ministered though it still recognises its symbols and Chalmers Chair of Systematic Theology. Throughout the ensuing century, the themes of Reformed orthodoxy, in Crieff before taking up the Chair of practises its mores. Perhaps much of The nomination of Mackey aroused theology in Edinburgh reflected the although his defence of its doctrine of Systematic Theology in . what he wrote was driven by a sense of considerable controversy in the General vicissitudes of the national Reformed predestination is combined with a Paterson had established a reputation guilt that he had survived the Great War, Assembly of the Church of Scotland and church. David Dickson was probably missionary insistence that the gospel as a preacher and lecturer of some a war in which many of his contempo- the national press. Almost thirty years the most distinguished Divinity professor must be offered freely to all. At the eloquence. In his work we begin to see raries and friends had perished. He wrote later, it is hard to appreciate the storm in Edinburgh during the seventeenth same time, there is a striking confidence the strong influence of German theology in some autobiographical reflections, of controversy that was aroused. century. A leading figure of the in the power of reason to demonstrate in Edinburgh, an influence that can also ‘When I turned again to my old pursuits Graduates from the mid-1970s covenanting party, he was deprived of the validity of this theological system be detected in his colleague Hugh Ross after the war was over, the khaki figures onwards will be hard placed to attach his charge in Irvine for testifying against through philosophical reasoning and Mackintosh who from 1904 held the chair still seemed to keep their place in the a label to the theology of their teachers. the five articles of Perth and subsequently Scriptural interpretation. Natural at New College, by that time a college of background of my mind, and in much The greater theological diversity of refusing to appear before the high court theology was a favourite subject of his the United Free Church. Paterson had of what I have written since these days New College registers not only changes of commission in Edinburgh. After ten and one to which he was constantly studied in Leipzig, Erlangen and Berlin; a clairvoyant reader may find them in society and the university, but also years in the Divinity Chair at Glasgow, drawn. We see this in his Edinburgh Mackintosh in Freiburg, Halle and haunting the margins of the page.’ a sense of the importance of ecumenical he came to Edinburgh in 1650 and lasted lectures published posthumously as Marburg. A revered teacher, Mackintosh T. F. Torrance was appointed to exchange. Roland Walls, Elizabeth until 1662 when he was removed from the two-volume Institutes of Theology. exercised huge influence on his students. the Chair of Christian Dogmatics in 1952. Templeton, Noel O’Donoghue, Alasdair his post for refusing to take the oath of There he dwells at some length on the In grappling with the problems of Had he never published a single book, Heron, Jim Mackey, Ruth Page and supremacy at the Restoration. Dickson’s evidences for Christian faith, particularly modern theology, he continued to convey Torrance’s achievements would still be Alan Lewis each made a distinctive theology represents the flowering of the scientific study and philosophical that strong sense of piety that charac- formidable: the supervision of the English impact upon the student body through Reformed orthodoxy in Scotland in argument that supported the design terised earlier Scottish writers with an translation of Calvin’s commentaries, and their lectures and writings. Their the middle of the seventeenth century. argument. The veracity of Scripture is almost erotic intensity. He was also one of Barth’s Church Dogmatics with Geoffrey interests, approaches and convictions Anyone wishing to understand the demonstrated by an internal consistency the first in the English-speaking world to Bromiley; the founding of the Scottish have generated an awareness of the Westminster Confession (1647) can learn which sets it apart from other ancient offer a critical reception of the emerging Journal of Theology with J.K.S. Reid; richness of Christian tradition, together much from his writings. Along with his documents. It is further confirmed by theology of . a pivotal role in Reformed-Orthodox with the tasks confronting faith and friend James Durham, he was responsible the miracles it attests, the fulfilment of Paterson retired in 1934 to be ecumenical dialogue; the convenership practice in modernity. For the future, for producing The Sum of Saving prophecy, the growth of the early church succeeded by John Baillie who returned of the church’s baptismal commission the challenge will be to combine a sense Knowledge, a short exposition of and the witness of the saints. This then to Scotland from Union Theological in the 1950s; and the supervision of a of the global character of theology while Westminster theology written for public leads to an exposition of Christian Seminary in New York. Baillie had been generation of students from across the continuing to attend to our local context use and often published along with the doctrine. Here again Chalmers follows born into the Free Church manse of world. Yet, through the publication of and its heritage. confession and the catechisms. It is his trusted experimental method. He Gairloch in the west highlands, and he numerous monographs and essays, perhaps this concern with right belief David Fergusson begins with the evidences of human combined in his life and work the piety Torrance is arguably the most influential that contributed so much to the sinfulness before proceeding to a study of his highland roots together with the British theologian of the twentieth- intellectual rigour of Scottish church life of its remedy. In justification of this erudition of continental thought and the century. His early reputation was and the nation’s educational system in procedure he tells his students that sophistication of New York. His return established as a promoter of Barth in the the subsequent century. it is the one they are to follow in to Scotland coincided with the merger of English-speaking world but one is also Yet even as Dickson wrote issues their preaching. the University Faculty and the United struck by how much of it reflects more relating to religious toleration were being Although in late Victorian Scotland Free Church College. Baillie himself had native influences and concerns such as raised and debated in England and the biblical scholars of New College been educated both in the university and his upbringing by missionary parents, Europe. In studying the career of William outshone those in the university, the the college, and his tenure of the chair the teaching of H.R. Mackintosh, and the Hamilton (1669-1732) in the early established church nonetheless could coincided with one of the most illustrious writings of John Macmurray. His work eighteenth century one enters a different claim one of the leading intellectuals of periods for theology in Edinburgh. today attracts the attention of a steady age of Scottish theology and society. After the age in . He moved from stream of research students. ministering in Cramond (1694-1709) he

THE VERY REVEREND PROFESSOR JOHN MCINTYRE THE REVEREND PROFESSOR ALEXANDER CAMPBELL CHEYNE CVO, MA, BD, DLitt, Dr.h.c., DD, DHL, FRSE MA, BD, BLitt, DLitt

20 May 1916 – 18 December 2005 1 June 1924 – 31 March 2006

Professor McIntyre died in Edinburgh on 18 December last year at Arts or Social Science. He was determined that this should Professor Cheyne died in Peebles on 31 March this year at the age There was also his pastoral concern for his students. the age of 89. His former colleague, Professor D W D Shaw gave the be done without prejudice to the teaching of the traditional of 81. His successor, Professor Jay Brown gave one of the tributes He took a personal interest in them – not only in their academic tribute at his funeral. Here is his amended version of it. Divinity subjects and New College's role in the education of at his funeral. The full text has been posted on the web site. Here work, but in their more personal worries and concerns, and It is always an honour to write of men or women who the ministry. are extracts from it. in their aspirations for the future. He demonstrated a special have achieved eminence in a particular field. But in the case Perhaps John might prefer to be remembered as minister Alec Cheyne was educated at the University of Edinburgh, concern for students coming from overseas, seeking to ensure of John McIntyre, it is an especial honour to write of one of the and churchman. He never forgot his early ministries - indeed where he graduated MA with First Class Honours in History in that they felt welcome in Scotland. In return, those overseas few who have achieved eminence in not one field but many. for many years he returned to Dalmally for the Highland Show 1946. Following military service, he did postgraduate work at students felt a great loyalty to him, and in later years he Son of a carpenter, his early education was at Bathgate there to meet old friends to whom he had ministered many Oriel College, Oxford, graduating B.Litt. with a thesis on the travelled widely at their invitations to present guest lectures Academy and at Edinburgh University where he distinguished years before. The Church of Scotland recognised his gifts when relations between England and Scotland during the reigns of around the world. As a teacher he changed lives. himself in the Arts Faculty and at New College. Ordained as a in 1982 he was elected Moderator of the General Assembly - William lll and Queen Anne. After lecturing in history at the minister of the Church of Scotland, he served as locum tenens in the year when Pope John Paul was to visit Edinburgh and, for three years, he entered New College … One of the Professor’s great achievements was to build a at Loch Awe and then as minister of Fenwick. It was there that in that historic moment, to be received by him. He was also in 1953 as a regular student for the ministry of the Church of vibrant department by recruiting lecturers of great ability and he met and married Jan Buick, the district nurse, and so began convener of the Church’s Board of Education. Her Majesty Scotland. His aim was to be a parish minister. He graduated commitment. This department of Ecclesiastical History was a triumphant partnership - they celebrated their diamond recognised his gifts when he served for fifteen years as Dean BD with distinction in Ecclesiastical History in 1956, and became probably the best in the in talent and breadth anniversary last year. In 1945 he went to Australia to St of the Order of the Thistle. He was Chaplain to the Queen from an assistant minister with every intention of entering a pastoral of coverage. Together, the ‘Cheyne gang’ developed, along with Andrews College, Sydney to teach and then become Principal, 1975 to 1986, and after retirement remained as extra Chaplain charge. But our lives do not always take the directions we the range of upper-level courses, a celebrated first-year survey and he stayed until 1956. His experience and sojourn there he to the Queen. Many who never knew John as scholar or intend. Pressure was placed on him to accept a position at New course which combined a broad world coverage of the whole valued enormously, giving him a life-long interest in and churchman will, however, remember him as a superb College – not least by the formidable Professor Jake Burleigh – sweep of Christianity in its cultural context, and, through the affection for Australia. In that year, rather than join the faculty administrator. This seemed to come as second nature to John. and in 1958 he became lecturer in Ecclesiastical History. In 1964, innovative use of primary documents, also introduced students of the prestigious Union Theological Seminary in New York, Even as a student, he was organizing the provision of supplies on the retirement of Professor Burleigh, Alec was appointed his to the historian’s craft. The course became a model for first-year he chose to return to Scotland to the Chair of Divinity at New of food for schools summer camps at Bruar. His experience successor to the Chair of Ecclesiastical History, a position he survey courses in Church history around the world. College. There he remained, acting for many years as Dean in Australia had perhaps prepared him for the enormous job would hold until his retirement in 1986 and Principal, until he retired in 1986. the university asked him to undertake (while still fulfilling He was a superb teacher. His lectures were almost … The Transforming of the Kirk: Victorian Scotland’s Religious I don't know for which of the many fields of interest his professorial duties and as Principal of New College): this legendary – learned, eloquent, polished, well-structured and Revolution remains the definitive study of this important theme. and activity in which he excelled John would most like to be was as Warden of Pollock Halls, overseeing and successfully often profoundly moving. He was able to draw his audiences remembered. It could be as Christian academic theologian and carrying out that vast expansion of University residences. into a past world, and breathe life into its personalities and … He was a scholar, rather than a researcher; he was a man teacher. Equally at home in the thought of the early fathers, Later, when the University found itself without a Principal, struggles. This did not come easily. His lectures were excellent of letters in the old sense. mediaeval, reformation and modern theology. and using the it was perhaps inevitable that is was John who was turned to, because he worked hard at them – continually polishing and tools of modern philosophy, he produced ground-breaking not once but twice as Acting Principal. And when some-one revising his prose, composing and recomposing until they … I never met with him that I didn’t come away feeling work - in studies of St Anselm, in the role of history in theology, was needed to supervise Scotland's contribution to Australia's conveyed just the right effect. In more informal seminar and that I had been somehow helped to be a better person, that in christology. He was his own man, unafraid to challenge bi-centennial celebrations, who should they ask to help tutorial discussions, he awakened students to the challenges of I had been given guidance, not only in scholarship, but in conventional views, but always (unlike some theologians) but John? reconstructing the past. In such settings, he had an ability to put how to live a more caring and fulfilling life. eirenic in style and intention. As a teacher, he was always I suspect, though, that John would prefer to be students at ease and draw them out. Here his sense of humour meticulously prepared, helping students with copious hand-outs remembered not so much as Scholar, Churchman or could be particularly helpful; his irony, never unkind, and his at a time when this was something of a rarity, and peppering Administrator but for his humanity. Utterly devoid of arrogance shared humour could take the edge off his criticism of student his lectures with shafts of devastating humour, which, because or 'side', he had an unfailing interest in people - parishioners, work. He listened carefully to what was said, and I can still see delivered in deadpan way, could easily be missed. His academic former students, university staff (and not just academic staff) his bowed head as he concentrated on every word of a student’s distinction was, incidentally, to be noted and used by the Royal which is why so many thought of him as a friend. It is also presentation. His breadth of knowledge, while never used Society of Edinburgh. why so many will remember the hospitality he and Jan simply to impress, was always there, to be drawn upon by his New College owes him an especial debt. Apart from his dispensed so generously, the fun and laughter that went with it. students. He could lecture on a wide range of subject – though own teaching to which generations of students bear witness, His human qualities shone through in the dignity and courage he was particularly at home in Scottish history and modern he left his mark on the College in two significant ways. First, of these latter years of failing health and immobility of Jan and British history since the seventeenth century. He also read the wholesale renovation of the buildings which took place himself: unable to engage any longer in the activities he would widely, in theology and historical theology, but also in social following the transfer to the University (subject always to the have liked, his sharpness of mind and his interest, particularly history, political history, intellectual history, and biography. teaching of divinity subjects!) was brought about largely thanks in the affairs of university and the church, never faltered. He had a particular love for nineteenth-century literature, to John's leadership and supervision. Secondly, it was mainly His achievements in so many different contexts but above and offered with Ian Campbell in English Literature a due to John's initiative that the teaching of the then new and all his humanity ensure that John McIntyre will be remembered memorable advanced seminar in religion and literature. now flourishing discipline of Religious Studies should take by all who knew him - with gratitude and respect, yes - but also placed under the aegis of the Faculty of Divinity, rather than by many with the greatest affection.

A further phenomenon is the He rejects any suggestion that ‘return flow’ of influence from North teaching can be separated from research From Nigeria to South, as some African-led churches From Norway or research from teaching. He has found in Europe and North America begin that creating enthusiasm in students is to establish branches in Africa; indeed only possible if one has something to be and Germany there is now a ‘triangular’ pattern of enthusiastic about, and conversely that connections, with a flow from Africa most of his own good ideas have come to Europe, then to North America, and from talking to students, undergraduate then back to Africa, a pattern in which as well as postgraduate. DR AFE ADOGAME, Lecturer in World the religious centres may also be centres PROFESSOR HANS M BARSTAD, Though his professional work, Christianity since last September, was of socialisation, business and politics, Dr theol, who became Professor of which doubles as his hobby, is very from 1995 to 1999 and from 2000 to 2005 and therefore of interest to students of Hebrew Bible and Old Testament time-consuming, he has also found time Senior Research and Teaching Fellow at migration in general. Studies this January, is a senior and to be active in his local church council. the Department for the Study of Religion Now that he is in Scotland, internationally eminent academic from As a church member, he believes that and the Institute of African Studies in Dr Adogame is excited by the prospect Norway, who comes to us after 20 years the academic study of the Bible is Bayreuth University, with a period from of complementing his earlier work as Professor of Old Testament Studies essential for ministers, if they are to 1998 to 2000 on the teaching staff of the with African Christian groups in North in the University of Oslo. Following be equipped to communicate with Department of Religions of Lagos State America, Germany and England with higher education in Oslo and Oxford, their contemporaries. University in his homeland of Nigeria. similar and increasingly interdisciplinary he has spent the last thirty years as an Not that he regards the Bible as His main scholarly interest has work in Scotland, especially Edinburgh academic teacher but also as an academic the property of the church, believing been African religion, especially African and Glasgow. librarian, including being Keeper of that it belongs and should be accessible Christianity, and above all its indigenous His interest in all these matters is Theological Books and later of Rare to everyone. The Hebrew Bible is forms. In his study of two main groups, more than academic. A major aspiration Books for Norway’s University and essential reading, not only as the most African indigenous churches and African is that the world’s people will become National Library. His philological important document for the history of pentecostal/charismatic groups, he has more closely connected, forget the expertise has been used in the Swedish religion, being basic to Judaism, noted their affinities with indigenous stereotypes of race, sex and age, reject Bible translation and his epigraphical Christianity and Islam and to the whole religion. They reject the suggestion the prevailing ‘us and them’ paradigms, expertise in the Scandinavian history of the Near East, but for general sometimes made that such affinity resist the current obsession with archaeological expedition to Tell cultural understanding. It is also salutary implies that they are syncretistic or less security that is undermining security, el-Kukhar in Jordan. Since he believes that those who study it, whether in than fully Christian and draw attention cherish differences and through them strongly that specialised work must Oslo or in Edinburgh, represent a wide to the discontinuity between their world discover commonality. He regards the be set in the broadest possible context, spectrum of attitudes to religion from view and traditional African cosmology. highly diverse and cosmopolitan place it is no surprise that he has been heavily the most hostile to the most devout. Dr Adogame regards the unease which in which he now finds himself – the City, involved in the wider intellectual world, All benefit from encounter around it, this causes in some scholarly observers the University, the School of Divinity including as Secretary General of the provided that they show mutual respect as an interesting sidelight on the ‘politics and the Centre for the Study of Norwegian Academy of Science and and let the academic discipline inform of cultural identity’. Christianity in the Non-Western World – Letters, and now as one of the four Board their individual interpretations. The More recently he has added a as one with a great opportunity to members of the Holberg Foundation, fear of some Christians that this may further major area to his work, namely ‘dramatise one world’ by being an which awards what has been called the undermine their faith is groundless - the new forms of African Christianity effective microcosm of it, whose Humanities ‘Nobel Prize’ (the first two or reveals weak faith. that have been reproduced outside Africa influence can spiral outwards. recipients of which were Julia Kristeva Professor Barstad is finding no through migration. He considers that, Meanwhile another of his and Jürgen Habermas). great difficulty in his migration from whereas the shift in the centre of gravity existential interests is how to negotiate As a ‘generalist specialist’, he has Oslo to Edinburgh, apart from temporary of Christianity from North to South has the combination of academic and family taught every book of the Hebrew Bible separation from his family (wife, son and become almost a commonplace at least life, as he settles into Edinburgh with his and specialised in the study of prophecy. daughter). The academic situations are among scholars, it has not yet been wife and young son and two daughters. While he has focused on Isaiah 40-66 and broadly similar. Though undergraduate appreciated that the Christian landscape Amos, he has also explored the whole theology courses here are shorter and in the North is itself being transformed phenomenon of ancient near eastern the postgraduate student body larger, by influence from the South. This prophecy, setting the Hebrew prophets the mix of student backgrounds and the influence on Christianity in Europe in this wider context. He parts company interdisciplinary context of the University and North America is brought not only with some recent scholarship which are comparable. The personal transition by the presence of African diaspora combines late dating of the biblical has been made particularly painless congregations alongside or hosted by prophetic texts with the view that they and indeed pleasurable by the great indigenous Northern congregations and are purely literary creations with little hospitality which he has enjoyed in the by the presence of African individuals or no historical grounding. His research homes of his colleagues here – and the and the employment of African clergy shows that prophets and prophecy as friendliness of the people of this within Northern congregations, but also depicted and expressed in the Hebrew reputedly cold city! by a growing network of collaboration texts are very much in line with what is between the diaspora churches and the well attested of prophets and prophecy host churches. This is accompanied by elsewhere in the ancient near eastern a significant change in the self-identity world, thus supporting their historicity. of many African Christian churches in More generally, he believes that the Europe and North America, who now understanding of history, which informed see themselves not so much as ‘African the style of historical criticism of the Christians’ as ‘international Christians’, Bible that was common in 19th century with an important role in the Germany and is still influential, has been world church. superseded by a new philosophy of history which calls for new methods of historiography.

MOLE UNDER THE FENCE: From Ireland From England CONVERSATIONS WITH ROLAND WALLS Ron Ferguson, with Mark Chater: Foreword by Rowan Williams and Scotland Saint Andrew Press, 2006, £8.99

More recently still, Dr Cecelia Clegg, BD, MSc, PhD has been appointed and taken Also recently appointed and due to up appointment as Lecturer in Practical take up appointment in September as Theology and Director of the Centre for Professor of and Practical Theology and Public Issues (CTPI). She Theology is Professor Oliver O’Donovan, is not new to us, having been with us, who has been since 1982 Regius Professor successively as Acting Associate Director of Moral and Pastoral Theology and of CTPI, when Dr was Canon of Christ Church at the University Moderator of the General Assembly of of Oxford. This well known theologian the Church of Scotland, and as its Acting will also be more fully introduced in Director since Professor Storrar left to the next issue. direct the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton. This she has combined with continuing work in the Irish School of NATIONAL AWARD FOR HISTORY Ecumenics in Trinity College Dublin, TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION An alumnus of the 1960s, Ron Ferguson specialising in Reconciliation. Educated listens to the mature wisdom of a lecturer in theology and psychological of the 1960s, Roland Walls, the ‘prophetic, counselling, she has a particular focus wise, mischievous and deeply loved on: Faith Communities and Civil Society; former priest-in-charge of the famed Religion and Conflict; and Conflict Rosslyn Chapel’, who founded the Transformation. Scotland is the land of Community of the Trasfiguration there her birth. She will be introduced more and has been described as ‘a man who fully in the next issue. has inspired great Church leaders and the down-at-heel’. He has described himself as a ‘Nicene radical’. For the We note with interest that on the President of Princeton Theological New College crest the Hebrew is from Seminary, Professor , Proverbs 8:30 and the Greek from he is ‘one of the two or three strongest John 1:14. Christian influences on me’. It is specially pleasing to be able to report in this historically oriented issue THE 2006 ALUMNI LECTURE A sisterly salute to Trinity College, that Dr Jane Dawson and Dr Kirsty Glasgow, which is 150 years old this Murray, as representing the School’s year and is within a University that is E-Learning Team, have been awarded On the opening day of the new session, 555 years old. this prestigious award, presented jointly Thursday 14 September 2006 at 11.30 am by seven major bodies: the Higher (with coffee from 11.00 am) this year’s Education Academy, Royal Historical Alumni Lecture will be given by our Society, Institute of Historical Research, recent honorary graduate, and not so Historical Association, History UK[HE}, recent Associate Director of CTPI, Social History Society and Economic Dr Alison Elliot OBE. Having recently History Society. Kirsty Murray received become the first woman to be Moderator the certificate at the History in Higher of the General Assembly of the Church of Education Conference in Lady Margaret Scotland, she has now become the first Hall, Oxford. holder of the Institute of Contemporary As if Jane Dawson’s winning of Scotland’s Award for Services to Religion. the Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Her lecture will be entitled ‘In Search of last summer were not enough! Wisdom: in University, Church and Over the past six years our team Places in Between’. has pioneered E-teaching and E-learning. Its methods, initially developed for ecclesiastical history, are readily adapted to a wide variety of subjects. Thomas Wode's Psalter EUL Special Collections

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