This volume, written by a former minister of the Free
North in Inverness, who was also a professor twice in the Free Church College, and
also a Principal there, was first published by Knox Press in 1943. Whether the
timing of its initial publication had anything to do with the centenary of the
Disruption I cannot say, although its contents would have been suitable
reflections at such a time because the author deals with major historical
events and figures from Scottish church history as well as with their
theological opinions.
The contents of the book were first delivered as a set of
lectures given by the author in Westminster Theological Seminary in
Philadelphia in April, 1939. It says something for the prestige with which the
Free Church College was held at that time because Westminster itself had only
commenced ten years earlier and was prepared to take a guest lecturer from
across the Atlantic. We can also note that in the year in which the Second
World War would later commence, after years of turmoil in Europe and only two
decades after the First World War ended, it was thought appropriate to arrange
a series of lectures considering how the Reformed faith was introduced,
developed, attacked and survived in Scotland.
The volume also has an appendix containing the inclusion
of the lecture Macleod delivered when he was appointed Principal of the Free
Church College in 1929. In the lecture, we have what could be described as
Macleod’s vision for the College as it prepared students to serve Christ in a
fast-changing world.
The author admits that his study does not fall into the
category of an academic work. Nevertheless, it was common knowledge that he was
an academic who knew his subject very well, and much better than most, and who
also had the ability to describe in a succinct manner the fruits of his own
investigations. After all, many readers don’t wish to know how a person
discovered what he knows; instead they want to know what he has discovered, and
that could be said about sermons as well.
Many of the persons mentioned by the author used to be
household names in Scottish Christian homes and their writings, even when on
deeper doctrinal matters, were regarded highly. Today, most of them are not so
well-known, and what they wrote has been forgotten to a large extent. So this
volume is a useful introduction to the many men who contributed to Reformed Theology
in Scotland and what their opinions were.
The author’s description follows a sequential plan,
looking at different periods in consecutive order, from the time of the
Reformation along to the close of the nineteenth century. This method reminds
us that changes, good and bad, occur in the flow of history and shows that
Reformed theology is very relevant in whatever period of time and whatever
place it finds itself. The story concludes at a time when much that was bad was
happening in the church in Scotland as the different denominations departed
from the Reformed Faith.
The survey of Scottish Theology stops at the close of the
nineteenth century. Perhaps it would have been appropriate for a competent
person to add a chapter outlining what has happened theologically in the
Reformed church in Scotland since then. Nevertheless, this volume is very
interesting as it informs us of our theological heritage, for which we are
grateful to God. And as has often been pointed out, those who don’t know what
happened in the past merely repeat it, and we all need help to ensure that we
don’t repeat the theological errors of long ago.
This review appeared in the December 2015 issue of the Record of the
Free Church of Scotland.
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