From the individual, to the relational and communal: the Kirk’s influence on three Scottish thinkers: Ronald Fairbairn, John Macmurray and Ian Suttie

Abstract

ABSTRACTThere has been growing interest in recent years around Scottish intellectual history, especially those ideas associated with the Scottish Enlightenment. There has been less attention given to the possible influence of the established church, the Church of Scotland, in this history. Indeed, ‘the Kirk’, when it is mentioned, can be assumed to have imposed a narrow and repressive influence on Scottish life and culture. This article seeks to introduce some nuance to this view. It takes as its starting point, the fact that significant Scottish thinkers have grown up in and have been deeply influenced by their religious upbringings. It begins to explore some of the similarities in the thinking of three Scottish thinkers, the psychoanalyst Ronald Fairbairn, the philosopher John Macmurray and the psychotherapist Ian Suttie, whose lives were contemporaneous. Their ideas all evince a view of humankind, perhaps drawing on their religious beliefs, not as disparate individuals but as members of a community with intentions to carry out good acts.