The Making of an Evangelical

Abstract

The book’s first chapter considers Isaac Nelson’s family background and early religious influences – including his membership of Henry Cooke’s May Street Presbyterian Church. It considers Nelson’s time as a student and teacher at the Belfast Academical Institution. The chapter also analyses the role that Nelson played in the Inquiry into the teaching of Moral Philosophy with respect to the alleged scepticism of Professor John Ferrie, which reveals Nelson’s adherence to Scottish Common Sense Philosophy. The chapter then considers Nelson’s first pastorate at First Comber Presbyterian Church, and his return to Belfast as the minister of Donegall Street Presbyterian Church. This opening chapter is essential to establishing Nelson’s credentials as an emerging talent within the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, whose cause he defended in opposition to Unitarians and Episcopalians. This chapter, moreover, demonstrates his early commitment to evangelical activism through support for missions and philanthropy. His disputes with leading Presbyterians over the teaching of Greek and the Magee bequest reveals his independence of thought. Nelson’s opposition, while he was moderator of the Belfast Presbytery, to Hugh Hanna’s role in provoking sectarian violence in Belfast during the riots of 1857 reveals his opposition to crude forms of no-popery