Scottish Presbyterian Research Articles

‘Its own little share of service to the national cause’: The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland's Chaplains in the First World War

For Europe, the First World War was probably the single most shattering event of the twentieth century and indeed it seems fair to say that '[t]he world has lived in the shadow of the Great War ever since.' 2 As well as killing millions of men and doing irreparable damage to the bodies and minds of countless others, the Great War destroyed a great many of the assumptions on which pre-war hope and optimism were based. Few countries felt a greater impact than Scotland; Scots joined the British army with great enthusiasm, 3 and it has been estimated that over one quarter of all the Scots who fought were killed, with a higher percentage of Scots being killed in action than any other country. 4 The impact on non-combatants can only be guessed at. There had been nothing to prepare anyone for the catastrophic carnage of the War and the Scottish Presbyterian churches struggled to come to terms with the implications of all this bloodshed; ultimately they saw themselves being severely damaged by the Great War, with both the power and the weight of the churches being acutely undermined. 5 One of the ways in which a church could respond, of course, was by providing chaplains, and the larger churches in Scotland certainly did that; about 200 Church of Scotland ministers volunteered for that undertaking in the first few months of the War. 6 The roll of divinity students at the United Free Church's seminary at New College in Edinburgh was 'reduced to a mere fraction of its pre-war strength' by men volunteering for the war effort, and as early as October 1914, the Senate Minutes recorded that two of their ex-students were already assisting chaplains in military camps. 7 This article, however, will explore the chaplaincy endeavour of one of the smallest Scottish Presbyterian churches: the predominantly highland Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. Although a tiny church, with only between fifteen and twenty ministers in Scotland during the War years, its efforts at making 'its own little share of service to the national cause' 9 were impressive, and its experience complex and at times ambiguous is an illuminating one. Free Presbyterian ministers acted as military chaplains both officially and unofficially, and there are probably few denominations that could claim such a level of involvement thirteen out of the seventeen Free Presbyterian ministers listed in 1917, 76 per cent, were involved in preaching to servicemen based in southern England, while two served as official chaplains. It should perhaps be pointed out here then that the vast bulk of the Free Presbyterian commitment was in the 'unofficial' capacity. These 'unofficial' chaplains tended to travel down to England and stay close to military bases for a period of around two months; while not a year-round obligation by any individual, it

Scottish Missionaries and the Governance of the New Hebrides

Perhaps in no part of the world have missionaries been more heav ily involved in matters of civil governance than in the South Pacific. Particularly enterprising in this respect were the seven Scotsmen whose efforts to convert the inhabitants of certain islands in that group known as the New Hebrides were supported by the Scottish Presbyte rian churches during the period from 1852 to 1933. They influenced significandy the evolution and operation of both the indigenous polit ical system and the regime that Europeans instituted there. Seeking to promote the welfare of the islanders as well as to further their own interests, they developed relationships with Melanesian chiefs and with British officials that were multi-faceted and that ranged from collabo ration to confrontation. They played a role in the process of govern ment that often enabled them to secure the results they sought, but sometimes they were frustrated and occasionally they suffered from the risks entailed in performing functions that were not of a religious nature.

Who fears to speak of politics? John Kells Ingram and hypothetical nationalism

John Kells Ingram was born in County Donegal in 1823. His ancestry was Scottish Presbyterian, but his grandparents had converted to Anglicanism. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, the most prestigious academic institution in nineteenth-century Ireland. In a brilliant academic career spanning over fifty years he proceeded to occupy a succession of chairs at the college. His published work included an important History of political economy (1888), and he delivered a significant presidential address to the economics and statistics section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1878). Ingram influenced, and was respected by, many contemporary social and economic thinkers in the British Isles and elsewhere. In an obituary one of Ingram’s friends exaggerated only slightly in describing him as ‘probably the best educated man in the world’. Yet contemporary perspectives on Ingram’s career were warped by one act of his youth which was to create a curious disjunction in his life. In 1843, when only nineteen years old, Ingram was a sympathiser with the nationalist Young Ireland movement. One night, stirred by the lack of regard shown for the Irish rebels of 1798 by the contemporary O’Connellite nationalist movement, he wrote a poem entitled ‘The memory of the dead’, eulogising these ‘patriots’. Apparently without much thought, Ingram submitted the poem anonymously to the Nation newspaper. It appeared in print on 1 April 1843 and, better known by its first line, ‘Who fears to speak of ’Ninety-Eight?’, became a popular Irish nationalist anthem.

Book Review: Mission to Educate: A History of the Educational Work of the Scottish Presbyterian Mission in East Nigeria, 1846–1960

Book Review: Mission to Educate: A History of the Educational Work of the Scottish Presbyterian Mission in East Nigeria, 1846–1960

William H. Taylor, Mission to Educate. A History of the Educational Work of the Scottish Presbyterian Mission in East Nigeria, 1846-1960 (Studies of Religion in Africa XVII), E.J. Brill, Leiden / New York / Köln 1996, 281 pgs

William H. Taylor, Mission to Educate. A History of the Educational Work of the Scottish Presbyterian Mission in East Nigeria, 1846-1960 (Studies of Religion in Africa XVII), E.J. Brill, Leiden / New York / Köln 1996, 281 pgs

Mission to Educate. A History of the Educational Work of the Scottish Presbyterian Mission in East Nigeria 1846-1960

Mission to Educate. A History of the Educational Work of the Scottish Presbyterian Mission in East Nigeria 1846-1960

Effects of Ill Health on the Service of Scottish Presbyterian Missionaries 1867-1929.

The experience of Scottish Presbyterian missionaries serving overseas between 1867 and 1929 was analyzed. Data were compiled during a 4-year postgraduate research program from such sources as the General Assembly Reports of the Foreign Mission Committees of the Church of Scotland, numerous missionary magazines, school records, medical directories, and newspaper and medical journal obituaries. Data show that the year of appointment, the mission station and continent location, and medical knowledge were all influencing factors on the length of missionary service, early retirement on account of ill health, death in service, and age at death. This method of comparative, historical study may have further useful applications in looking at the health experience of other groups who lived and worked abroad at the turn of the century, such as civil servants, the military, or other comparable missionary groups.

‘A Solemn Purification by Fire’: Responses to the Great War in the Scottish Presbyterian Churches, 1914–19

During the Great War, leaders in the two major Presbyterian Churches in Scotland – the established Church of Scotland and the United Free Church – struggled to provide moral and spiritual leadership to the Scottish people. As National Churches which together claimed the adherence of the large majority of the Scottish people, the two Churches were seen as responsible for interpreting the meaning of the war and defining war aims, as well as for offering consolation to the suffering and the bereaved. At the beginning of the war, leaders of the two Churches had been confident of their ability to fulfil these national responsibilities. Both Churches had experienced a flowering of theological and intellectual creativity during the forty years before the war, and their colleges and theologians had exercised profound influence on the Reformed tradition throughout the world. Both had been active in the ‘social gospel’ movement, with their leaders advancing bold criticisms of the social order. The two Churches, moreover, had been moving toward ecclesiastical union when the war began, a union which their leaders hoped would restore the spiritual and moral authority of the Church in a covenanted nation.

‘A Victory for God’: The Scottish Presbyterian Churches and the General Strike of 1926

During the final months of the First World War, the General Assemblies of the two major Presbyterian Churches in Scotland - the established Church of Scotland and the voluntary United Free Church - committed themselves to work for the thorough re- construction of Scottish society. Church leaders promised to work for a new Christian commonwealth, ending the social divisions and class hatred that had plagued pre-war Scottish industrial society. Bound together through the shared sacrifice of the war, the Scottish people would be brought back to the social teachings of Christianity and strive together to realise the Kingdom of God. The Churches would end their deference to the laws of nineteenth-century political economy, with their emphasis on individualism, self-interest and competition, and embrace new impera- tives of collective responsibility and co-operation. Along with the healing of social divisions, church leaders also pledged to end the ecclesiastical divisions in Scottish Presbyterianism. The final months of the war brought a revival of the pre-war movement to unite the Church of Scotland and the United Free Church into a single National Church, and Scottish ecclesiastical leaders held forth to a weary nation the vision of a united National Church leading a covenanted Christian commonwealth in pursuit of social justice and harmony.

'Outside the Covenant': The Scottish Presbyterian Churches and Irish Immigration, 1922-1938

'Outside the Covenant': The Scottish Presbyterian Churches and Irish Immigration, 1922-1938

Attitudes Towards Homosexuality in the Seventeenth-Century New England Colonies

The first play I attended at my all-boys secondary school was Marlowe's Dr Faustus. The lower boys crammed in the gallery were not wholly engaged by grandiloquent Elizabethan cadences, nor by the laboriously unfolding plot. What stopped the whispering and fidgeting and then brought the house down was the scene in which Faustus, as reward for selling his soul, is allowed to kiss the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen of Troy. In this production the hell-bent Doctor had to make do with the prettiest boy in the school. Wild whoops, mating calls, indecent suggestions for further action rained down from the gallery. At the curtain call Helen again stole the show. Next morning, the Headmaster, a Scottish Presbyterian whose zeal for the Lord was second only to his zeal for rugby football, rebuked the school for the shameful scenes and prescribed a three-mile run to cool our ardour.

The Career of John Abernethy (1680–1740) Father of Nonsubscription in Ireland and Defender of Religious Liberty

The British theological world was stirred at the beginning of the eighteenth century by what the learned and staunchly orthodox Presbyterian historian James Seaton Reid has called “latitudinarian notions on the inferiority of dogmatic belief and the nature of religious liberty.” In the 1690s John Locke had published his Reasonableness of Christianity and Letters on Toleration, followed by John Toland's Christianity Not Mysterious. In 1710 “Honest Will” Whitson, Sir Isaac Newton's successor as Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, was expelled from the University for embracing Arian views. His departure was accompanied by rumors—long since substantiated—about his great predecessor's heterodox theology. Traditional theologians were shocked next by the appearance of Dr. Samuel Clark's Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity which resulted in the author's arraignment before Convocation of the Church of England in 1714. The very same year John Simson, Professor of Divinity in the University of Glasgow, was first tried before the General Assembly of the Scottish Presbyterian Church for teaching Arian and Pelagian errors. In 1729, after three more trials, Simson was suspended from his professorship for denying the numerical oneness of the Trinity. Fierce doctrinal contentions also began to occupy English Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Baptists, erupting during the famous Salters’ Hall meeting early in 1719.

The Presbyterian Eductional Impact in Eastern Nigeria

Caricatures of abound, ranging from those drawn by hagiographic expatriate providers to those of antagonistic recipients. My researches' were undertaken from a conviction that truth may lie somewhere between such extremes and that a thorough examination of one specific mission's work could provide evidence for being suspicious of sweeping generalisations. The case-study selected was Scottish Presbyterian to Nigeria. In Nigeria, Azikiwe frequently attacked mission education for offering inferior curricula.2 Writing about Protestantism in general, Ayandele3 concluded that it has a fanatical religious concept of schools, without defining fanatical or offering descriptive supporting detail. Olutola's hysteria4 is unashamedly onesided, and Nair5 considered missionary intervention ... totally indefensible, devoting only three pages to and even then placing word in inverted commas. Are such judgements just or mere parodies? Mission apologists probably sincerely believed they were setting out factually correct records, though their selection and interpretation of material often blatantly preached a panegyric. Dennis6 echoed widely held contemporary beliefs about incontestable superiority of Christianity as a basis for moral and social regeneration of heathen Africa, seeing it as the supreme force in ... elevation of human race. This view persisted in field in general and some, like Ghana's Dolvo7, claim it remains today. Anene8 concluded that Scottish at Old Calabar on Cross river considered its schools to be greatest instrument it

Some late nineteenth-century Scottish travellers in Africa

SynopsisIn the late eighteenth century the Scottish Highlands were attractive to travellers eager to test themselves against climatic, dietetic and other deprivations. From the early nineteenth century, the Scots themselves became more adventurous and Scottish medical men, notably Mungo Park and David Livingstone, played a prominent part in the exploration of Africa. In the 1860s Livingstone's prolonged travels through the Dark Continent and his belief that he had conquered malarial fever led to the dispatch of the first Christian Mission to the Zambesi region, a venture which failed largely as a result of the missionaries' ignorance of hygiene and medicine.The establishment of the European presence in British Central Africa (now Malawi) was accomplished by representatives of the Scottish Presbyterian Churches in the 1870s. This paper examines some of the problems encountered during the ensuing half century. Specific themes include the impact of developments in transport systems; housing and sanitation; hints on suitable clothing; the presence of trained medical personnel in both Mission and Government and their role in the study of tropical disease; use and abuse of alcohol.

George McCall Theal and Lovedale

South Africa's most prolific and influential historian still awaits a biographer. Such brief biographical sketches of his life as do exist say little about his career before he began work in the Cape archives in the late 1870s. Given the views he espoused in his later writings, it is at first surprising to find that he spent over five years at the Lovedale Seminary outside Alice in the eastern cape working closely with missionaries and Africans. An examination of this period of his life throws light on his historiographical career as a whole and reveals new complexities in his character.In the early 1870s Lovedale was the most influential institution of its kind in South Africa. A non-sectarian, non-denominational Christian school and a theological seminary, it had been founded by Scottish Presbyterian missionaries in 1841. It was rejuvenated under the leadership of Dr. James Stewart--missionary, medical doctor, explorer--who came to it as teacher in 1867 and took over as its second principal in 1870. Stewart emphasized the importance of “industrial” activities, including printing and bookbinding, and greatly enlarged Lovedale's intake of students. Drawing Africans not only from the eastern Cape but increasingly also from farther afield, the school grew from 92 pupils in 1870 to 336 in 1873 and 460 in 1876.In mid-1872 Stewart needed someone who could both teach and supervise the printing works. George McCall Theal met these requirements. He had taught at a small elementary school at Knysna in the late 1850s, then from 1867 in the public undenominational school at King William's Town, later to be known as Dale College.

CAT among the kiwis.

I suppose beginnings were recognisable in medicine and medical education as long ago as 1875, when a poor frustrated Coughtrey, appointed first professor of anatomy and physiology and trying to establish a medical school in University of Otago, was battling with university council. In despair of his non-progress, in a relationship that was always fragile, he wrote that if establishment of a medical school in Dunedin were prosecuted with expedition then Canterbury would forestall Otago. At about same time dissolution of Provincial Government in New Zealand yielded to formation of Central Colonial Government. Of many political permutations and gyrations that provincialists in Otago examined to try to preserve its affluence for themselves, desperation allowed proposal of an alliance with province of Canterbury. This was archly rebuffed by latter, provincial governments were abolished, and New Zealand became one nation. Although so in government, it has been so in spirit, and divisive parochialism, engendered of fierce local pride that persists, was recognised by minister when he reflected that his decisions of February would not please parochial areas. Nowhere are manifestations stronger than between Otago (often allied with Southland, for they are of common stock) and Canterbury, immediately to their north in South Island. Just how much these rivalries stem from sectarian origins of English Anglican Christcburch and Scottish Presbyterian Dunedin, where Anglicans used to be overtly referred to as the little enemy in community, is difficult to say?probably no greater than Plaid Cymru and Scottish Nationalist Party influences in Britain today, I suppose. The fierce calvinistic hold of Presbyterians on Dunedin began to break when gold was found in avaricious quantities in early 1860s, attracting a diluting influx of fortune seekers. In that decade city's population multiplied sixfold, Dunedin became business hub of New Zealand, and into this affluent town and busy port medical school was born in 1875. Like others before it, however, gold boom was short lived, rich as it may have been. Indeed, 1880s saw a severe economic depression in New Zealand. The twentieth century ushered in quietening of south. The centre of population moved, and today city of Christchurch on Canterbury plain has twice population of Dunedin. For specialist services Canterbury hospital authority drains a population over half as great again as that of Otago authority. Despite these changes, home medical school of preclinical and clinical

The Scottish Franchise: Lobbying during the Cromwellian Protectorate

Scholars whose speciality is Scottish church history have long been aware that in 1657 members of two factions of the Scottish Presbyterian church came to London to debate before the Lord Protector the method of selecting ministers for Scottish parishes, but these historians have overlooked some of the Scots' other activities. A close look at parliamentary happenings reveals that these men, Resolutioners and Remonstrants, were also deeply involved in secular politics. Their disagreements were not confined to church matters, for during their stay these groups lobbied vigorously both in parliament and in the council of state, taking opposing positions as to what should be the qualifications for voting in Scotland. In this country, most Scots had been disenfranchised since the conclusion of the Civil War and their defeat at the hands of Cromwell's soldiers. The problem to be resolved was which and how many past adherents of the Stuart cause in Scotland should now be allowed to vote and hold office.

A Theory of Millennialism: The Irvingite Movement as an Illustration

The early I830S was a period in which a number of millennial movements arose in Britain.1 One of the most interesting occurred under the leadership of a Scottish Presbyterian minister named Edward Irving. Its interest lies in the fact that its support came mainly from the middle class, and that its followers included a number of well-established and influential members of English society. In later years, as the movement became an established millennial sect distinct, that is, from a millennial movement2 it became known as the Catholic Apostolic Church, but in its earlier, formative years (the years with which I am concerned), it was popularly known as the Irvingite movement. In this paper I want to analyse this movement's formation using an explicit theoretical framework that, hopefully, will also prove useful in analysing the formation of other millennial movements. The need for such a framework is clear. In recent years there has been a remarkable growth in the numbers of articles and monographs published about these movements. Yet despite this, a developed comparative analysis is still lacking. The foundations laid by Talmon3 and Wilson4, have not been built upon, for, with the exception of a number of studies concerned solely with the 'cargo cults' of Melanesia,5 most attempts at comparative analysis lack any consistent theoretical infrastructure. One possible reason for this is that there are nearly as many explanatory theories as there are individual movements analysed.6 As far as I am aware, no-one has attempted to generalize from these numerous approaches, or to combine them into a theoretical framework by means of which diffierent movements could be explained. But without such an explicit framework our understanding of the phenomena is surely limited. Equally such a framework is necessary if the study of millennialism is to increase our knowledge of other social processes. In the first part of this paper I have set out briefly the theoretical framework I am going to use in the hope that not only will this make

Francesco Modon: Colporteur and Evangelist at Rome, 1870

Nineteenth century liberals constantly expressed dissatisfaction that non-Catholic worship was banned in Rome by the pontiffs. Traditionally, diplomats such as Prussians, Americans, and Russians, were allowed chapels of choice for themselves and their nationals, usually in legations or in licensed buildings outside the city gates. The fact that Pope Pius IX had removed to extra-mural quarters two Scottish Presbyterian churches and the false rumor that he threatened the American place of worship, played a role in causing the United States to cut off as of June 30, 1867, funds for its minister to the Vatican. A discreet Protestant cemetery containing the tombs of Shelley, Keats, and Alexander von Humboldt, cheek by jowl against the walls of Rome near the Porta San Paolo, is reminder that dissenters were not permitted to give scandal to the faithful by ostentatious religious ceremonies. The situation changed abruptly once the Patrimony of Saint Peter became part of Italy.

Francesco Modon: Colporteur and Evangelist at Rome, 1870

Nineteenth century liberals constantly expressed dissatisfaction that non-Catholic worship was banned in Rome by the pontiffs. Traditionally, diplomats such as Prussians, Americans, and Russians, were allowed chapels of choice for themselves and their nationals, usually in legations or in licensed buildings outside the city gates. The fact that Pope Pius IX had removed to extra-mural quarters two Scottish Presbyterian churches and the false rumor that he threatened the American place of worship, played a role in causing the United States to cut off as of June 30, 1867, funds for its minister to the Vatican. A discreet Protestant cemetery containing the tombs of Shelley, Keats, and Alexander von Humboldt, cheek by jowl against the walls of Rome near the Porta San Paolo, is reminder that dissenters were not permitted to give scandal to the faithful by ostentatious religious ceremonies. The situation changed abruptly once the Patrimony of Saint Peter became part of Italy.