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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2009
This essay could have been entitled„ ‘A Methodist, A Presbyterian and a Congregationalist’; ‘An Arminian, A Calvinist and a Liberal’; or ‘A Systematiser, An Apologist and a Prophet’. For the men who concern us are William Burt Pope (1822–1903), Robert Watts (1820–95) and Andrew Martin Fairbairn (1838–1912). They were all highly respected by their denominations in their day, and each was entrusted with the task of ministerial training. Watts was Professor of Theology at the Presbyterian College, Belfast from 1866–95; Pope was Theological Tutor at Didsbury Methodist College from 1867–86, when ill-health forced his resignation; and Fairbairn, who left Scotland and the Evangelical Union in 1877 to become Principal of Airedale Independent College was in 1886 installed as the first Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford. All but forgotten by their own, an investigation of their work will nevertheless reward us with a fascinating glimpse of the influences at work upon nineteenth-century theology; it will throw into relief their diverse and temperamentally different reactions which are the more interesting because of their relative closeness as nonconformists; and it may serve to remind us that some of the philosophico-theological issues which beset contemporary theology have their roots, if not their final solutions, in the period represented by our triumvirate.
1 For Watts see DNB, and Allen, Robert, The Presbyterian College Belfast, 1853–1953 (Belfast, 1954), passimGoogle Scholar. For Pope see DNB 1901–11; Moss, R. Waddy, W. B. Pope, D.D., Theologian and Saint (London: Robert Culley, [1909])Google Scholar; Wright, Charles J., ‘Theology and Theological Tutors at Didsbury during a Hundred Years’, in Didsbury College Centenary, 1842–1942, (eds.) Brash, W. Bardsley and Wright, C.J. (London: Epworth, 1942), pp. 51–57Google Scholar; Brash, W. Bardsley, The Story of our Colleges, 1835–1935 (London: Epworth, 1935), pp. 61–62Google Scholar. For Fairbairn see DNB 1912–21; Selbie, W. B., The Life of Andrew Martin Fairbairn (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1914)Google Scholar; Franks, Robert S., ‘The Theology of Andrew Martin Fairbairn’, Congregational Historical Society Transactions, XIII, 1937–1939, pp. 140–150Google Scholar.
2 For a more detailed treatment of these themes see Sell, A. P. F., Theology in Turmoil (Worthing: Henry Walter and Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, forthcoming)Google Scholar.
3 For an account of the various phases of the Calvinist-Arminian debate see Sell, A. P. F., The Great Debate: Calvinism, Arminianism and Salvation (Worthing: Henry Walter, 1982Google Scholar; Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983).
4 Allan, R., quoting The Witness, 5.7.1878, op cit., p. 179Google Scholar. cf. Hodge, A. A., The Life of Charles Hodge (New York, 1880), pp. 488–490Google Scholar. Watts elsewhere refers to Hodge as ‘my venerated teacher’. See his The Rule of Faith and the Doctrine of Inspiration (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1885), p. xivGoogle Scholar.
5 Watts, R., The Rule of Faith, p. 5Google Scholar.
6 ibid., pp. 6–7.
7 ibid., p. 9.
8 ibid., p. 14.
9 Watts, R., The New Apologetic; or, The Downgrade in Criticism, Theology, and Science (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1890), p. 212Google Scholar.
10 Fairbairn, A. M., Catholicism, Roman and Anglican (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2nd edn., 1899), p. 388Google Scholar; in a review of Balfour, A. J., The Foundations of Belief (London: Longmans, 1894)Google Scholar.
11 Fairbairn, A. M., The Philosophy of the Christian Religion (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 5th edn., 1907), pp. 18–19Google Scholar; cf. PP. 4–5.
12 Fairbairn, A. M., The Place of Christ in Modern Theology (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 6th edn., 1894), pp. 386–387Google Scholar.
13 Fairbairn, A. M., Catholicism, pp. 56–57Google Scholar; cf. his The City of God (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 8th edn., 1903), pp. 19–20Google Scholar.
14 ibid., p. 58.
15 Pope, W. B., The Inward Witness and Other Discourses (London: Woolmer, 1885), pp. 3–4Google Scholar: cf. his A Compendium of Christian Theology (London: Wesleyan Conference Office, 2nd edn., 1879), I, pp. 10–12Google Scholar.
16 Pope, W. B., ‘God Glorified in His Works and Word’ (1873), in The Abiding Word (London: Wesleyan Conference Office, n.d.), pp. 6–7Google Scholar.
17 Pope, W. B., Compendium, I, p. 234Google Scholar.
18 ibid., p. 236; cf. p. 155.
19 ibid., p. 50.
20 See Calvin, Institute, I, vi–viii. The point at issue here is reflected in the ongoing debate between those who inherit the Butler-type of apologetics as processed by Hodge, Watts and Warfield, and such Christian presuppositionalists as Cornelius Van Til, who follow in the wake of Abraham Kuyper. See e.g. Jerusalem and Athens, (ed.) Geehan, E. R.Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1971)Google Scholar.
21 Quoted by Selbie, W. B., op. at., p. 77Google Scholar.
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25 Fairbairn, A. M., The City of God, p. 17Google Scholar; cf. pp. 59, 62. For some Christian reactions to, and uses of, the evolutionary theme see Sell, A. P. F., ‘Evolution: theory and theme’, Faith and Thought (CIV, 1977/1978), pp. 202–220Google Scholar.
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27 ibid., p. 321.
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29 Pope, W. B., Compendium, I, p. 405Google Scholar.
30 ibid. But for the way in which science itself has subsequently deprived Christian apologists of the argument from lack of time as here deployed by Pope see Jaki, Stanley L., Angels, Apes, and Men (La Salle, Illinois: Sherwood Sugden, 1983), ch. III.Google Scholar
31 Fairbairn, A. M., Philosophy of Religion, p. 40Google Scholar.
32 ibid., P. 55.
33 ibid., p. 58; cf. The City of God, p. 56.
34 ibid., p. 60.
35 Fairbairn, A. M., Studies in Religion and Theology (New York: Macmillan, 1910), p. 92Google Scholar.
36 Fairbairn, A. M., ‘Mr. Herbert Spencer's Philosophy and the Philosophy of Religion’, The Contemporary Review XL, July-December 1881, p. 217Google Scholar.
37 Fairbairn, A. M., ‘Herbert Spencer’, The Contemporary Review LXXXV, Jan.-June 1904, p. 11Google Scholar.
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39 ibid., p. 9. cf. Fairbairn, A. M., The City of God, pp. 18–19Google Scholar.
40 ibid., p. 31.
41 Pope, W. B., ‘Jesus Anathema or Jesus Lord. A Discourse … on t h e occasion of the Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science’, 1883, p. 21Google Scholar; bound within The Abiding Word.
42 Fairbairn, A. M., The City of God, p. 44Google Scholar.
43 ibid., p. 68.
44 ibid., p. 38.
45 Neither was Watts. See The Rule of Faith, pp. 36–75.
46 Fairbairn, A. M., Catholicism, p. 93Google Scholar; cf. Place of Christ, Bk. 1 chap. 1.
47 ibid., p. 137.
48 ibid., pp. 208–9; cf. Place of Christ, p. 204.
49 W. B. Selbie, op. cit., p. 207; cf. Ward, Wilfred, The Life of John Henry Cardinal Newman (London: Longmans, 1913), p. 509Google Scholar.
50 Fairbairn, A. M., ‘James Martineau’, The Contemporary Review LXXXIII, Jan.-June 1903. P.9Google Scholar.
51 ibid.
52 Fairbairn, A. M., Place of Christ, pp. 414–417Google Scholar.
53 Fairbairn, A. M., Religion in History and in the Life of Today (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1894), p. 9Google Scholar.
54 Fairbairn, A. M., Place of Christ, p. 423Google Scholar. In his ethical emphasis Fairbairn is at times reminiscent of Ritschl. But he was too much of an undogmatic Hegelian — and hence too much in sympathy with efforts of speculative construction to espouse Ritschlianism. See W. B. Selbie, op. cit., pp. 185, 240.
55 Fairbairn, A. M., Religion in History, p. 23Google Scholar.
56 Fairbairn, A. M., Catholicism, p. 335Google Scholar. For his part Tillich confessed his liking for the days of Victorian idealism. See The Theology of Paul Tillich, eds. Kegley, C. W. and Bretall, R. W. (New York: Macmillan, 1964), p. 3Google Scholar.
57 Fairbairn, A. M., The City of God, p. 332Google Scholar. It is noteworthy that, as Prof. Clemen of Halle pointed out, Fairbairn utilises the concept of the Kingdom of God ethically, but not eschatologically, in his The Place of Christ. See W. B. Selbie, op. cit., p. 231. In this he was like his older contemporary, Ritschl, to whom he never refers.
58 Fairbairn, A. M., ‘Experience in Theology: A Chapter of Autobiography’, The Contemporary Review XCI, Jan.-June 1907, p. 569Google Scholar.
59 Fairbairn, A. M., Philosophy of Religion, p. 200Google Scholar.
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61 Fairbairn, A. M., Religion in History, p. 119Google Scholar.
62 Fairbairn, A. M., Studies in the Life of Christ (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 11th edn., 1899), p. 40Google Scholar.
63 Fairbairn, A. M., Proc. ICC., II, p. 116Google Scholar.
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66 Fairbairn, A. M., Catholicism, p. 17Google Scholar; cf. Philosophy of Religion, p. 240.
67 Fairbairn, A. M., The City of God, p. 103Google Scholar.
68 Fairbairn, A. M., Philosophy of Religion, p. xGoogle Scholar.
69 Watts, R., The New Apologetic, p. 195Google Scholar.
70 ibid., pp. 212–13; cf. his view of a fundamental error of Rome: ‘This assertion of the dependence of the Scriptures for their authority upon the testimony of the Church is a fundamental error of the Papacy.’ See his The Rule of Faith and the Doctrine of Inspiration, p. 258; cf. chaps. II and III.
71 Killen, W. D., Memoir of John Edgar, D.D., LL.D. (Belfast, 1867), p. 21Google Scholar.
72 Quoted by R. Allen, op. cit., p. 180.
73 It is interesting to note that the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland (1893) sent ordinands to Belfast to study under Watts (despite his advocacy of the use of instrumental music in church services), though after his death, at their first Synod (Inverness, 1896), they resolved to terminate this arrangement. Other factors which influenced their decision were the publication by the Irish Presbyterian Church of a hymnal, and the ‘advanced’ views of Thomas Walker (1862–1929), Professor of Hebrew (1888–1929) at the College. See R. Allen, op. cit., p. 202. On the general issue see Sell, A. P. F., ‘The rise and reception of modern biblical criticism: a retrospect’, Evangelical Quarterly LII, 1980, pp. 132–148Google Scholar.
74 Watts, R., The Rule of Faith, pp. ix, xiii–xiv.Google Scholar
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76 ibid., p. 48.
77 ibid., p. 45.
78 Watts, R., The Rule of Faith, pp. 90–92Google Scholar.
79 Watts, R., The New Apologetic, p. xviiGoogle Scholar.
80 Watts, R., The Newer Criticism and the Analogy of the Faith (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1881), pp. 270–271Google Scholar.
81 ibid., p. 316.
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83 The Expositor, 4th series, III, 1891, pp. 319–20.
84 R. Allen, op. cit., quoting The Witness, 15.5.1891. cf. The New Apologetic, p. xvii: ‘A Rationalistic Criticism, however timid at first, is now bold enough to lift its voice in the pulpits and theological halls of Churches once eminent for their reverence for the Sacred Scriptures as the Word of God.’ Similar complaints have been made in our own time against the then Bishop of Woolwich, for his Honest to God (London: SCM 1963); and against the authors of The Myth of God Incarnate (London: SCM 1977).
85 The London Quarterly LVII, Apr.-July 1882, p. 211.
86 Pope, W. B., Sermons, Addresses and Charges, p. 61Google Scholar.
87 Pope, W. B., The Inward Witness, pp. 16–17Google Scholar.
88 Pope, W. B., The Abiding Word, pp. 7–8Google Scholar. Watts disarmingly acknowledged the a priori character of his argument for biblical inerrancy. See his The Rule of Faith, p. 112. Elsewhere, by a tu quoque, he accuses the anti-verbal inspirationists of arguing in an equally a priori manner; and he contends that their assumption that a divine revelation may contain errors and yet constitute a sufficient rule of faith and practice is inconsistent with the character of God. See The New Apologetic, p. 122.
89 Pope, W. B., The Person of Christ (London: Wesleyan Methodist Book Room, 3rd edn., 1885), p. 42Google Scholar.
90 Pope, W. B., Compendium, I, p. 189Google Scholar.
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94 Pope, W. B., ‘God Glorified in His Works and Word’, p. 7Google Scholar.
95 ibid., pp. 11–12; cf. The Person of Christ, p. 73.
96 Fairbairn, A. M., Philosophy of Religion, p. 288.Google Scholar
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99 Fairbairn, A. M., The Place of Christ, p. 7Google Scholar.
100 Fairbairn, A. M., Christ in the Centuries (London: Sampson Low, 2nd edn., 1893), p. 11Google Scholar. In an exposition of I Pct. 1.8 he writes: ‘They [i.e. the disciples] had the less blessing of loving One they had seen; thou hast the greater blessing of loving One thou hast not seen.’ See The City of God, p. 346.
101 Fairbairn, A. M., The Place of Christ, pp. 296–297Google Scholar.
102 Bruce, A. B. in The Contemporary Review LXVII, May 1895, p. 88Google Scholar.
103 It was not long, of course, before the Fairbairnian confidence that we could know the Jesus of history was rudely shaken. For the comments of one who had to revise his discipleship of Fairbairn at this point see Dickie, John, Fifty Years of British Theology (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1937), p. 60Google Scholar.
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105 ibid., p. 187.
106 A. M. Fairbairn, Proc. ICC, I, 1891, p. 97; cf. The Place of Christ, p. 508.
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108 ibid., p. 499.
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110 ibid.
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112 ibid., p. 157.
113 Fairbairn, A. M., ‘Experience in Theology’, pp. 557–558Google Scholar.
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118 Pope, W. B., The Peculiarities of Methodist Doctrine (London: Wesleyan Conference Office, 1873), p. 10Google Scholar. For Pope, what God has eternally decreed is redemption. See Compendium II, p. 91.
119 Watts, R., An Outline of the Calvinistic System (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1866), p. 3Google Scholar. The following comment of Watts upon the immutability of God brings present-day process theology to mind: ‘A theism which makes provision for an increase in knowledge, or wisdom, or power, or holiness, or goodness, or truth, on the part of God, cannot long be held by any intelligent mind. Such theism is suicidal.’ ibid., p. 4.
120 ibid., pp. 6–7.
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122 ibid., p. 431.
123 Fairbairn, A. M., Proc. ICC. I, 1891, p. 97Google Scholar.
124 ibid., p. 213.
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126 Fairbairn, A. M., The Place of Christ, p. 435Google Scholar; cf. Religion in History, pp. 152, etc.
127 ibid., p. 444.
128 ibid., p. 467.
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132 ibid., p. 134.
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138 Pope, W. B., The Peculiarities of Methodist Doctrine, pp. 8–9Google Scholar.
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140 Fairbairn, A. M., Philosophy of Religion, p. 499Google Scholar; cf. 547.
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145 Fairbairn, A. M., The Place of Christ, p. 479Google Scholar.
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158 For his detailed critique of Bushnell see The New Apologetic, chap. X. For the lapses of Dods and Bruce see ibid., passim; Albert Barnes's Arminianism is trounced in chap. IX; and Henry Drummond's The Greatest Thing in the World is weighed and found wanting in chap. XII.
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180 Pope, W. B., Compendium, III, p. 113Google Scholar; cf. Higher Catechism, pp. 279–83.
181 Pope, W. B., Discourses: Chiefly on the Lordship of the Incarnate Redeemer (London: Wesleyan Conference Office, 3rd edn., 1880), p. 319Google Scholar; cf. The Person of Christ, p. 68: Christ is no absent Head.
182 ibid., pp. 321–2.
183 A. M. Fairbairn in The Examiner; quoted by W. B. Selbie, op. cit., p. 209n. Fairbairn's view was confirmed by his experience that ‘the best people I have ever known were by no means clerically-minded, or put faith in a priest, or in the actions and attitudes of a priestly body standing between God and man’. See ‘Experience in Theology’, pp. 556–7.
184 Fairbairn, A. M., Studies in Religion and Theology, p. 31Google Scholar; cf. Catholicism, pp. 29, 346; Pope, W. B., The Methodist Local Preacher, 1879, p. 9Google Scholar; in The Abiding Word.
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186 Fairbairn, A. M., The Place of Christ, p. 534Google Scholar.
187 ibid., p. 527.
188 We think especially of the increasingly vociferous debate on inerrancy. See e.g. God's Inerrant Word, (ed.) Montgomery, John Warwick (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, 1974)Google Scholar; Lindsell, Harold, The Battle for the Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976Google Scholar; the new journal Foundations, published by the British Evangelical Council; the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy; the Evangelical Theological Society (see its Journal).
189 Brash and Wright, op. cit., p. 51.
190 Pope, W. B., The Peculiarities of Methodist Doctrine, p. 8Google Scholar. John Wesley's remark that his position touched the very borders of Calvinism comes to mind.
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193 ibid., p. 54.
194 See Sell, A. P. F., The Great Debate: Calvinism, Arminianism and Salvation (Worthing: H. E. Walter, 1982Google Scholar; Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983).