# Essential Reading in the Scottish Presbyterian tradition



## AV1611 (May 9, 2008)

What is essential Reading in the Scottish Presbyterian tradition?


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## Reformed Covenanter (May 9, 2008)

Where do you start?

George Gillespie's writings might be a good place.


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## Backwoods Presbyterian (May 9, 2008)

John Knox, especially Monstrous Regiment.


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## N. Eshelman (May 9, 2008)

I would start with something more 'devotional' than Knox or Gillespie. I would start with Mc Cheyne's sermons or the writings of Andrew and Horatious Bonar. They are a good springboard into the Gillespie, Rutherford, etc. writing.


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## ADKing (May 9, 2008)

It depends on what you are after: sermons? theology? polemics? an overview of the distinctives? 

A very helpful volume, if you can get it these days is "The Dictonary of Scottish Church History and Theology" edited by David Wright, David Lachman and Donald Meek. It is not something you read through but it is invaluable for understanding the tradition (and its offshoots)


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## AV1611 (May 9, 2008)

ADKing said:


> It depends on what you are after: sermons? theology? polemics? an overview of the distinctives?



A list of key writers and their works that would include all of the above. I am aware of Dickson, Gillespie, Durham, M'Cheyne and Rutherford. But other than that....


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## NaphtaliPress (May 9, 2008)

ADKing said:


> It depends on what you are after: sermons? theology? polemics? an overview of the distinctives?
> 
> A very helpful volume, if you can get it these days is "The Dictonary of Scottish Church History and Theology" edited by David Wright, David Lachman and Donald Meek. It is not something you read through but it is invaluable for understanding the tradition (and its offshoots)


Very true. Use the DSCH&T in conjunction with reputable introductory or survey studies of the Scottish theologians. 

The following come to mind which are either broader or more narrow in focus:

John MacPherson, _The doctrine of the Church in Scottish theology_ (Chalmers lectures). Edinburgh: Macniven & Wallace, 1903.

James Walker, _The Theology And Theologians Of Scotland_ (Edinburgh, T. & T. Clark, 1888; Rpt. Edinburgh : Knox Press, 1982).

Other works that have built on the "fathers" such as Bannerman's _Church of Christ_ (rpt. Banner of Truth Trust, 1960) are also good works to discover and jump into the original works referenced. Or you can use works on particular men in the same way such as John Coffey's _Politics, Religion and the British Revolutions The Mind of Samuel Rutherford_. Cambridge studies in early modern British history (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1997) and W. D. J. McKay's _An Ecclesiastical Republic: Church Government in the Writings of George Gillespie_ (Carlisle, Cumbria, U.K.: Published for Rutherford House by Paternoster Press, 1997).


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## NaphtaliPress (May 9, 2008)

I forgot:
John Macleod, _Scottish Theology in Relation to Church History Since the Reformation_. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1974.
Three of the common intros: Macleod, Walker and MacPherson.



NaphtaliPress said:


> ADKing said:
> 
> 
> > It depends on what you are after: sermons? theology? polemics? an overview of the distinctives?
> ...


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## NaphtaliPress (May 9, 2008)

Also, if you really want to be into Scottish Presbyterian history get about anything by David Hay Fleming. His 666 page history of the Reformation in Scotland is still considered a standard I think (page length a bit of irony). I have three of his shorter works collected into one volume available at http://www.naphtali.com; RHB also sells it.


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## NaphtaliPress (May 9, 2008)

Here is a Worldcat search if you are interested in seeing a quick bibliography of DHF's works. Also, a pretty comprehensive bibliography is given in his biography by Patton.
Results for 'auavid Hay Fleming' [WorldCat.org]


Paton, Henry. David Hay Fleming, Historian and Antiquary. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1934.


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## Reformed Covenanter (May 9, 2008)

NaphtaliPress said:


> Also, if you really want to be into Scottish Presbyterian history get about anything by David Hay Fleming. His 666 page history of the Reformation in Scotland is still considered a standard I think (page length a bit of irony). I have three of his shorter works collected into one volume available at http://www.naphtali.com; RHB also sells it.



 Somebody tell Jack Chick...quick.


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## Glenn Ferrell (May 9, 2008)

Thomas McCrie's _Story of the Scottish Church_ was devotional reading for me, often bringing tears to my eyes and prompting me to prayer.

Also, the history of the Free Church of Scotland arising out of the Disruption of 1843 is essential to an understanding of faithful continuing confessional Presbyterianism in Scotland.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (May 10, 2008)

This is not a complete, comprehensive list but a beginning concerning the most notable Scottish theologians and historians to read. Hope it helps. 

*Theologians*

16th Century
John Knox
Robert Rollock

17th Century
Samuel Rutherford
George Gillespie
Hugh Binning
James Durham
David Dickson
Andrew Gray
William Guthrie
Henry Scougal
Robert Traill
David Calderwood
Alexander Henderson

18th Century
John Brown of Haddington
Thomas Boston
Ebenezer Erskine
Ralph Erskine
Thomas Halyburton
James Fraser of Brea

19th Century
George Smeaton
William Cunningham
James Bannerman
James Begg
J.A. Wylie
Thomas Chalmers
Thomas M'Crie the Elder
William Symington
John Duncan
John Kennedy of Dingwall
Patrick Fairbairn
Robert Candlish
Robert M. M'Cheyne
Andrew Bonar
Horatius Bonar
Robert Shaw
John Brown of Edinburgh
James Hamilton
John Dick
John Eadie
David Brown
James Buchanan
William Binnie

20th Century
John Murray


*Historians*

Links and Downloads Manager - Educational Links - An Apologetical Relation of the Particular Sufferings of the Faithful Ministers and Professors of the Church of Scotland -- John Brown of Wamphray - The PuritanBoard

Links and Downloads Manager - Educational Links - Memoirs of the Church of Scotland -- Daniel Defoe - The PuritanBoard

Links and Downloads Manager - Educational Links - Scots Worthies - The PuritanBoard

Links and Downloads Manager - Preaching - Sermons Delivered in Times of Persecution in Scotland -- John Howie - The PuritanBoard

Links and Downloads Manager - Educational Links - The history of the reformation of religion in Scotland -- John Knox - The PuritanBoard

Links and Downloads Manager - Educational Links - The History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland, from the Restoration to the Revolution -- Robert Wodrow - The PuritanBoard

Links and Downloads Manager - Educational Links - The Preachers of Scotland from the Sixth to the Nineteenth Century -- William G. Blaikie - The PuritanBoard

Links and Downloads Manager - Educational Links - The Reformation in Scotland: causes, characteristics, consequences -- David H. Fleming - The PuritanBoard

Links and Downloads Manager - Educational Links - The Secret and True History of the Church of Scotland -- James Kirkton - The PuritanBoard

Links and Downloads Manager - Educational Links - The Theology and Theologians of Scotland -- James Walker - The PuritanBoard

http://www.puritanboard.com/f29/calderwood-s-history-kirk-scotland-15174/

Links and Downloads Manager - Educational Links - A cloud of witnesses, for the royal prerogatives of Jesus Christ -- John H. Thomson - The PuritanBoard

Links and Downloads Manager - Educational Links - Men of the Covenant: The Story of the Scottish Church in the Years of the Persecution -- Alexander Smellie - The PuritanBoard

Links and Downloads Manager - Educational Links - Ladies of the Covenant -- James Anderson - The PuritanBoard

Links and Downloads Manager - Educational Links - Scottish heroines of the faith: being brief sketches of noble women of the Reformation and covenant times -- Donald Beaton - The PuritanBoard

Links and Downloads Manager - Ecclesiology - The doctrine of the church in Scottish theology -- John MacPherson - The PuritanBoard

Links and Downloads Manager - Educational Links - The Scottish Reformation: Its Epochs, Episodes, Leaders, and Distinctive Characteristics -- A.F. Mitchell - The PuritanBoard

Links and Downloads Manager - Educational Links - The Story of the Scottish Church - The PuritanBoard


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