The history of the New College, Edinburgh has been a chequered one. Originally set up as a Divinity College of the Disruption Free Church with a Senatus of outstanding professors, including such names as Cunningham, Smeaton, Bannerman and “Rabbi” Duncan, it was afterwards to fall into the hands of the Philistines. Even while it remained in the Disruption Free Church it was to prove one of the sources from which the leaven of unbelieving Higher Criticism was to spread throughout the Church.
In 1904/5, those who had formed the Free Church in 1900, won control of all the property belonging to the Disruption Free Church, including the New College in Edinburgh. The Royal Commission set up to re-allocate the spoil in defiance of the House of Lord’s decision, decided to re-allocate the New College to the United Free Church which was the larger body. No more unreasonable decision could be imagined than the handing over of New College to those who had by their actions vitiated the testimony for which the Disruption Church had stood and in support of which the New College had been built. The final act in New College’s varied history came in 1929 when the U.F. Church united with the Church of Scotland, and New College thereby became a divinity hall of the Established Church.
The result of all these transactions has been that New College has been staffed throughout the greater part of its history by men who had practically nothing in common with the professors of 1843, and who taught a system of Christianity radically different from that taught by the latter. Its history has been one of steady decline and departure from the faith once delivered to the saints. In fact so strong has been the antagonistic outlook to the fundamental doctrines of the faith that it has been reckoned that only with the utmost difficulty could a student of evan-
gelical outlook retain his beliefs and emerge unscathed from a course of study there.
Recently, as readers will know, a new development in the saga of New College has occurred. This is the appointment of a Roman Catholic priest, Father James Mackey, from a Jesuit University in California, U.S.A., to be Professor of Theology in New College. When news of the proposed appointment reached the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the opposition of delegates to the appointment was strongly voiced and a majority obtained against it. The appointment, however, was made in defiance of the will of the Assembly. This faces the Church of Scotland with a dilemma, as she is forced either to submit to the appointment and allow her divinity students to receive their teaching in theology from a Roman Catholic or to take steps to end the agreement existing between the Church and University by which a joint Church-University appointment is made for the Divinity Professorships.
The former Professor of Dogmatic Theology was Professor Torrence. He was labelled a “Reformed” theologian though he was in fact a Barthian and therefore taught a theology fundamentally different from that of the Reformers. The new Professor makes no pretence of being a Reformed theologian. According to Press reports he doubts some of the fundamental doctrines of the faith and therefore is in line with the modern theologians who teach the old heresies in a modern dress. The fact that he is a Roman Catholic is chiefly the matter which has aroused opposition to his appointment. It seems strange, indeed, that a professed Protestant Church should hand over to a Roman Catholic the responsible duty of teaching theology to her divinity students.
What has made the appointment more incongruous is that the Chair which he is to occupy has been re-named the Thomas Chalmers Chair of Reformed Theology, after the renowned Dr Chalmers, one of the founders of the Disruption Free Church. One could hardly envisage anything more hypocritical. We are sure, however, that no meaningless re-naming ceremony can give any degree of respectability to a Chair which has as its object the inculcation of heretical belief.
The Church of Scotland is now faced with a crucial test as to what action she will take in the situation that has developed. It is to be hoped that she will not allow things to remain as they presently stand. However, it will not be sufficient for the Church of Scotland to bring to an end the anomaly that has presently arisen. More than this will have to be done if the students are to benefit from their studies in her Colleges. She will have to purge her Colleges of those who have no true allegiance
to the Reformed faith and appoint in their place those who will be loyal to the Word of God. In this way, a new era might well dawn within the Church of Scotland through men being sent out from her Colleges to preach Christ and Him crucified to a people who sit in darkness and the shadow of death.