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George Smeaton

Learned theologian and biblical scholar

Buy it for your pastor!

GEORGE SMEATON
Learned theologian and biblical scholar
By John W. Keddie
Evangelical Press. 214 pages
ISBN 978-0-85234-636-0

George Smeaton is known to most readers by the Banner of Truth reprints of his books, Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, Christ’s Doctrine of the Atonement and The Apostle’s Doctrine of the Atonement — all of them careful and illuminating expositions of the biblical material. He wrote in the mid-Victorian period when biblical criticism was undermining these doctrines. Subtle influences are having a similar effect today so that Smeaton’s work is again proving a helpful bulwark.

But most of us know little of the man behind his books, so we welcome John Keddie’s well-crafted biography to relieve us of our ignorance. Smeaton studied at Edinburgh University under Thomas Chalmers with M’Cheyne and Andrew Bonar. After 14 years in the ministry and three years lecturing at Aberdeen University he was appointed as professor of New Testament exegesis in New College, Edinburgh, in 1856 and continued in that position until his death in 1889.

The story of the Free Church of Scotland is a cautionary tale. How was it that 40 years after the Disruption from the Church of Scotland ‘the old orthodoxy was largely despised’? We learn that the rejection of biblical authority ‘had penetrated Scottish Presbyterianism largely through the Free Church’ (p.117) despite the endeavours of Smeaton and others to maintain the faith. The circumstances which gave rise to this sad decline are clearly traced as are the actions that Smeaton took in contending for biblical truth.

Keddie has produced a work of impeccable scholarship; and unlike some scholars who become increasingly obscure, he has used his learning to clarify matters. We would not recommend Smeaton’s view that it is the responsibility of the State to uphold the Christian faith, which even Keddie admits is unworkable in the modern context. And Smeaton’s attitude to the practicalities of worship was unnecessarily inflexible even in terms of the regulative principle. He might have had more influence in contending for major issues if he had been less rigid on the minor ones.

This is altogether a superb book, beautifully produced and illustrated, and one which all ministers would profit from reading. Buy it for your pastor!

Paul E.G. Cook,
Breaston