Fixing the Indemnity

The Life and Work of Sir George Adam Smith

Sir George Adam Smith (1856-1942) was one of the leading Old Testament scholars in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Scottish church. As Free Church minister of Queen's Cross, Aberdeen (1882-92), Professor of Old Testament Language and Literature at the Free Church College, Glasgow (1892-1910) and Principal of Aberdeen University (1910-1935) he popularised modern criticism of the Old Testament. He was determined to show how such an approach to the Bible was compatible with evangelical faith, a position that never sat easily with the confessional position of the Scottish church, and the story of Smith's life is an investigation into the relationship between biblical scholarship and evangelical faith. In this new biography, Dr Campbell has made extensive use of primary material, including Smith's letters and journals, to fill a gap in the literature on events within the Scottish church in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. This critical biography will be of use both to students of Scottish church history and students of Old Testament criticism, as well as raising issues that are of continuing importance for all who believe in confessional Christianity as well as in scholarly study of the biblical text.

(From the back cover.)

'Dr Campbell's intellectual biography of George Adam Smith is a most welcome addition both to the stud} of nineteenth and twentieth century Scottish theology in church life, and to the history of Old Testament scholarship. Approaching his subject in a manner which is at once critical yet also sympathetic and sensitive to the context, the author paints a picture of a very human scholar struggling to make Christianity relevant to the great concerns of his day. In so doing, Dr Campbell sheds light on a number of issues: the often complex relationship between scholarship and ecclesiastical commitment; the subtle nature of the negotiation between higher criticism and confessionalism in church life; the response of the church to the social and cultural upheavals of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; and the perennially vexatious question of the relationship between heartfelt piety and hard-headed theological work.'

-- Carl R. Trueman, Professor Church History,
Westminster Theological Seminary,
Philadelphia, USA.

'Iain Campbell's compelling study assesses the life and contributions of the remarkable George Adam Smith who, in one handsome countenance, united the warm heart of a village vicar, the razor sharp mind of a world-class critical scholar, the interpersonal skill and grace of a diplomat, the zeal of an evangelist. Reading this story, one is moved to pray for another cycle of such "Princes of the Church" to arise in our own day!'

-- Thomas H. Corts, President, Samford University;
Birmingham, Alabama, USA.

'We have long needed an intellectual biography of George Adam Smith, a hugely influential figure in church and academy from the 1880s to the 1930s. In this revision of Dr Campbell's PhD thesis, a vital part of the history of biblical scholarship in Scotland has at last been told.'

-- Alasdair I. Macleod, Minister, St Andrews Free Church of Scotland,
formerly Professor of Apologetics and Pastoral Theology,
Free Church College, Edinburgh, UK.