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Biography of Thomas ChalmersName: Thomas ChalmersBirth Date: March 17, 1780 Death Date: May 31, 1847 Place of Birth: Fife, Scottish Nationality: Scottish Gender: Male Occupations: theologian, reformer Thomas Chalmers The Scottish church reformer and theologian Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847) was a central figure in the 1843 secession of the Free Church from the Presbyterian Establishment.Thomas Chalmers was born in Fife on March 17, 1780. While attending the University of St. Andrews, he was drawn both to the study of mathematics and science and to a clerical vocation. After Presbyterian ordination in 1803, he was a successful preacher and instructor. In his late 20s he became aroused to evangelical fervor; for the first time he was struck by his own incorrigible depravity, the imminence of death, and the promise of salvation through faith in Christ. This position was characteristic of the intellectually simple, scripturally bound, evangelical awakening typical of many of his generation. Chalmers, however, attempted to broaden evangelicalism by reconciling its zeal with secular ethics, science, and philosophy and with concern for social and economic issues.In this spirit Chalmers delivered his "Astronomical Lectures" …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…Church of Scotland. As the first moderator, Chalmers raised substantial sums to finance the building of hundreds of new churches for the schismatics. From 1843 to 1847 he also served as principal of the Free Church's New College. Chalmers died suddenly on May 31, 1847. It is said that half the population of Edinburgh attended his funeral. Parliament later reversed the offensive act of 1712, and ultimately the Free and Established Churches were reunited. Further Reading Two early sources on Chalmers and the Free Church are still important: Chalmers's son-in-law William Hanna wrote Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Thomas Chalmers (4 vols., 1849-1852), and Robert Buchanan wrote The Ten Years Conflict: Being the History of the Disruption of the Church of Scotland (2 vols., 1857). The most recent study is Hugh Watt, Thomas Chalmers and the Disruption (1943).Brown, Stewart J. (Stewart Jay), Thomas Chalmers and the godly commonwealth in Scotland, Oxford Oxfordshire; New York: Oxford University Press, 1982. |