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Natural theology and the Scottish philosophy in the thought of Thomas Chalmers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2009

Daniel F. Rice
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Extract

It was the observation of Princeton's James McCosh that ‘the reconciliation between the philosophy and the religion of Scotland was effected by Thomas Chalmers’. That Chalmers’ roots run deep in the soil prepared by the philosophy of Common Sense is indisputable. The Reid-Beattie-Stewart tradition in philosophy provided the backdrop against which the formation and development of Chalmers’ theology was framed. The important questions, however, are how Chalmers appropriated this philosophical tradition, for what ends he employed it, and to what extent it informed the content of his theology. It is certainly the case that Chalmers embraced Reid's repudiation of Locke's theory of ideas on both moral and religious grounds. The ‘constancy of nature’ whose rational and empirical demonstrability David Hume had called into question was crucial for Chalmers, and he attempted to reinstate it with the aid of every intellectual weapon the Scottish philosophers could provide. Furthermore, Chalmers accepted much of the programmatic work of the Common Sense philosophers in their efforts to ground morality and the ‘moral sense’ on a priori laws constitutive of the mind itself.

Type
Research Article
Information
Scottish Journal of Theology , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , February 1971 , pp. 23 - 46
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1971

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References

page 23 note 1 McCosh, James, The Scottish Philosophy: Biographical, Expository and Critical (Robert Carter and Brothers, New York, 1875), p. 393.Google Scholar

page 23 note 2 ibid., p. 21.

page 24 note 1 One observer of this period contends that ‘the Evangelical Revival, as it burst forth in Scotland and elsewhere in the early nineteenth century was a period of reapplication, a new spring-time of the prophetic; and it may be said to have blossomed exuberantly in Thomas Chalmers’. Henderson, G. D., The Burning Bush: Studies in Scottish Church History (St. Andrew Press, Edinburgh, 1957), p. 195.Google Scholar

page 24 note 2 Although there is very little extant literature dealing with Chalmers' theological contributions, there are numerous works that analyse his role in the ecclesiastical struggle leading to the Disruption of 1843. The most noteworthy of these is: Watt, Hugh, Thomas Chalmers and the Disruption (Thomas Nelson and Sons, London, 1943).Google Scholar

page 24 note 3 It is not my purpose to give an extensive genetic account of Chalmers' theology. I am concerned with the influence of and development of Chalmers' thought only in so far as these have direct bearing upon the relationship under consideration.

page 26 note 1 Willey, Basil, The Eighteenth Century Background: Studies on the Idea of Nature in the Thought of the Period (Beacon Press, Boston, 1961), p. 154.Google Scholar

page 26 note 2 Hanna, William, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Thomas Chalmers, vol. I (Sutherland and Knox, Edinburgh, and Hamilton, Adams and Co., London, 1851), p. 15.Google Scholar

page 27 note 1 ibid., p. 17. It might be noted that Edwards' influence upon Chalmers far exceeded in scope and intensity what is recorded here. An analysis of Chalmers’ systematic theology, for example, would reveal the influence of Edwards at numerous points including Chalmers’ view of the will, sin, holiness and the affections.

page 27 note 2 d'Holbach, Baron, The System of Mature, trans. Robinson, H. D. (J. P. Mendum, Boston, 1868), p. 11.Google Scholar

page 28 note 1 Martin, Kingsley, The Rise of French Liberal Thought (New York University Press, New York, 1956), p. 174.Google Scholar

page 28 note 2 This note is struck in the following passage: ‘Man will ever mistake his true happiness, as long as he neglects to study nature, to investigate her immutable laws, to seek in her alone the remedies for those evils which are the consequence of his present errors.… Human life may be compared to a river, of which the waters succeed each other, drive each other forward, and flow on without interruption; these waters obliged to roll over an unequal bed, encounter at intervals those obstacles which prevent their stagnation; they never cease to undulate, recoil and to rush forward until they are restored to the ocean of nature.’ Holbach, op. cit., pp. 161, 156 and 157.

page 28 note 3 Holbach, op. cit., p. 362,

page 29 note 1 Beattie, James, Essays on the Mature and Immutability of Truth in Opposition to Sophistry and Scepticism (Edinburgh, printed for the author, 1776), p. 17.Google Scholar

page 29 note 2 ibid., p. 19.

page 29 note 3 ibid., p. 21.

page 29 note 4 In a letter written within a year of his death Chalmers reiterates his indebtedness to Beattie and Robison: ‘I sympathise with you all the more in the state of philosophical scepticism that you complain of, that I at one time experienced it myself. The book to which I was most indebted for my deliverance was Beattie's Essay on Truth. I owe a great deal too to the introductory lectures of Professor Robison, whom I attended at the beginning of this century as a student of natural philosophy.’ Hanna, op. cit., p. 44.

page 30 note 1 Chalmers, Thomas, On Natural Theology, vol. I (CW vol. I), (William Collins, Glasgow, and Hamilton, Adams and Co., London, 1835), p. 169.Google Scholar

page 30 note 2 ibid., vol. 2 (CW vol. II), p. 167.

page 32 note 1 The tendency of the Moderates in their pursuit of literary and philosophical congeniality naturally allied them with the upper strata of society. Such an alliance not only brought them into increasing estrangement from the temperament and concerns of the general Scottish population, but proved to be a major factor in their decline as a party when with the advent of the French Revolution in 1789 they lost touch with the political and social aspirations of the Scottish people and indeed were often identified with purely reactionary sentiment. See in particular, Mathieson, William Law, Church and Reform in Scotland (James Maclehose and Sons, Glasgow, 1916), chapter II, ‘The Decline of Moderatism’, pp. 74–115.Google Scholar

page 32 note 2 Macleod, John, Scottish Theology in Relation to Church History since the Reformation (Publications Committee of the Free Church of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1943), pp. 210–211.Google Scholar

page 32 note 3 Burleigh, J. H. S., A Church History of Scotland (Oxford University Press, London, 1960), p. 293.Google Scholar

page 33 note 1 Tulloch, John, ‘The Church of the Eighteenth Century: 1707–1800’, in The Scottish Church: From the Earliest Times to 1881, the St. Giles Lectures, First Series (Ward R. Chambers, Edinburgh, 1881), p. 266.Google Scholar

page 33 note 2 Macleod, Donald, ‘Thomas Chalmers’ in Scottish Divines 1505–1872 (MacNiven and Wallace, Edinburgh, 1883), p. 279.Google Scholar

page 34 note 1 In 1809 Chalmers was stricken with an illness the nature of which he interpreted as bringing him to the brink of death itself. This illness marked the transition between his identification with the Moderate theology and his movement toward evangelicalism. It was at this time that Chalmers was reading Pascal's Thoughts (see Hanna, op. cit., p. 152). From this point he moved steadily forward to a fuller appropriation of the power of the gospel as understood within the framework of Scottish evangelicalism. In the course of this pilgrimage the formative influences were Wilberforce's Practical View, read by Chalmers in 1811 (see Hanna, op. cit., p. 186); Thomas Scott's The Force of Truth, which he commenced reading on 22nd February 1811 (ibid, p. 202); and Richard Baxter's Call to the Unconverted, which Chalmers read on 13th September 1811, and which, incidentally, he intended for republication (ibid., p. 218). Fisher's The Marrow of Modern Divinity (1644), introduced into eighteenth-century Scottish thought by Thomas Boston, fell into Chalmers' hands on 23rd August 1813. On this work Chalmers remarks: ‘I am reading the Marrow of Modern Divinity, and derive from it much light and satisfaction on the subject of faith. It is a masterly performance, and I feel a greater nearness to God, convincing me that Christ is the way to him, and an unconditional surrender of ourselves to Christ is the first and most essential step of our recovery. … Finished the Marrow. I feel a growing delight in the fulness and sufficiency of Christ’ (entries in the Journal for 23rd and 24th August 1812). In addition the writings of Calvin, Doddridge, Owen, Guthrie, Romaine and Matthew Hale, among others, had a deep and lasting influence on Chalmers' mature thought. (See particularly Chalmers', Introductory Essays to Select Christian Authors (CW vol. XIII) (William Collins, Glasgow, and Hamilton, Adams and Co., London, 1835.)Google Scholar

page 34 note 2 Ahlstrom, Sydney, ‘Scottish Philosophy and American Theology’ in Church History, vol. 22, no. 3 (Sept. 1955), p. 269.Google Scholar

page 35 note 1 Hanna, op. cit., p. 146.

page 35 note 2 Chalmers, , Institutes of Theology (CW vol. VII), vol. I (Sutherland and Knox, Edinburgh, and Hamilton, Adams and Co., London, 1849), pp. 122–123Google Scholar. Chalmers elsewhere writes: ‘If truth and purity and integrity and kindness be virtues in men, and are recognised by him as of supreme obligation—the very fact of man being so framed as thus to recognise them, is to us the strongest argument within the compass of our natural vision, for the truth and righteousness and goodness and holiness of God.’ On Natural Theology, vol. 2 (CW vol. II), p. 377.

page 36 note 1 ibid., p. 127.

page 36 note 2 Chalmers, , On Natural Theology, vol. 2, p. 380.Google Scholar

page 36 note 3 ibid., p. 380f.

page 36 note 4 Chalmers, , Institutes, vol. I, p. 127.Google Scholar

page 37 note 1 Chalmers, , On Natural Theology, vol. 2, p. 4O2f.Google Scholar

page 37 note 2 ibid., p. 416.

page 37 note 3 Chalmers, , Institutes, vol. I, p. 152.Google Scholar

page 37 note 4 Chalmers, , On Natural Theology, vol. 2, p. 398.Google Scholar

page 38 note 1 ibid., p. 397.

page 38 note 2 ibid., pp. 393 and 399.

page 38 note 3 Chalmers, , Institutes, vol. I, p. 155.Google Scholar

page 38 note 4 Chalmers, , On Natural Theology, vol. 2, p. 399.Google Scholar

page 38 note 5 ibid., p. 412.

page 39 note 1 Chalmers, , Institutes, vol. I, p. 153.Google Scholar

page 39 note 2 Chalmers, Lectures on the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans, vol. I (CW vol. XXII), (William Collins, Glasgow, and Hamilton, Adams and Co., London, 1835). P. 108.Google Scholar

page 39 note 3 Chalmers, , On Natural Theology, vol. 2, p. 417.Google Scholar

page 40 note 1 See Willey, op. cit., pp. 110ff.

page 41 note 1 Chalmers, , Institutes, vol. I, p. 23.Google Scholar

page 41 note 2 Chalmers, , Sketches of Moral and Mental Philosophy: Their Connection With Each Other; and Their Bearings on Doctrinal and Practical Christianity (CW vol. VI) (William Collins, Glasgow, and Hamilton, Adams and Co., London, 1835), p. 415.Google Scholar

page 42 note 1 Cairns, David, ‘Thomas Chalmers' Astronomical Discourses: A Study in Natural Theology’ in Scottish Journal of Theology, vol. 9 (1956), p. 416.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 42 note 2 Chalmers, , Discourses on the Christian Revelation Viewed in Connection With the Modern Astronomy (CW vol. VII), (William Collins, Glasgow, and Hamilton, Adams and Co., London, 1835), p. 345.Google Scholar

page 42 note 3 Chalmers, , On Natural Theology, vol. 1, p. 53f.Google Scholar

page 43 note 1 Chalmers, ibid., vol. 2, p. 417.

page 43 note 2 Chalmers, , Congregational Sermons, vol. 3 (CW vol. X), (William Collins, Glasgow, and Hamilton, Adams and Co., London, 1835), p. 241.Google Scholar

page 44 note 1 ibid., p. 370.

page 44 note 2 Chalmers, , Institutes, vol. I, p. 409.Google Scholar

page 45 note 1 Blaikie, W. G., Thomas Chalmers, Famous Scots Series (Oliphant, Anderson and Ferrier, Edinburgh, n.d.), pp. 93–94.Google Scholar

page 46 note 1 Chalmers, , Institutes, vol. 2, p. 21.Google Scholar