Pastoral ministry in the Church of Scotland in the Eighteenth century, with special reference to Thomas Boston, John Willison and John Erskine

Abstract

Seward Hiltner has written that 'to a greater degree than in any other theological discipline, we lack in pastoral theology a sense of identification with our pastoral roots and heritage. This situation demands that we inquire into some significant orders of shepherding data from the past as well as from the present. My desire to understand the image and practice of the pastoral ministry in history and my interest in the heritage of Presbyterianism was heightened by the quadricentennial of the Scottish Reformation, which was being observed when I considered beginning research in church history. After the Very Rev. Principal Emeritus Hugh Watt suggested reading about Scottish pastors in the eighteenth century, I realized that there was an opportunity to explore the thought of men whose conception of the ministry influenced and was like that of Scotsmen, such John Witherspoon, who contributed much to the establishment and growth of the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., of which I am a minister.