The Baillie project

Baillie | John | 1886-1960 | Scottish theologian and ecumenical leader

John Baillie was born in 1886, the son of Rev John Baillie (1829-1891), Free Church minister at Gairloch, Ross & Cromarty in the north-west of Scotland, and his wife Annie Macpherson. Following the death of his father, the family home was in Inverness and he was educated at Inverness Royal Academy and the University of Edinburgh. More study was undertaken at both Jena and Marburg and he held assistant positions at the University of Edinburgh before entering the church, as an assistant in 1912 and then being ordained in 1920.

His accomplishments were many. The First World War saw Baillie playing an active role in both the YMCA and the British Expeditionary Force. The end of that war saw the start of his academic career and his marriage to Florence Jewel Fowler. He held a number of chairs in New York and Toronto, but he eventually returned to Edinburgh to become Professor of Divinity at New College in 1934. The advent of the Second World War saw Baillie use the North American links he had maintained to help persuade US entry into the conflict. He was elected as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland for 1943 and became Dean of the Faculty of Divinity at Edinburgh in 1950, holding this position until retrial six years later. A member of both the British Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches, he became a President of the latter. He died in 1960.

His publications were extensive, including: The roots of religion in the human soul (1926), The interpretation of religion: an introductory study of theological principles (1929), And the life everlasting (1934), What is Christian civilization? (1945), The belief in progress (1950), The idea of revelation in recent thought (1956), Christian devotion: addresses (1962), and A reasoned faith (1963).