Don Chatfield - PhD 1964

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These few (3½) years in Scotland, especially in Edinburgh, and most strikingly in the New College of that day, were formative in my life and work, and remain to this day an illuminated shrine in my memory.

When I arrived at New College in the fall of 1960 to begin graduate work, I had no idea what field to pursue (not just poor planning, but none!)  Luckily, I fell in with Principal Charles Duthie, of whom more below.  He pointed me to a fairly complete collection of 17th-century books then in the New College library, books which covered a debate over what was the "correct" (ie. biblical) church government.  The period of that debate (1641-1662) was the time of the Westminster Assembly, which was charged with proposing a biblically correct polity for the Church of England (episcopacy, for that brief time, was right out).  Clergy from the (Presbyterian) Church of Scotland advocated for their system, and were opposed by the clergy of the Massachusetts Bay Puritans, who were strict Independents (later called Congregationalists).

Staff remembered

At this point, I shall just quote [with a few addenda] from the thanks I gave in the Preface to my dissertation:

"It remains [I wrote] to express my gratitude to those who have aided me in the research and writing of this thesis: to the Rev. Dr J. A. Lamb and his staff at the New College Library, who have all been most courteous and helpful; to Miss E. R. Leslie, Assistant Secretary to the Post-Graduate School of Theology of Edinburgh University, who smoothed over many a rough place [and saved me from misspelling 'Repercussions' in the name of the project in my application for graduate study]; and to the Rev. R. A. S. Barbour, Secretary to the School, whose advice has always been freely given and gratefully received. 

"I owe special thanks to the [genial and ever-helpful] Very Rev. Principal Emeritus Hugh Watt, who in two minutes suggested a title which has stood the test of three years’ research, and who has ever been willing to help and advise; and to the Rev. Professor T. F. Torrance, who graciously gave of his time to illuminate my understanding of present research into primitive [ecclesiastical] polity. To my advisers, my special gratitude: to the Rev. Principal Charles Duthie, of the Scottish Congregational College, for suggesting this field and for his keen and helpful interest in my progress; and to the Very Rev. Principal J. H. S. Burleigh of New College, for his attention to details and for his courteous insistence that I be about the writing, when I would have preferred the comfortable cocoon of continued research." 

Burleigh, Stewart, Torrance

I might add that our supervisory meetings were a bit difficult for this 'Yank,' for at the start of each one Principal Burleigh lit a pipe and kept it between his front teeth the whole time; that, with his strong Scots accent, meant that at times I had no idea what he was saying - but I soldiered on, unwilling to call out my senior adviser, even in the interests of greater clarity.

Just two additional notes.  First, I am the most grateful (especially since I later became a teacher of preaching) for getting to know and converse with the Very Rev. Professor James S. Stewart, who was the most modest and courteous of men, as well as being one of the most powerful and effective "Princes of the Pulpit" of his era.  The second note comes to me with a wave of sadness, for it was only in relatively recent years that I learned that Tom Torrance (whose dogmatics lectures [which were neither required of me nor of any help in my research] I sat through in astonishment at his brilliance) was in later years felled by Alzheimer's Disease.  I can but quote from Hamlet at such a loss, the words of Ophelia (in much different circumstances): "O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!"

Read Don’s alumnus profile, written in 2015

I fondly remember much from my years in Edinburgh. I vividly remember ‘Jake’ Burleigh (the very image of an abstracted scholar), and my other ‘doctor-father,’ Charles Duthie, who was then the Principal of the Congregational College.  I recall with awe sitting through Tom Torrance's brilliant Dogmatics classes (though they had nothing to do with my dissertation project), and attending the eloquent, moving lectures on St. Paul by Prof. James S. Stewart, one of the greatest preachers of the age.