Publisher's Synopsis
This is the third of a four-volume work which traces the story of the Scottish Kirk from the Revolution of 1688 to the present day. The particular period now described is that time of transition and consolidation which followed the Abolition of Patronage (1874) and the adoption by the Free Church of a policy of disestablishment through to the Union of 1900. Included in this major review of the three main Presbyterian Churches of Scotland are subjects of such epoch-making importance as the trial for heresy of Professor Robertson Smith, the disestablishment campaign, the Church and Community debate, and many more besides. One of these concerns the Union of 1900 itself; as the author comments in his Foreword, the book covers a period which 'begins when negotiations for union between the two [churches] had recently failed and closed when their union came so easily as to have a touch of anti-climax'. It will be recognised that these are subjects which remain in the forefront of churchmen's thinking today, albeit on a different level and in changed circumstances. History here, as in so many other ways, may well be seen to be a faithful guide and Instructor showing the way forward to new and exciting opportunities for the Church of Christ. As with the previous volumes (The Scottish Church: 1688-1843 and The Church in Victorian Scotland: 1841-1874), this book is based on the work of the late Dr Andrew L. Drummond, but has been considerably re-worked by Dr James Bulloch.
