David Fergusson | |
---|---|
Born | David Alexander Syme Fergusson 3 August 1956 Glasgow, Scotland |
Title | Principal of New College, Edinburgh (2008–2018) |
Ecclesiastical career | |
Religion | Christianity (Presbyterian) |
Church | Church of Scotland |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | |
Thesis | Realism and Idealism in Christian Interpretation with Special Reference to Bultmann (1984) |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Theology |
Sub-discipline | Systematic theology |
Institutions | |
Doctoral students | |
Notable students | Oliver D. Crisp [3] |
David Alexander Syme Fergusson OBE FRSE FBA (born 3 August 1956) is a Scottish theologian and Presbyterian minister. Since 2021, he has been Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge. [4] [5]
Fergusson was born on 3 August 1956 in Glasgow, Scotland. He studied philosophy at the University of Glasgow, graduating with an undergraduate Master of Arts (MA Hons) degree in 1977. He then studied theology at the University of Edinburgh, graduating with a Bachelor of Divinity (BD) degree in 1980. [6] He then undertook a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree in Christian philosophy at the University of Oxford; his DPhil was awarded in 1984 for a doctoral thesis titled Realism and Idealism in Christian Interpretation with Special Reference to Bultmann . [7]
Fergusson was Assistant Minister at St Nicholas Parish Church, Lanark, from 1983 to 1984 and Associate Minister at St Mungo's Parish Church, Cumbernauld, from 1984 to 1986.
In 1985, he was appointed a lecturer at the University of Edinburgh. In 1990, he was appointed Professor of Systematic Theology at the University of Aberdeen, before moving to Edinburgh to take up the position of the Chair of Divinity in 2000. He has held this post at New College in the University of Edinburgh until 2021. [8] In April 2021, he was appointed Regius Professor of Divinity, one of the oldest professorships of the University of Cambridge. [5]
Fergusson is a Fellow of the British Academy (elected 2013), a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and was an associate director of the Centre for Theology and Public Issues. He delivered the Cunningham Lectures in Edinburgh in 1996, the Bampton Lectures in Oxford in 2001, the Gifford Lectures at the University of Glasgow in 2008, and the Warfield Lectures at Princeton Theological Seminary in 2009. He was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity by the University of Aberdeen (2014).
He was installed as a personal chaplain to the Queen in November 2015 [9] and was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to education, the arts, and the Church of Scotland. [10] From 2008 to 2018, he served as Principal of New College. In July 2019 the Queen appointed him as Dean of the Chapel Royal in Scotland and Dean of the Order of the Thistle. [11] He took part in the Royal procession at the 2023 Coronation, [12] and was the lead minister at the Presentation of the Honours of Scotland service held in St Giles' Cathedral. [13]
Sir Donald Neil MacCormick was a Scottish legal philosopher and politician. He was Regius Professor of Public Law and the Law of Nature and Nations at the University of Edinburgh from 1972 until 2008. He was a Member of the European Parliament 1999–2004, member of the Convention on the Future of Europe, and officer of the Scottish National Party.
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The Regius Professorships of Divinity are amongst the oldest professorships at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. A third chair existed for a period at Trinity College Dublin.
Sir William Fergusson, 1st Baronet FRCS FRS FRSE was a Scottish surgeon.
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Sir Iain Richard Torrance, is a retired Church of Scotland minister, theologian and academic. He is Pro-Chancellor of the University of Aberdeen, Honorary Professor of Early Christian Doctrine and Ethics at the University of Edinburgh, President and Professor of Patristics Emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary, and an Extra Chaplain to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in Scotland. He was formerly Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Dean of the Chapel Royal in Scotland, and Dean of the Order of the Thistle. He is married to Morag Ann, whom he met while they were students at the University of St Andrews, and they have two children.
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Eric Symes Abbott KCVO was an English Anglican priest and academic administrator. He only spent three years in parish ministry, before a career as a chaplain and academic administrator. He was warden of Lincoln Theological College from 1936 to 1945, and then dean of King's College, London from 1945 to 1955. He moved into secular leadership as warden of Keble College, Oxford from 1956 to 1960. He final post was as Dean of Westminster from 1959 until he retired in 1974.
Reverend Dr John Lee FRSE was a Scottish academic and polymath, and the Principal of the University of Edinburgh from 1840 to 1859. He was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1844.
John Macquarrie (1919–2007) was a Scottish-born theologian, philosopher and Anglican priest. He was the author of Principles of Christian Theology (1966) and Jesus Christ in Modern Thought (1991). Timothy Bradshaw, writing in the Handbook of Anglican Theologians, described Macquarrie as "unquestionably Anglicanism's most distinguished systematic theologian in the second half of the 20th century."
Leonard Hodgson was an Anglican priest, philosopher, theologian, historian of the early Church and Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Oxford from 1944 to 1958.
John McIntyre was a Scottish minister and theologian. He was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland 1982/83 and Chaplain to the Queen in Scotland from 1990 to 1996.
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Archibald Main, was a Scottish ecclesiastical historian, Church of Scotland minister, military chaplain, and academic. From 1915 to 1922, he was Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the University of St Andrews. From 1922 to 1942, he was Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the University of Glasgow. He served as Chaplain to the King from 1925 and as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland from 1939 to 1940.
James McKinnon FRSE (1860-1945) was a writer on history and church history. He was Professor of Church History at the University of Edinburgh from 1908 to 1930.
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