David Robertson | |
---|---|
Born | David Andrew Robertson 2 May 1962 |
Education | B.A. University of Edinburgh, 1983 M.A. Free Church College (ETS), 1983 |
Occupation | Minister |
Spouse | Annabel |
Children | 3 |
Religion | Reformed - New Calvinism |
Church | St Peter's Free Church of Scotland, Dundee |
Ordained | Free Church of Scotland |
Writings |
|
Congregations served | Brora Free Church, Sutherland; St.Peter's Free Church, Dundee; |
Offices held | Moderator of the Free Church of Scotland (2015-16) |
Website | theweeflea |
David Andrew Robertson (born 2 May 1962) is a Scottish Presbyterian minister and religious commentator. [7] Robertson was the minister of St Peter's Free Church in Dundee, Scotland, from 1992 until 2019. He served as Moderator of the Free Church of Scotland between 2015 and 2016. [8] Robertson is also a blogger, podcaster, and writer. He gained public attention following his critique of The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins [9] and has since become a commentator on religious, social, and political affairs in Scotland, with an annual readership of over one million. [10]
Robertson was born in Berwick-upon-Tweed, and was brought up in Fearn in Easter Ross. He spent his secondary school years at Tain Royal Academy. [7]
Robertson graduated from both the University of Edinburgh with a M.A Honours degree in history, and from Free Church College (now Edinburgh Theological Seminary) with a diploma in theology, in 1983. [11]
Robertson had originally planned a career in politics, intending to stand for the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in his home seat of Ross, Cromarty and Skye in the 1983 general election. However, a failed bid to become Senior President of Edinburgh University Students Association precipitated a change in direction, and in August 1986 he became the youngest minister in the Free Church of Scotland (aged 24), while his contemporary Charles Kennedy went on to win the same seat he had hoped to contest, becoming the youngest Member of Parliament (aged 23) in the process. [12]
Robertson's first full-time ministry charge was in Clyne Free Church, in Brora, from 1986. He became the minister of St Peter's Free Church, Dundee, (the historic church of Robert Murray McCheyne), [13] in October 1992, where he worked closely with Scottish theologian Sinclair Ferguson. He was the Moderator of the Free Church of Scotland between 2015 and 2016, [8] replacing Rev David Miller. [14]
Robertson co-founded Solas (Centre for Public Christianity) in June 2010 with the former SNP leader, Gordon Wilson, who was a member of St Peter's Free Church in his final years. [15] Robertson remained the director of Solas until 2018. [16]
Robertson's ministry became increasingly engaged with secular audiences until he entered apologetics ministry full-time in 2019.
Before moving to Australia in 2019, he was also a chaplain at the University of Dundee and former club chaplain of Dundee F.C. [17] [10]
Robertson's writings have been featured in The Scotsman [18] and Christian Today , [19] and he has appeared several times on Moody Radio. [20] He sits on the editorial advisory board for Scottish Christian Broadcast. [21]
Robertson hosts a weekly podcast on current affairs called Quantum of Solas, which began during his role with Solas Centre for Public Christianity. [22] He featured in another podcast series, Unbelievable?, debating several prominent atheists. [23] He was also the editor of The Record , the Free Church's main magazine for several years. [24]
Robertson has a blog, The Wee Flea, the name of which alludes both to Richard Dawkins' description of Robertson, John Lennox, and Alister McGrath as "fleas living off a dog's back", and to the Scottish colloquialism "Wee Frees" - referring to the Free Church of Scotland. [25] In 2017, Robertson's blog was viewed 900,000 times from 190 countries [26] and by April 2021 it had a total of over 6 million hits. [27]
In 2014, 2015, and 2016, [28] Robertson was voted one of the 100 most influential Christians in the UK by online voters on "Archbishop Cranmer's Top 100 List". [29]
Robertson's blog won Runner Up in "Blogger of the Year" category in 2014, [30] and featured as a Finalist in the "Most Inspiring Leadership Blog" category in 2015, [31] both of the Premier Digital Christian New Media Awards.
Shortly before entering the ministry, he married Annabel MacLeod, a nurse from Parkend near Stornoway. He has three children. [32]
Through his roles in Solas Centre for Public Christianity, and the 'Unbelievable?' podcast, Robertson has debated several public figures on a range of social and theological issues:
The Church of Scotland is a Presbyterian denomination of Christianity that holds the status of the national church in Scotland. It is one of the country's largest, having 259,200 members in 2023. While active membership in the church has declined significantly in recent decades, the government Scottish Household Survey found that 20% of the Scottish population, or over one million people, identified the Church of Scotland as their religious identity in 2019. The Church of Scotland's governing system is presbyterian in its approach, therefore, no one individual or group within the church has more or less influence over church matters. There is no one person who acts as the head of faith, as the church believes that role is the "Lord God's". As a proper noun, the Kirk is an informal name for the Church of Scotland used in the media and by the church itself.
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Robert Gordon Wilson was a Scottish politician and solicitor. He was the leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) from 1979 to 1990, and was SNP Member of Parliament (MP) for Dundee East from 1974 to 1987. He was Rector of the University of Dundee from 1983 to 1986.
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Antony Garrard Newton Flew was an English philosopher. Belonging to the analytic and evidentialist schools of thought, Flew worked on the philosophy of religion. During the course of his career he taught philosophy at the universities of Oxford, Aberdeen, Keele, and Reading in the United Kingdom, and at York University in Toronto, Canada.
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The Free Church of Scotland is a conservative evangelical Calvinist denomination in Scotland. It is the continuation of the original Free Church of Scotland that remained outside the union with the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland in 1900, and remains a distinct Presbyterian denomination in Scotland.
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The God Delusion is a 2006 book by British evolutionary biologist and ethologist Richard Dawkins. In The God Delusion, Dawkins contends that a supernatural creator, God, almost certainly does not exist, and that belief in a personal god qualifies as a delusion, which he defines as a persistent false belief held in the face of strong contradictory evidence. He is sympathetic to Robert Pirsig's statement in Lila (1991) that "when one person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion." In the book, Dawkins explores the relationship between religion and morality, providing examples that discuss the possibility of morality existing independently of religion and suggesting alternative explanations for the origins of both religion and morality.
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