Tulloch, JOHN

Tulloch, JOHN, an eminent Scottish divine, was born at Bridge of Earn, in Perthshire, June 1, 1823, studied at St Andrews and Edinburgh, and was licensed to preach in 1844. Next year he accepted the charge of St Paul's at Dundee, in 1849 was presented to Kettins in Forfarshire, and was appointed in 1854 principal and primarius professor of Divinity in St Mary's College, St Andrews. Appointed in 1859 one of the Queen's chaplains, he became senior principal at St Andrews in 1860, deputy-clerk of the General Assembly in 1862, Clerk in 1875, and Moderator in 1878, and died at Torquay, February 13, 1886. From an early age he contributed to the magazines—North British Review, British Quarterly, and later the Contemporary Review and Fraser's Magazine, of which last he was for some time editor. His first book was the second Burnett prize essay on Theism (1855), and this was followed by Leaders of the Reformation (1859), English Protestants and their Leaders (1861), Beginning Life (addressed to young men, 1862), The Christ of the Gospels and of Modern Criticism—an answer to Renan (1864), Rational Theology and Christian Philosophy in the Seventeenth Century—altogether an admirable work, discussing with equal sympathy and insight the Falkland group and the Christian Platonists (2 vols. 1872), Facts of Religion and Life (sermons, 1876), Pascal in Blackwood's 'Foreign Classics' (1876), The Christian Doctrine of Sin—the Croall Lectures at Edinburgh (1877), Modern Theories in Philosophy and Religion (1884), and Movements of Religious Thought in Britain during the Nineteenth Century (1885). Tulloch was a fearless Liberal alike in politics and theology. His conception of an Established Church involved the idea of a comprehensiveness and tolerance unusual to Presbyterian theology, and he laboured throughout life to lay down the sure foundations on which a rational yet reverent Christianity might be firmly built, which should be distinguished by its inwardness and spiritual elevation rather than by the rigidity of its definitions. The strength and earnestness of his own religious convictions, his large-hearted benevolence, catholic sympathy and broad culture, his noble presence and impressive oratory made him conspicuous among men, whether on the floor of the Assembly, on the platform, or in the pulpit. See Memoir by Mrs Oliphant (1888).