George Smeaton

Christ's Doctrine of the Atonement George Smeaton

George Smeaton was one of the great luminaries in the theological galaxy which graced New College, Edinburgh, in the second half of the nineteenth century. His colleague James MacGregor said that he possessed the best constituted theological intellect in Christendom. His invaluable study of our Lord's teaching on the significance of his death gives substance to that claim. In it we find Smeaton's sensitive theological acumen, his skill in judicious exposition, and his evident devotion to the person of Jesus Christ - all combined in a masterly survey of the Gospel texts which illumine the doctrine of the atonement. Christ's Doctrine of the Atonement, like its companion volume, The Apostles'Doctrine of the Atonement, is a work to be read and re-read. Those who possess it will often find themselves instinctively turning to consult Smeaton for insight on passages where other works have failed them.
Born in Berwickshire, George Smeaton (1814-89) studied at Edinburgh University and was ordained to the ministry of the Church of Scotland at Falkland in Fife in 1839. He was among those hundreds of ministers who came out at the Disruption in 1843 to form the Free Church of Scotland, and later that year was inducted to Auchterarder Free Church. He was appointed to the Chair of Divinity at the Free Church College in Aberdeen in 1853, and in 1857 became Professor of New Testament Exegesis at New College, Edinburgh, holding this post until his death in 1889.