I am often asked by friends and students how to begin a serious study of the life and work of Thomas Chalmers. This is at least partly because I can
hardly ever give a lecture, preach a sermon, write an essay, or post a blog
without mentioning him. But even
more, it is because reading Chalmers can prove to be an arduous and elusive
pursuit.
Don’t be fooled
by the fact that at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Chalmers was
heralded as the greatest preacher in the English-speaking world: he is very
difficult to read. His vocabulary is vast and unfamiliar, his Scots syntax is peculiar to those of us accustomed to the less
circuitous English spoken south of the Tweed, and his pre-Victorian, Regency
era rhetorical formalism is quite alien to modern readers and speakers of the
King’s Tongue. Plowing through his
dense style is more than a little difficult—but it is also very much worth the
effort.
It is worth the
effort, that is, if you can find his works to plow through. And that is no easy matter either. Virtually all of his books have long
been out of print. Reprints are
not only few and far between, they tend to be scanned from antiquarian library
copies rather than newly, clearly typeset. You can find quite an array of titles in the Google Books
and Guttenberg Project digital collections—but, they lack the context that good
introductory essays, explanatory footnotes and historical references, and deep
indexing might provide.
I have long
thought that something like what James Bratt has undertaken to rehabilitate the
life and work of Abraham Kuyper (especially his Centennial Reader and his magisterial biography), needs to be done for the life and work of
Chalmers. But until someone is
able to take up that substantial mantle, we will have to content ourselves with
a handful of scattered resources.
The first book
that I always send readers to is the short profile by John Roxborough and
Stuart Piggen entitled, The St. Andrew
Seven (Banner of Truth). Though not entirely about Chalmers
(most of the text is devoted to six of his students and the way he influenced
the trajectory of their lives and ministries) it is nevertheless the best
single, accessible work available in a modern edition.
The doctoral
thesis of John Roxborogh is likewise very helpful. Thomas Chalmers:
Enthusiast For Mission (Rutherford House and Paternoster Press) is a
concise examination of the parish vision and missional structure Chalmers
helped to institutionalize in the Free Kirk.
In terms of
biography, the most helpful work currently in print is a single chapter in Iain
Murray’s A Scottish Christian Heritage (Banner of Truth). As he always seems to be able to do,
Murray captures the heart and soul of both the Gospel message and the human,
historical means by which that message is proclaimed in this poor fallen world.
Another helpful doctoral
dissertation recently published, but alas now out of print, is Stephen Brown’s Thomas
Chalmers and the Godly Commonwealth
(Oxford). Serving as a critical
biography, the work affords useful balance to the historical and theological
reader.
Of the nearly
one hundred works actually written by Chalmers, only the two volumes of his Sabbath Scripture Readings (Solid Ground)
and his Letters (Banner of Truth)
remain in print. The Readings are delightful Lectio Divina meditations on individual
chapters of Scripture written for his personal devotions during the last few
years of his life. They provide us
with a remarkable glimpse into both his heart and his ministry, his piety and
his hermeneutic. The Letters portray the great man at work,
at home, on the stump, in the midst of controversy, in the classroom, and
amongst his brethren in a way that only a collection of personal correspondence
possibly could.
Of his sermons, only The Expulsive
Power of a New Affection is widely available. It is genius and certainly warrants the attentions of
serious students of the Gospel.
But a host of his other works are as valuable. A new, annotated edition of his most accessible works should
be a high priority for an enterprising publisher—as would a new comprehensive
biography and in-depth studies of his parish vision, missional strategies, and
church planting endeavors.
Chalmers once asserted, “No matter how large, your vision is too small.” My own vision for recovering the work
of Chalmers from undue obscurity is large, but I am quite certain that in this
too, he is right: it remains too small.
Postscript: I have been “working” on a number of volumes for the past
several years. At least a couple
of them will see the light of day very soon: a new annotated edition of the Keystone Memory System devised by
Chalmers should be released as an e-book later this fall; a very abbreviated,
annotated collection of his sermons will be ready as a digital download shortly
after that; a collection of epigrams and quotes is also nearing completion; a collection of my talks on Chalmers and his reforming
vision could be ready as soon as this Spring; and both my big biography and my analysis of the
parish system Chalmers recovered are on the drawing boards. I even have titles for both: A Wider Diameter of Light for the former; Parish Life for the latter.
