Rutherford House
The Legacy Of Rutherford House
Origin's Of RCRT
The Rev William Still of Gilcomston South Church in Aberdeen had a huge influence on the rise of evangelicalism in the Church of Scotland. With others he created the Crieff Brotherhood (later the Crieff Fellowship) to encourage and support evangelical ministries in the Kirk, not least those who were in congregations which did not share their evangelical views. The Fellowship was based on several convictions: first, the need for systematic preaching through the Scriptures, covering the whole Bible. He once famously said that it takes a whole Bible to make a whole Christian. Second, the vital importance of Prayer in the life of the congregation. Third, the simplification of congregational structures to focus on the essentials of the Word, Fellowship and Prayer. He inherited a church with many clubs, organisations and social activities but he closed them down. He once said that the task of the Minister is to feed the sheep and not to entertain the goats!
Mr Still also had a deep concern for theological education and the lack of evangelicals teaching in the four ancient universities where Church of Scotland Ministers were educated. It was Dr Sinclair Ferguson, however, who set out the vision in 1980 under the name ‘The Westminster Project’, the intention being to establish a centre for evangelical scholarship, which would seek to engage the Church and the divinity faculties, from a Reformed and evangelical perspective. In 1981, Mr Still, Sinclair Ferguson and others created the Scottish Evangelical Research Trust as a vehicle to establish the proposed Study Centre. Mr Still was appointed chairman of the Trust and the Rev Dr Nigel Cameron was appointed as Warden of the Study Centre. In addition to the Trustees who had primary responsibility for the Trust, the Trustees appointed a Council, chaired by the Rev Martin Allen, to deal with the day to day work of the Study Centre. The Council duly set up various sub-committees: property, finance, library and research & publications. There was also agreement that the Study Centre should be called ‘Rutherford House’ after the famous 17th century Scottish theologian Samuel Rutherford (pictured).
The Early Days
A large house at 17 Claremont Park in Edinburgh was duly purchased, with the bulk of the funding coming from ‘the ladies’ as they were anonymously called, being two sisters from the USA who were friends of Mr Still and supporters of his ministry. Renovation works then began on the building to make it fit for purpose, primarily on what would become the library. The library of the late Gordon Anderson-Smith was donated by his widow Myrtle to be the core of the new library. Myrtle was herself a special collections librarian at Aberdeen University and did a huge amount, with others, in getting the library established. Rutherford House was formally opened in February 1983, with an inaugural lecture by the Rev F.D. Kidner, formerly Warden of Tyndale House in Cambridge. A service of dedication was led by Mr Still, chairman of the Trustees.
By the autumn of 1982 Rutherford House had published two booklets, ‘Is there Substance to our Faith?’ and ‘Freedom and the Fundamentals’. It had also agreed to publish The Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology in partnership with the Scottish Evangelical Theology Society. Plans were afoot for a new series of booklets to be called ‘Rutherford House Forum Papers’ to deal with issues in debate within the Church of Scotland.
An annual Rutherford House Week was established and Dr J.I. Packer lectured in 1983. In 1984 we had Professor Edmond Clowney and Dr D.A. Carson as the speakers. The annual week was soon an established part of the calendar, with the speakers such as Dr Carl Henry travelling around Scotland. At the same time, since the warden, Dr Nigel Cameron had a significant academic interest in medical ethics, Rutherford House established the ‘Medical Ethics Project’ and began to produce the journal Ethics and Medicine.
The Edinburgh Dogmatics Conference
One major development in 1985 was the establishment of the Edinburgh Dogmatics Conference, which has taken place every two years since. Since the Tyndale Fellowship focussed on biblical studies, it was thought that Rutherford House could make a parallel contribution by concentrating on systematic and historical theology. It was agreed that the conference would be biennial, alternating with the Fellowship of European Evangelical Theologians conference, which is also biennial and which some supporters of Rutherford House attended.
The titles of the first few conferences indicate the range of topics under consideration: ‘The Challenge of Evangelical Theology: Approach & Method’ (1985); ‘Issues in Faith and History’ (1987); ‘The Power & Weakness of God: Impassibility & Orthodoxy’ (1989); ‘Universalism and the Doctrine of Hell’ (1991); and ‘The Trinity in a Pluralistic Age’ (1993). The normal practice was to produce a book after each conference and some notable volumes were published. Prominent speakers were invited to all of these conferences, and this resulted in serious and sustained debate. It would take up too much space to list all of the contributors over the years, but they have included T.F. Torrance, Paul Helm, Kate Sonderegger, Colin Gunton, Henri Blocher, Cynthia Brown, Bruce McCormack, David Wright, Julie Canlis, Kelly Kapic, Oliver O’Donovan, Elizabeth Shively, Michael Horton, N.T. Wright, Karla Wubbenhorst, Lewis Ayres, Francis Watson, Katherine Sonderegger, Don Carson, John Webster, David Fergusson, Donald Macleod, Kees van der Kooi, Kevin Vanhoozer, and many more. The work of the Dogmatics Conference was deepened and advanced by the establishment of the Rutherford House Fellowship, similar to the Tyndale Fellowship.
In 1986 a festschrift was presented to Mr Still called Pulpit and People, published by Rutherford House and edited by Nigel Cameron and Sinclair Ferguson. It is common for academics to receive such an honour but less so for Ministers. He was, however, such an exceptional man that he truly deserved the honour. We recently received a request to digitise the book and so it is now available at Rob Bradshaw’s Biblical Studies website.
1986 was also the year that the Surgeon-General of the USA, Dr C. Everett Koop, visited the UK under the auspices of Rutherford House. A new element of the work of Rutherford House began that year with the establishment of lectures and conferences for elder training.
Dr Nigel Cameron, as the first warden of the House, occupied the post for approximately ten years. The Rev David Searle became the second warden. One significant emphasis during this period was providing support and encouragement to young ministers, as well as organising conferences and training for ministers, elders and others, both in Scotland and in Northern Ireland. The publication of books was also accelerated during this period. Mr Searle retired in 2003 and the Rev Dr Bob Fyall became the first ‘Director’ of the House, a post which he held for four years. During Dr Fyall’s tenure, there was a re-emphasis on the House as a centre for evangelical scholarship and engagement with the Academy.
The Later Years
In 2007-8 discussions were held regarding the future of the Rutherford House building. The library was not being used as well as had originally been hoped and there were very few people who came to RH for sabbatical or study leave. The decision was made to sell 17 Claremont Park. In June 2008, Dr Jason Curtis was appointed Director and he helped to find offices in 1 Hill Street. Later, due to the high cost of 1 Hill Street, RH moved to offices in Palmerston Place Church. During Dr Curtis’ tenure, one of the key emphases was on church revitalisation. After Dr Curtis left, there was a period without a Director, as the Trustees worked on the vision, finances and future shape of the work.
This rethinking by the Trustees led to Rutherford House being renamed the ‘Rutherford Centre for Reformed Theology’ and relocating to the Highlands of Scotland. The Rev Professor Andrew McGowan was appointed as Director of this new phase in the life of the work. Professor McGowan had been a member of the Council of Rutherford House since its inception in 1981 and later served as a Trustee and as Chair of the Trustees. In this period there were three elements: research and writing, education and training, and promotion of Reformed Theology. One emphasis was on ecclesiology (the doctrine of the church) which led to a number of books being published in the RCRT Ecclesiology series by Wipf & Stock.
HTC and RCRT
Part of the new vision which led to the establishment of RCRT and the move to premises within the Highland Theological College, was to support the work of HTC, especially its research side. The absence of a Reformed and Evangelical theological college where Church of Scotland ministers could be educated was one of the drivers of Sinclair Ferguson’s initial vision for Rutherford House and indeed he gave a lecture at the opening of HTC. The synergy means that for RCRT to merge into HTC is a natural conclusion to the trajectory we have been on. The Trustees of RCRT hope and pray that this coming together will be of benefit to the evangelical cause in Scotland and we would urge prayer for its successful merger.
There is much more could be said about what has been accomplished by Rutherford House and by RCRT in the past 40 years but the above is sufficient to give some indication of the varied work which has been done to encourage people to think biblically and theologically. That work will go on within HTC, for which we are very grateful.
It is also appropriate at this point to thank all of the people who have been involved in Rutherford House and RCRT throughout these past 40 years. This includes the Trustees, the Board and Council members and those who served on the many committees. We give thanks for the full-time and part-time staff, including administrative and library staff as well as the various Wardens and Directors. We remember too the many volunteers who gave of their time and energy to progress the work. We are also grateful to those who helped to fund Rutherford House over the years, including those who gave for particular projects, and those faithful friends who have given each month right through to the present day.
Above all, however, we are grateful to God for giving Mr Still and others the vision in the first place and then demonstrating his faithfulness, his guidance and his support at every stage of the work. May all the glory be his.
Our Upcoming Edinburgh Dogmatics Conference
The next Edinburgh Dogmatics Conference will take place from Tuesday 3rd June until Thursday 5th June 2025 and will be held in the Edinburgh Theological Seminary.
The conference will be on the theme of ‘Creeds, Confessions and the Church’, not least because of the anniversary of Nicaea.
It is also the 40th Anniversary of the first Edinburgh Dogmatics Conference held in 1985.
The Speakers are Henri Blocher, Myk Habets, Tony Lane, Paul Nimmo, Sara Parvis, Zach Purvis, Ken Stewart and Steve Holmes.
This will be the third conference on the theme of ecclesiology. The papers from our 2021 conference were published as Engaging Ecclesiology, the papers from the 2023 conference on ‘The Holy Spirit & the Church’ are currently being edited for publication.
We'd love to welcome you there.