Name Arthur McGill | Died September 10, 1980 | |
Books Suffering: A Test of Theologic, Dying Unto Life: Arthur C McGill, Sermons of Arthur C McGill, The Celebration of Flesh | ||
Arthur Chute McGill (1926 – September 10, 1980) was a Canadian born American theologian and philosopher.
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Biography
Born in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada, McGill moved to Brookline, Massachusetts, as a boy where he attended Rivers Country Day School, still extant today. He is mentioned in The Lustre of Our Country The American Experience of Religious Freedom, by prominent Senior Circuit Judge John T. Noonan, Jr.. The two men prayed and sung Protestant hymns together at the school, and Noonan refers to him as a boyhood rival: “…my River’s classmate, Arthur Chute McGill, who later became a professor at Harvard Divinity School. But at Rivers I thought of Arthur as my chief academic rival, doubly formidable because his uncle, Austin Chute, was our Latin teacher”.
He earned a B.A. from Harvard in 1941, followed by a BD from Yale Divinity School in 1951. In 1961 he completed a Ph.D from Yale with his dissertation titled The Place of Dogmatic Theology in the University. He taught at Amherst College and Wesleyan University between 1952–1957, then in 1961 he accepted an Assistant Professorship at Princeton University where he was a voice for the inclusion of women in higher education in relation to the benefits of coeducation. In 1971, McGill was elected to the position of Bussey Professor of Theology at Harvard Divinity School where he taught until his death at 54. According to Harvard University’s President’s Report of 1980-81 “McGill also held a Fulbright Scholarship at the University of Louvain, Belgium, in 1958 and was Cadbury Lecturer at the University of Birmingham, England, in 1969. He won a number of prizes for his teaching and was guest minister at churches throughout the country.”
Theological and philosophical interests
The author and editor of 25 books and/or articles in 48 publications in two languages, McGill's theological interests included Process Theology, Phenomenology, Relational Christology, Evangelicalism, Death, Suffering, and Theodicy. He had little patience for Absolutism or Monism and advocated for a God capable of change. Though McGill rejected dogmas and static doctrines, he embraced and defended the doctrine of the Trinity. In terms of philosophical schools, he could be classified as an American Pragmatist. In terms of Biblical study, he was not a literalist nor did he believe the Bible to be inerrant. He did believe, however, in the primary importance of the biblical text as it served to interpret the life of Christ in the believer's context. His theological method called for New Testament Biblical studies that grounded theological interpretation in scholarly analysis and the historical context of first century Palestine. He believed, however, that the interpretive context was enlivened and made "fresh" by the personal struggles of the believer. He was also interested in the forms and poetry.
In the words of Timothy George shortly after McGill's death, "For him theology was never an armchair exercise...it was always a matter of life and death, a struggle over ultimates....he draws upon New Testament exegesis, phenomenology of religion, and history of doctrine to present a Christian theology of suffering".
Respected as a theologian and professor during his lifetime, interest in his publications waned after his death. Over the last few years, however, his work has enjoyed a resurgence, especially his books on Suffering and Death. Through the work of David Cain, McGill's former student from Princeton Theological Seminary and currently professor of religion at the University of Mary Washington and an ordained United Church of Christ minister, together with McGill's widow Lucille "Lucy" McGill, McGill's works are being republished.
More information about Arthur C. McGill's professional contributions to the field, and a list of his publications, can be found in David Cain's article Arthur McGill: A Memoir