Moderator of the Federal Council of the Evangelical Free Churches (1926–27)
Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of England (1928)
Carnegie Simpson was born in Horsham, Australia, in 1865.[2] His father, the Rev. Patrick Simpson, in line with the evangelical commitment of the Scottish Free Church,[3] had opted for missionary work in the newly settled colony,[4] arriving in Australia in 1858.[5] Ten years later however,[6] shortly after the death of his wife and in declining health,[7] he returned to Scotland. He died 5 years later. Simpson was raised with his brother and sister in the austere but secure atmosphere of Presbyterian observance[8] at his aunt's house in Morningside, Edinburgh.
Education
Carnegie Simpson was educated at George Watson's College and, in 1882, at the age of 17, was admitted to Edinburgh University to read for an M.A. in humanities. While at university, he participated in the social and political aspects of undergraduate life,[9] graduating in 1885 with first-class honours in philosophy. He spent the following summer semester at Heidelberg[10][11] and, on his return, entered New College, Edinburgh, the theological Hall of the Free Church of Scotland, to prepare for the Ministry. It was a time of profound transformation in the Scottish religious, intellectual, and social order due to the renewal triggered by the Disruption, the radical innovations in scientific thinking, and rapid industrialisation.[12] The transformation was characterized by a transition from the Calvinistic conservatism of the past towards more flexible evangelical liberalism.[13] The faculty at New College reflected this change and included among its staff, teachers such as Principal Rainy, A. B. Davidson, and Marcus Dods, who were in the vanguard of this new approach.[14] After completing his studies at New Hall in 1890, and at the invitation of George Adam Smith, professor of Old Testament studies at Free Church College, Glasgow, Carnegie Simpson undertook an extended tour of the Holy Land, together with fellow student Charles Anderson Scott.[citation needed]
Ministry
Following the tour, Simpson entered a probationary period of assistantship, first at St John's Free Church in Largs, Ayrshire, followed by Free St Andrews in Edinburgh. In 1894, he married Agnes Schmalz from Copenhagen and after a brief period of engaging in literary work for Sir William Robertson Nicholl, editor of the British Weekly, in London,[15] was ordained in 1895[10] by the Presbytery of London South and inducted into the charge of Christchurch, Wallington. In 1899, Simpson moved to Scotland to become Minister at Renfield Church, Glasgow, one of the leading Free Church congregations,[16] where he was to remain until 1911.[17]
Renfield
The years at Renfield were a period of intense ecclesiastical and creative activity. He arrived at the time of the Scottish Church crisis (See below) and inevitably found himself engaged in the turmoil of ecclesiastical politics. Two books that he wrote during this time, The Fact of Christ and The Life of Principal Rainy,[18](See below) were particularly well received. While at Renfield, he also struck up a lasting friendship with James Denney[19] who held the chair of New Testament Language and Literature at Free Church College, Glasgow.[20] In 1911, however, Carnegie Simpson returned to England to become Minister at the Presbyterian Church of Egremont, Wallasey.[17]
Westminster College Cambridge
Westminster College, Cambridge
His ministry at Egremont was short-lived as three years later, in 1914, he was appointed to the Chair of Church History at Westminster College Cambridge,[21] a post which he occupied until his retirement in 1937.[citation needed]
Post-war period
During the 1920s, Carnegie Simpson was once more drawn into the arena of Church affairs. He was most notably involved in the negotiations arising from the Lambeth Conference,[22] the Prayer Book Controversy, and the setting up of the Federal Council of the Evangelical Free Churches[23] to foster cooperation between the nonconformist denominations. Carnegie Simpson became Moderator of the Federal Council of the Evangelical Free Churches of England in 1926 and 1927, and 1928, he was elected Moderator of the General Assembly, the highest office and final court of appeal of the Presbyterian Church of England. Disappointed[24] by the failure of the Lambeth Conversations after the 1930 Lambeth Conference, Carnegie Simpson played a decreasingly active role in Church politics in the 1930s. In 1937, at the age of 72, he retired from Westminster College. He was elected Professor Emeritus[25] by the Presbytery of London North the following year. Carnegie Simpson died in Cambridge in 1947.[citation needed]
The Scottish Church crisis
The opening years of the 20th century was a period of great unrest in the Free Church of Scotland. This was due to the discord, and at times vehement friction,[26] between the majority, under the leadership of Principal Rainy who championed the movement for union with the United Presbyterian Church,[27] and a small dissenting minority[28] - later to become known as the "Wee Free Kirk". The minority, who were essentially from the Highlands and Western Isles,[29] disapproved of the more liberal and evangelical interpretation of the Westminster Confession of Faith and claimed to be the sole authentic representatives of the Free Church.[30] When the union between the Free Church and the United Presbyterians was finally proclaimed in 1900 (to form the "United Free Church") a lawsuit was filed by the "Wee Frees" disputing its legality.
House of Lords' ruling
Although initially rejected in the Scottish courts, the suit was upheld on appeal by the 1904 ruling of the House of Lords.[31] It was the confusion resulting from the dispossession of the United Free Church majority of the totality of the Church buildings, real estate, and financial assets that constituted the "Scottish Church Crisis".[32] The affair took on such proportions that the Government in Westminster finally considered it necessary to set up a parliamentary commission which resulted in the unprecedented "Churches (Scotland) Act"[33] that overruled the House of Lords' decision and restored to the United Free Church all those assets that the minority were not able to use.
Ecclesiastical and academic career
The Scottish experience
Carnegie Simpson moved back to Scotland in 1899 to take up his Ministry at Renfield, just one year before the unification of the two Churches. It was a moment of troubled times and he found himself confronted with a situation of warring factions. He was immediately drawn into the debate in support of Rainy[34] and, according to an editorial in the Journal of Presbyterian Historical Society of England, it was this experience that served as his apprenticeship in ecclesiastical affairs and as a negotiator.[35] His reputation spread rapidly.[36] He became the youngest member to the Assembly's "Advisory Committee" which had been set up by Rainy to manage the situation[36] and was called on to address meetings across Scotland[37] and in London, to write pamphlets and articles for the press, and to negotiate with landlords to obtain land for temporary places of worship.[38] During the same period, he carried several motions in the General Assembly and was also appointed to a number of other committees, including the committee set up (1909) to examine the issue of union between the Church of Scotland and the United Free Church[39] which was finally realised by the Act of Union in 1929.
Return to England
For Carnegie Simpson, however, this intensive involvement as the author of Rainy's biography and in ecclesiastical politics was not the sort of engagement he had been seeking in the Church. Consequently, partly in order to escape from this,[40] but also because the overload of work had meant, as he himself acknowledged,[41] that he had not been able to satisfy his pastoral duties at Renfield as fully as he would have wished,[42] he gladly accepted a Ministry at Egremont in 1911 that would allow him to devote himself more to pastoral work.[43]
Teacher and academic
In 1914, one month before the war broke out, Carnegie Simpson was elected by the Synod of the Presbyterian Church of England to the Chair of "Church History" at Westminster College, Cambridge. During the war period, teaching at Westminster was suspended[10] and Carnegie Simpson carried out chaplaincy for the 1st Eastern General Hospital and was in charge of the congregation at St John's Wood, London.[44]
It is not so much as a scholar that Carnegie Simpson is remembered but rather as a forceful teacher,[45] less concerned with detailed historical analysis than in providing his students with a broad framework of the underlying essentials.[46] According to Hay Colligan, Carnegie Simpson's professorship at Westminster was essentially characterised by a widening of the scope of the subject beyond the strict realms of Presbyterianism to a more global, historical view of "the general development of doctrine, dogma and polity."[47]
Negotiator
Despite his pre-war declared lack of enthusiasm for ecclesiastical affairs, Carnegie Simpson soon found himself drawn back into the world of Church politics and committee work. This proved to be an area in which he excelled and his skills as a negotiator and arbitrator are widely acclaimed.[48][49] It is particularly for his efforts to foster greater cooperation and mutual understanding between the different denominations of the Church[50] that his work is remembered. In the words of Professor Healey, it was what Carnegie Simpson did "beyond the strict bounds of the English Presbyterian Church, but in the realm of inter-Church relations that his impact was most significant."[51][52]
Over the following 10 years, he played a prominent role in the following areas:
Federal Council of the Evangelical Free Churches
In 1919 the Federal Council of the Evangelical Free Churches was set up to encourage cooperation between the different denominations.[53] Carnegie Simpson assisted in the drafting of its constitution and was the chief author of the Statement of Faith.[43] He was elected Moderator of the council for two consecutive years (1926 – 27).
Lambeth Conversations
One of the outcomes of the maelstrom of WW1 was that it acted as a catalyst for change.[54] In 1920, the Anglican Church launched the "Lambeth Appeal to all Christian People" proposing closer association with the nonconformist Churches and thus marking a fundamental change[55] in attitude towards inter-Church relations. The Federal Council of the Evangelical Free Churches responded favourably to this ecumenical gesture and a committee was set up, chaired by Carnegie Simpson who drafted the reply - "The Free Churches and the Lambeth Appeal," - and participated with notable brio in the ensuing negotiations.[56][57] As a result, strong and lasting ties, both personnel and inter-denominational, were made with the Anglican Church.[58] These negotiations, however, finally turned out to be fruitless and were terminated in 1930. Carnegie Simpson expressed his disappointment at this outcome in a letter to The Times.[59]
New Prayer Book
In order to better meet the needs of the new century and because of growing incoherence and disparity in the use of the liturgical rites in the Church of England, a reformulation of the Prayer Book had become increasingly pressing.[60] After 20 years of deliberation, the final version was presented to Parliament in 1927,[61] generating intense debate. Insofar as the Church of England is the Established Church of the Realm, the controversy became a question of national importance with direct implications for all the nonconformist denominations. There was fear of the current increasing ritualism,[62] that the Reformation Settlement might be imperilled,[63][64] while more extreme opinions evoked the danger of a return to "all the errors and horrors of Roman Catholicism".[65] On 17 September 1927, Carnegie Simpson wrote a memorandum to the Ecclesiastical Committee[66] pointing to the shortcomings and ambiguities of the text and the need for the Free Churches to obtain strong guarantees before approving it. In reply to this, Archbishop Randall Davidson invited Carnegie Simpson to Lambeth Palace[67] where the memorandum formed the basis of the discussions between the various parties. Unlike the majority of the Free Churches, Carnegie Simpson was not fundamentally hostile to the project, believing that a satisfactory compromise could be found.[68] However, this "Simpson position"[69] did not, in the end, prevail and the project was finally rejected by Parliament on 15 December 1927.
General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of England
Carnegie Simpson became convenor of the Business Committee of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of England in 1920, a post which he held for 11 years. His period of tenure was acknowledged as being particularly successful.[70]
Moderator
In 1928, Carnegie Simpson was elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of England.[71]
Presbyterian Historical Society of England
Carnegie Simpson was a strong supporter of the Society from the time of its creation in 1913 and acted as Honorary President between 1925 and 1947.[72]
Westminster College Memorial Chapel
Carnegie Simpson served as an intermediary between Sir William and Lady Noble and Westminster College with regard to the donation of the Memorial Chapel in commemoration of their son, killed on the Belgian front in 1915.[73]
The author
Books
Carnegie Simpson, is as has been already mentioned, especially noted for two of his books, both written in the early days of his career.
The Fact of Christ (1900) Carnegie Simpson's first book brought him immediately and durably into the limelight.[74] It rapidly became a national and international success and was translated into at least seven languages.[10] Between 1900 and 2012, there were 36 editions[75] and readings from it were programmed by the BBC.[76] The book, an apologetics in answer to the "rising assault of agnosticism",[77] was based on a series of lectures given at evening classes in his early years at Renfield and aimed at "the honest doubter". The Fact of Christ avoids dogma and theology to focus on "the simplicity of Christianity and its emphasis upon life rather than orthodoxy …"[78]
Contents: 1. The Data of Christianity - 2. What is the Fact of Christ? - 3. The First Meaning of the Fact: i) The Christian Character ii) The Moral Motive-Power - 4. The Further Meaning of the Fact: i) The Foundation of Faith ii) "And the Word was God" - 5. The Final Meaning of the Fact: i) The Reality of Sin ii) The Problem of Forgiveness. Addendum: The Principles of Atonement - 6. What is a Christian?
The Life of Principle Rainy (1909) In 1907, Carnegie Simpson was invited to write the biography of the recently deceased Robert Rainy,[79] the most prominent figure in the Scottish Church at the time.[80] Carnegie Simpson had known Rainy well, having studied under him for 4 years at New Hall and through their close collaboration during the Scottish Church Crisis. The two-volume biography of the man, considered by many as one of the charismatic leaders[81] and founding fathers of the Free Church, is as Carnegie Simpson notes in the preface, "in many respects an ecclesiastical history as well as a biography".[82] Amongst other things, the book discusses in length Rainy's role in the notorious heresy trial brought against Professor William Robertson Smith and the legal crisis triggered by the House of Lords ruling in 1904 (See above) against the Scottish Free Church. The work received widespread academic acclaim[83] and led to an honorary degree of D.D. from St Andrew's University.[10]
Other publications of Carnegie Simpson include:
The Facts of Life in Relation to Faith (1913) In this sequel[84] to The Fact Of Christ, Carnegie Simpson explores in greater depth some of the questions raised in his first book in relation to the political and social problems posed by the changing, modern world.
Contents: 1. The Creed of Experience - 2. The Indifferent World - 3. The Problem of Pain - 4. The Atheistic Fact - 5. The Reality of Christ - 6. The Claim of Humanism - 7. The Veto of Death - 8. The Comment of To-day
Church Principles (1923) Based on notes written to serve as guidelines for the presentation of the Free Church position during the long negotiations resulting from the Lambeth Appeal on Christian Unity, this volume reviews "the salient and guiding principles … of ecclesiastical life and order". The last chapter is more speculative and concerns the practical outcomes of considering the Church as a living entity.[85]
Contents: 1. The Creative Fact - 2. The Visible Body - 3. People and Ministry - 4. Word and Sacrament - 5. Scripture and Creed - 6. Freedom and the State - 7. The Living Church
Westminster College Chapel, Cambridge. The Gift of Sir. W. J. Noble, Bart., and Lady Noble (1926) This monograph written in collaboration with Sir and Lady Noble and with descriptive notes by Carnegie Simpson commemorates the erection of the Memorial Chapel, funded by the Nobles, in memory of their son killed in WWI. The chapel is noted for its fine stained glass windows[86] illustrating the Benedicite[87] and designed by the Scottish artist, Douglas Strachan.
The Church and the State (1929) Here, the author gives a general overview, from the standpoint of the Free Church, of the evolution of the relations between civil and ecclesiastical institutions from New Testament times to the present day.[88] It is written in the light of his experiences with Rainy during the Scottish Church Crisis and, as the dedication to Archbishop Davidson implies, the Lambeth conversations and the Prayer Book controversy.
Contents: 1. The War and the Peace - 2. The Established Religion - 3. The Pope and the Emperor - 4. The Seeds of Reform - 5. Reformation Settlements: i) German and Genevan ii) British - 6. The Growth of Toleration - 7. Modern Developments - 8. The Present Situation
Essentials: A Few Plain Essays on the Main Things (1930) This volume stands apart from the others as it is not aimed specifically at an audience of believers or the orthodox.[89] It is more a general reflection on life and the lessons that are to be drawn from the human experience. He explores the role of work, love, happiness, suffering, friendship, the idealism of youth, and the satisfactions of maturity. It is "the work of Simpson the Christian man rather than the Church historian."[25]
Contents: 1. Introductory - 2. Love and Life - 3. Work and Life - 4. Why be Moral? - 5. Experience - 6. Belief in God - 7. Venit Hesperus[90] - 8. Conclusion
The Evangelical Church Catholic. The Thirteenth Series of the Chalmer's Lectures (1934) This book is a reflection on some of the "capital elements in the character, structure, and function of Christ's Church as we find these exhibited and as we would see them developed …"[91] In particular, the author examines the danger of "Ecclesiastical Materialism," that is to say, the tendency for the spiritual character of the Church to become obscured by the exterior structure.[92]
(N.B. An American edition of this book was published (1935) under the title: The Fact of the Christian Church.)
Contents: 1. The Church, a Continuous Life - 2. The Religion of the Evangel - 3. Gospel in Word and Sacrament - 4. The Development of Doctrine - 5. Elements of Order and Unity - 6. The Evangel and Civilisation
Recollections - Mainly Ecclesiastical but Sometimes Human (1943): As its name suggests, this, his last book, is essentially autobiographical, except for the epilogue in which Carnegie Simpson returns to reflect on certain fundamental issues of life. It is generally lighter in tone, containing a profusion of anecdotes and insightful remarks[93] on Church politics and the colleagues and personalities he knew. In so doing, the book reveals much about lesser-known and more personal traits of the public man.
Contents: 1. Up to 1911 Scotland - 2. From 1911 England - 3. Epilogue i) The Validity of Faith ii) The Value of Life
Love Never Faileth (1902): Some mention should also be made of Carnegie Simpson's little-known, second book, a rather unexpected and whimsical romantic novel. It was written, according to the author, during a summer holiday shortly after his marriage in "a slight effort…. to amuse my wife".[94] This escapade into such a different realm casts an interesting light on the multiple facets of the very humane person behind the distinguished divine. Although the book's literary merits seem doubtful,[95] Carnegie Simpson is sufficiently attached to it to afford it several lines in Recollections, even if his remarks are made with his characteristic, wry humour.[96]
Short texts, papers, lectures …
Carnegie Simpson edited and made contributions to a number of other books and a certain number of his more important conferences were published. See the Bibliography below.
Letter writer, articles to the press
Carnegie Simpson was a prolific letter writer and contributor to the general press, not only on strictly ecclesiastical questions but also in relation to more general, social problems such as: Living wages for miners,[97]Nurse Cavell,[98] The treatment of mental patients,[99] The legitimacy of war,[100] Marriage in the modern world,[101]H.G. Wells,[102] The atomic bomb[103] and other subjects.
The man
In a letter addressed to The Times in 1907, Carnegie Simpson appealed to readers to allow him access to personal documents to assist him in the writing of the biography of Principal Rainy.[104] "A biographer", he explained, "must illustrate other aspects …. besides that of the public ecclesiastic" for, as he was fond of saying, "a man's career is one thing, and his life is another".[105] Likewise, for Carnegie Simpson, over and above an account of the career of the eminent churchman, the talented negotiator and the successful author, it is necessary to make some attempt to portray the "inner man".
A question of style
Hay Colligan in his appreciation of 1938 writes: " Dr. Simpson has that undeniable quality we call personality"[106] and, in echo to this, Professor Healey titles his retrospective article in 1972, "Patrick Carnegie Simpson. A Man of Style."[72] This question of style is first and foremost apparent in his writing and public speaking.[107][108] Many of his contemporaries comment on, not only his command of language and his wide-ranging humanist culture,[109] but equally the clarity of his arguments.[110][111] Intimately linked to his public charisma are two other traits, namely his fairness in dealing with opposing opinions in debate,[112] and his abiding sense of humour which played no small part in his success as a negotiator. Humour had more than a superficial place in his system of values.[113] This "twinkling eye of truth"[114] as he calls it, is one of the essentials if one is to keep "a balanced view of things".[115] Even in his most serious academic writings, he cannot resist resorting to tongue-in-cheek commentaries.[116] One of his favourite maxims, which hung framed above his desk, was:
"Non es sanctior si laudaris, nec vilior si vituperaris. Quod es, hoc es; nec melior dici vales quam Deo teste sis."
(Praise adds nothing to your holiness, nor does blame take anything from it. You are what you are, and you cannot be said to be better than you are in the sight of God.)[117]
This may go some way to explaining why his wit is, at times, readily employed to point to any signs of pretension or self-inflation[118] and, if required, could be scathingly caustic.[119] This being said, by and large, his humour was mild and indulgent,[120] not infrequently marshalled at the expense of the clergy[121] and very often self-deprecatory.[122]
Carnegie Simpson had, by all accounts, a remarkable zest for life.[123] As he says in Essentials, "It is a good and great thing to travel through this wide and wonderful world".[124] He delighted in the multifaceted nature of life,[125] in the beauty to be found in the natural world and literature,[126] in the "saving idealism of the youth."[127] He enjoyed challenge and action,[128] and relished in the "cut and thrust"[129] of discussion and debate. At the same time, however, Carnegie Simpson was, according to Professor Healy, "a profoundly religious man"[130] as is reflected in his writings by his preoccupation with the eternal questions of the suffering of the innocent,[131] of social injustice[132] and of despair.[133] Nevertheless, this did not prevent him delighting in a certain "mischievous irreverence", a shying away from the pitfalls of too rigid obedience to any doxa.[134] He makes it clear that he feels ill at ease with a religion that is too facile, too comforting, that sweeps away all doubts.[135] One of his recurrent themes is that "religion cannot answer all the questions" and he insists that "even when a man who is counted religious, is only religious, he is incomplete".[136] This dichotomy between belief and a necessary scepticism was mirrored in life by his well-known predilection for mixing in other than clerical circles.[137]
Critical judgements
While it is certain that Carnegie Simpson relished in the "Comédie humaine",[138] enjoying, as Healey nicely puts it, the company of men and women of all sorts, "whether in Episcopal palaces or in public houses",[139] the other side of the coin is that the arresting style and the high-profile stances that he adopted could not receive universal approval. The "Wee Frees" in no way subscribed to the position he took in the Scottish Church Crisis. Others complained that his search for compromise with the Anglicans and Church unity did not reflect the opinion of the Presbyterian rank and file,[140] and the obvious pleasure with which Carnegie Simpson narrates his encounters with the "Kalos k'agathos"[141] (The beautiful and the good) and otherworldly acquaintances was not always to everyone's taste; to some, such manifest urbanity was not quite appropriate.[142] Others are critical of his lack of orthodoxy; a reviewer in Biblica Sacra talks of what he calls "an unwholesome steering away from accepted and tested modes of expression."[143] Lumsden[144] and the "Dictionary of Scottish Church History & Theology"[145] regret a tendency towards hagiography in his most highly considered book, "The Life of Principal Rainy." Swanton is more severe, going so far as to suggest that Carnegie Simpson was "too closely identified with Rainy to evaluate his character and actions with the desired objectivity".[146] Equally, on occasions Carnegie Simpson voiced opinions on ethical and political questions[147] or indulged in sweeping generalisations[148] which, with the advantage of hindsight, we may today consider with askance.
Family
It was during a trip to Norway that Carnegie Simpson met his future wife, the daughter of a Danish Lutheran pastor, whom he married in 1894.[149] Agnes Schmalz came from a very different background to the austere Presbyterian environment in which Carnegie Simpson had been brought up. She was a highly accomplished pianist and "Lieder" singer[150] and accustomed to moving in cosmopolitan and artistic circles.[151] One of Carnegie Simpson's earliest publications, a joint publication in collaboration with his wife, is a translation from the German[152] dedicated to the life of Richard Wagner. They had one child, a daughter, Agnes Margaret Carnegie Simpson, who was among the pioneering generation of women doctors,[153] qualifying from Edinburgh University in 1924.
Westminster College Chapel, Cambridge. The gift of Sir. W. J. Noble, Bart., and Lady Noble. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Andrew Reid & Co. 1926. OCLC17163357.
The Revised Prayer Book and Reservation. London. 1927. OCLC314672565.
The Church and the State (The Living Church Series). London: James Clarke. 1929. OCLC2159415.
Essentials. A Few Plain Essays on the Main Things. London: Hodder and Stoughton. 1930. OCLC2609144.
The Evangelical Church Catholic (The Thirteenth Series of the Chalmers' Lectures). London: Hodder and Stoughton. 1934. OCLC2857891. (Note. An American edition of this book was published in 1935 under the title: The Fact of the Christian Church. New York: Fleming H. Revell company. OCLC1224335)
Recollections: Mainly Ecclesiastical but Sometimes Human. London: Nisbet and Co. 1943. OCLC16912074.
Hans von Wolzogen (1894). Erinnerungen an Richard Wagner [Recollections of Richard Wagner]. Translated by Agnes Simpson; Patrick Carnegie Simpson. Bayreuth: C. Giessel. OCLC28592294.
1904. "Is there a Life after Death?" In: Questions of Faith: A Series of Lectures on the Creed. Ed. Carnegie Simpson. London: Hodder and Stoughton. OCLC14245621
1907. The Site of Union. Some Plain Words on the Establishment Question in the Scottish Church. London: Christian Union. OCLC - 314672569
"Agnosticism in Dogma, Method and Life". Religion and the Modern Mind: Lectures delivered before the Glasgow university society of St. Ninian with an introduction by Donald MacAlister. London: Hodder and Stoughton. 1908. OCLC17493812. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
"Two Church Movements: Anglican and Scottish. A Comparison of the Anglo-Catholic Revival and the Free Church of Scotland". Presbyterian Historical Society of England. Third annual lecture. Manchester: Aikman. 1925. OCLC32957798.
1927. "Continental Protestantism and the English Reformation." By Frederick J. Smithen. (Foreword by Carnegie Simpson.) London: James Clarke and Co Ltd. OCLC877709
"Christ and Immortality (Broadcast talks)". Christ in the Changing world. London: Hodder and Stoughton, G.T. Rogers, et al. 1932. OCLC314617844.
"The Problem of Pain". The Lutterworth Papers. N° 20. Cambridge: Lutterworth Press. 1933. OCLC32709787.
"The Character of Presbytery". Presbyterian Historical Society of England, Annual Lecture. N° 13. Manchester: R. Aikman & Son. 1937. OCLC37954675.
"Criticism and Ministry". A Charge Given at the Induction by the Presbytery of North London of John Young Campbell, D.D. to the Chair of New Testament Language, Literature and Theology in Westminster College, Cambridge. Cambridge: Foister & Jagg. 1945.
Carruthers, S.W. (1935). "The Evangelical Church Catholic". Journal of Presbyterian Historical Society of England. V (4): 236–237.
Carruthers, S. W. (1948). "Tribute to Carnegie Simpson as Convenor of the Business Committee". Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society of England. IX (1): 8–9.
Nigel M. de S. Cameron; David F. Wright; David C. Lachman; Donald E. Meek, eds. (1993). Dictionary of Scottish Church History & Theology. Edinburgh: T & T Clark. p. 774. OCLC46919752.
Hastings, Adrian (1986). A History of English Christianity, 1920–1985. London: Collins.
Hay Colligan, J. (1938). "The Reverend Professor Patrick Carnegie Simpson, M.A. D.D.". Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society of England. VI (3).
Healey, F. G. (1972). "Patrick Carnegie Simpson. A Man of Style 1865 - 1947". Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society of England. XIV (5).
Horsham, Australia: The Historical Record of the Horsham Presbyterian Church. (1858 – 1908) p. 11
Hough, L, H. (1962). "The World Ecuminical Conferences". Christian Century Reader. Ed. Fey and Frakes. New York: Association Press. The Christian Century Foundation: 155.((cite journal)): CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
Hunter, T.W (1902). Review of: "Love never faileth". The Chicago Daily Tribune. 28 June 1902.
Kempis, Thomae, A. "De Imitatione ( 11. VI. 3.) De laetitia bonae conscientiae". De Imitatione Christi: Libre Quatuor [Of the imitation of Christ: Four Books] (in Latin and English).((cite book)): CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
MacLeod, J. L. (2000). The Second Disruption: The Free Church in Victorian Scotland and the Origins of the Free Presbyterian Church. East Linton, Scotland: Tuckwell Press. OCLC46919752.
Vidler, A. R. (1971). The Church in an Age of Revolution: 1789 to the Present Day. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. OCLC140332.
Ward, R. and Prentis, M. (2003). Presbyterian Ministers in Australia 1822 – 1901: Biographical register. New Melbourne Press.((cite book)): CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
Whitehorn, R.D. (1948). "Dr Carnegie Simpson and the Lambeth Conversations". Journal of Presbyterian Historical Society of England. IX (1).
^Sinclair and Mackay. Retrieved 27 April 2015. Many of these pioneering missionaries, like Patrick Simpson's brother Archibald, were sent out to Australia under the auspices of the 'Colonial Committee of the Church of Scotland'.
^The first settler is reported to have arrived in Horsham, Australia in 1842.
^Swanton 1971, p. 48. Initially, Carnegie Simpson's father was minister in Belfast (now Port Fairy) before moving to Horsham in 1862.
^There is some confusion as to the exact date of his return. For Hay Colligan, 1938. p. 3. and subsequently Healy, 1972 p. 179., he returned in 1867, whereas Ward and Prentis, 2003. in the Presbyterian Ministers in Australia 1822 – 1901: Biographical Register. specify that Patrick Simpson was minister in Horsham up to 25 May 1968.
^Historical Record of the Horsham Presbyterian Church. 1858 – 1908. p. 11.
He was reported to be "suffering from an affection of the heart and softening of the brain".
^Carnegie Simpson 1943, p. 13.
There was "Church … twice on Sunday … 'worldly' amusements, such as dancing or theatre-going were ….. not countenanced … a narrow but wholesome upbringing".
^Carnegie Simpson 1943, pp. 20 – 24.
Amongst other things, he was on the students' representative council, convener for the "great bazaar" in aid of setting up a students' union, wrote articles for the Oxford Magazine and was politically active for the liberal, pro-Gladstone front in the election of the Rector. Later, when at New Hall, he was President of the Theological society.
^Germany was at the forefront of the new "higher" biblical criticism at the time, and many of the leading Scottish churchmen in the second half of the nineteenth century completed their education there. See Campbell 1999.Archived 6 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine Among them, one may mention A.B. Davidson, George Adam Smith and William Robertson Smith, all of whom were to be subsequently accused of unorthodox and heretical reasoning by the more intransigent traditionalists of the Free Church.
^Cheyne 1996.
"But it was the theological transformation effected by Davidson and Rainy – assisted, during the last decade of the century, by Marcus Dods – that won the College widespread acclaim (and notoriety) and made it such an exciting place in which to study."
^Hay Colligan, 1938. p. 10. Citing from "Moffatt's Letters of Principal Denney"
Denny was to write of Carnegie Simpson: "He understands the history and principles of our Church as few men do, has a real instinct for public affairs; and I don't think I have ever spoken to him without learning something from him."
^Densil Morgan 2012, p. 98.
According to Densil Morgan, Westminster College was English Presbyterianism's "intellectual hub" with a distinguished faculty "including: John Skinner, (Old Testament), C. Anderson Scott, (New Testament), John Oman, (Systematic Theology) and Carnegie Simpson, (Church History)".
^Healey 1972, p. 185.
Note: Carnegie Simpson, in Recollections wrongly asserts that it was the Free Church Federal Council (formed in 1940) that he helped set up. Healey points out that this is a factual error.
^James Gazette 25 October 1904.
This friction included cases of forcible seizure and barricading of Churches, requests for police protection and Bible throwing within the Church.
^Vidler 1962.
Union was declared 31 October 1900. Voting in the Free Church Assembly for the Act of Union was 643 for / 27 against.
^Macleod 2000.
"During the fifty years between 1843 and 1893 an increasingly obvious divide had come to exist in the Free Church between the Highland and Lowland congregations. …. This was particularly so on issues such as biblical criticism and revision of the Westminster Confession of Faith."
^Carnegie Simpson 1943, p. 52.
"I think I may claim to have been among the earliest to press the matter ... of Spiritual Freedom ... "
^Journal of Presbyterian Historical Society of England. (1928) p. 3. "It was from the troubles that followed that Dr. Simpson learned his Churchmanship ...."
^Carnegie Simpson 1943, pp. 52-53.
Including the great "convocation," of the United Free Church held in Edinburgh on 15 December 1904, to decide what line of action to pursue. The convocation was attended by an alleged 10 000 people.
^Carnegie Simpson 1943, p. 58.
"… at least in part, I felt I wanted to do any small service I could in work more directly concerned with religious truth than is ecclesiastical policy".
^Carnegie Simpson 1909, Preface p. vii.
"The preparation of this work ….. necessarily meant that the duties of the Minister of Renfield Church …. have had to be inadequately discharged."
^St John's – Renfield Church. 150th Anniversary Celebrations 1969.
"This … (overload of work ) … is probably one of the reasons why the membership fell quite steeply during the latter part of his (Carnegie Simpson's) Ministry."
^Healey 1972, p. 182.
"Simpson …. was widely acclaimed as a grand public speaker, a compelling lecturer and a writer of excellent prose."
^Smithen 1948, p. 3.
He was not so much … "concerned with the minutiae ….. was eminently successful in setting out the main lines of development of Christian thought and practice and Church policy … more interested in the fundamentals of faith than in the small details …"
^Carruthers 1948, p.9.
"… his insight and lucidity, his scrupulous fairness and intimate knowledge, had vested him with rare authority and confidence among his brethren, by which he added lustre to the office".
^Bell 1948, p. 6.
The Bishop of Chichester comments on the Lambeth conferences: " …. he (Carnegie Simpson) was beyond all doubt one of the most outstanding figures…"
^Carnegie Simpson 1922, p. 105.
See the introduction to his address, "Catholicity and Presbytery", given at Bristol Cathedral at the invitation of the Anglican Church. In: "The Lambeth joint report on church unity: a discussion."
^Martel 1974. Quotation from Parliamentary Debates.
Archbishop Lang notes: "…. the three conspicuous leaders of Nonconformity, Carnegie Simpson, Garvie and Scott Lidgett, ………. are the three men, who more than any others, are identified at the present time with the desire to promote reunion with the Church of England".
^Hastings 1986, p.97. (the Appeal) …. "expressed the new wind blowing across Christendom ".
^Whitehorn 1948, p. 6 – 8.
"His leadership in the Lambeth Conversations …. was outstanding".
^Maiden 2007, p. 223.
Carnegie Simpson " … was a master-rhetorician, as various speeches during the revision controversy would underline."
^Hay Colligan 1938, p. 7.
"No Free Church Minister has had the degree of personal acquaintance with the dignitaries of the Church of England that Dr Simpson has had during the last twenty years."
^The United Methodist 1927.
" ... the alternative Prayer Book is in part intended to satisfy the growing needs of public worship, and in part, seeks to limit certain disorderly practices which imperil the Reformed and Protestant character of the Church of England."
^As the Church of England is the established Church, parliamentary approval was necessary.
^Maiden 2007, p. 223.
The Presbyterians were the only Free Church denomination to pass a resolution in favour of the new Prayer Book on the grounds that it "would bring peace and discipline to their sister Church".
^Hay Colligan 1938, p. 6.
Carnegie Simpson was a house guest of the Nobles in 1915 when the War Office announcement of the death of their eldest son arrived. Although Carnegie Simpson proposed to leave immediately the Noble's pressed him to stay on. The following year the Nobles contacted Carnegie Simpson expressing their wish to erect a Memorial Chapel at Westminster College.
^Hay Colligan 1938, p. 8.
"... the book gave him a permanent reputation."
^Carnegie Simpson 1943, p. 54.
Sir A. Ward, Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge, said of it: "This book has fascinated me more than any other biography I have read since Morley's Gladstone."
^A Latin blessing or canticle used in Christian religious orders: Benedicite omnia opera Domini Domino …. (O all ye works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord; praise Him and magnify Him for ever.)
^Chicago Daily Tribune 1902.
" There is too much sermonizing - Religion and romance usually fail to harmonize."
^Carnegie Simpson 1943, p. 49.
"It did not do badly – at least I made some money out of it, which was more than I expected to do, and more than most amateur novelists can say".
^Healey 1972, p. 180.
"Carnegie Simpson's … typical magisterial sentences."
^Maiden, 2007. p. 212.
"… Carnegie Simpson, a statesman-like figure with impressive rhetorical talent and a conciliatory diplomatic style."
^Healey, 1972, p. 183. "…. the richness of his literary resources…"
^Hough 1962, p. 155.
Speaking of Carnegie Simpson's intervention during the "World Ecumenical Conference" in Stockholm in 1925: "Sometimes a moment of lofty intellectual perspective was reached, as when Dr. Carnegie Simpson brought the discipline of a highly articulated mind to the analysis of the meaning of personality."
^Carruthers 1948, p. 9.
"In his interventions there was scarcely a superfluous word, his comments were never laboured, his points were crisply phrased."
Carruthers 1935, p. 236. "an English almost as individual as that of Johnson or of Carlyle."
^The Bishop of Chichester 1948.
"He loved argument - but above all he loved principles and truth…"
^Carnegie Simpson 1930 pp. 136-39.
" ... (humour) is an all but indispensable thing, not merely as a relaxation from tension but also for a true philosophy of life ... "
^Carnegie Simpson 1907 p. 21.
Referring to the father of Principal Rainy, whose exacting Calvinistic standards considered it "salutatory" in the 1830s, "not to tell his children that they were clever", Carnegie Simpson says, using one of his favourite rhetorical tools, a wry litotes: "Their father may not have thought it wise to tell them they were clever, but there can be no harm in saying now that assuredly they were not dull."
^Carnegie Simpson 1943, p. 18.
He liked to tell the story of what Pasteur is reported to have said after hearing a speech of Lesseps:
"The speeches of Lesseps always have three parts – j'étais: je suis: je serai." (I was, I am, I will be.)
^Carnegie Simpson 1907, p. 350. Commenting on the ineptitude of the Lords' judgement in the Scotch crisis due to their ignorance of the Scottish situation, he writes: "People who meet with accidents in a place where they have not business to be are entitled to some, but not much sympathy."
^Carnegie Simpson 1943, p. 18. He remarks of one of his professors: " ... he was an excellent teacher, though his expositions were perhaps clearer than, considering their topics, they should have been."
^Carnegie Simpson 1913, p. 25. Carnegie Simpson writes: "Not many decades ago, orthodox religion was in something of a panic about this (Darwinism). Bishops could hardly go to bed for fear of the apparition (as somebody's humorous pen put it) of 'an extraordinarily intelligent ape or an unusually hairy man,' and divines could not pass a chemist's shop without the apprehensive thought of some atheistically potent atom which might dispense with the Creator ..."
^Carnegie Simpson 1943 p. 11.
In the opening pages of "Recollections," he writes that perhaps his one claim to anything of unique distinction is that, as an infant returning to Scotland from Australia in 1868, he may be the oldest survivor of those "persons who have sailed around the Horn." (N.B. In point of fact, steam did not totally replace sail till several years later.)
^Carnegie Simpson 1930, pp. 133 – 135.
"Life has joys which take the breath away; and it has sorrows that make the heart stand still…. "
^Carnegie Simpson, 1930, p. 133.
"Life is physical and spiritual, joyous and sorrowful; sweet and bitter; fruitful and futile; serious and ridiculous …."
^Carnegie Simpson, 1930, p. 209.
He talks of the "piercing beauty" of the phrase of Dante from the Divine comedy: "Era già l'ora che volge il disio ai navicanti e 'ntenerisce il core." (Now was the hour which longing backward bends in those that sail, and melts their hearts in sighs.)
^Carnegie Simpson, 1943, p. 53.
He specifically mentions the enjoyment he derived from having to manage the practical challenge of negotiating with landlords to obtain land and supervising the construction of temporary Churches during the Scottish Church Crisis.
^Carnegie Simpson, 1943, p. 57.
"I thoroughly enjoyed the excitement of debate in the Assembly, and even the clash of steel in controversy."
^Carnegie Simpson, 1943, p. 97.
In Recollections, he dwells on the lasting impression of the petrified child, seen in the Museum of Pompeii, holding up its arms as a shield against the burning ashes of Vesuvius.
^Carnegie Simpson, 1913. p. 246.
"We semi-Christian nations have not done right by the worker or by woman."
^Personal archives: Above Carnegie Simpson's desk hung a plaster cast of "L'inconnue de la Seine" (The unknown woman of the Seine), a young girl believed to have committed suicide. The girl's smile was so haunting that a death mask had been made in the morgue. On the back of the mask, Carnegie Simpson had written a poem on the theme of betrayed innocence. This mask became an object of considerable interest in literary circles at the turn of the century, inspiring a considerable number of writers, including Camus, Rilke and Nabokov.
^Carnegie Simpson, 1913. p. 246.
"... And you must go to it (the experience of life) with no theological or ecclesiastical blinkers which shut off large areas of unwelcome facts."
^Carnegie Simpson, 1943. p. 97.
"… there are facts in nature and in life which no amount of either facile optimism or of special pleading can successfully reconcile with the idea of a good and loving God."
^Healey, 1972. p. 181.
" … he was somewhat self-conscious … parading rather unduly ….. a number of decidedly non-clerical acquaintances …..and highly placed friends."
^Dictionary of Scottish Church History & Theology, 1993. p. 774. " …. a biography with a flavour of hagiography in places" ….(and) ... "sometimes partisan survey of Scottish Church history ….."
^The Times, London. December, 1916.
Cf. His pro war sermon in St John's Presbyterian Church, Kensington. " … we must continue to love right more than peace till it is vindicated."
^Macleod, 2000.
Macleod accuses Carnegie Simpson of cultural arrogance and racial slurs against the Highlanders for having written:
" … (they are) a people, impressionable, not always informed, and already, by racial differences of temper and habit, inclined to look strangely and even suspiciously across the Grampians."
