Doing Ethics in a Pluralistic World: Essays in Honour of Roger C. Hutchinson

5. “O Day of God, Draw Nigh”: R.B.Y. Scott, the Church and the Call for Social Reconstruction

“O DAY OF GOD, DRAW NIGH” R.B.Y. Scott, the Church and the Call for Social Reconstruction Throughout his career as professor of church and society, Roger Hutchinson has demonstrated that the work of the Christian church deserves serious study. In his classes on Christian ethics, he has consistently encouraged his students to examine the various reports and documents that different ecclesiastical commissions and councils have produced on a wide assortment of topics. In his published writings, he has analyzed the ways in which the institutional church has responded to the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline debate and a host of other issues. As principal of Emmanuel College, he has ably administered an institution that educates a significant number of men and women for ministry in the United Church of Canada. And in his personal life, he has long been an active member of Trinity-St. Paul’s United Church in Toronto. As teacher, scholar, educator and Christian, Hutchinson has constantly affirmed that the church’s work is of critical importance, and he has contributed much to its life and witness. In his conviction that the church’s life is important and that its reflections on issues of public policy are deserving of critical attention, Hutchinson continues the work of a distinguished line of teachers and writers who have helped to build bridges between the church and the academy. Indeed, he stands clearly in the tradition of those members of Notes to chapter 5 are on pp.109-11. 99 5 IAN MANSON the Fellowship for a Christian Social Order (FCSO) featured in his dissertation who continued to remain active in the church after the organization ’s demise.1 One such individual was R.B.Y. Scott, the noted biblical scholar who was national president of the FCSO between 1935 and 1938. Throughout his career in this country, Scott devoted significant time and energy to the work of the United Church of Canada. He taught in two of its colleges, wrote frequently for its denominational paper, participated actively in its courts, authored some well-loved hymns, and helped to write and develop several important reports. Scott believed that the church had an important contribution to make to the social and intellectual life of society, and he helped the United Church to respond with creativity and passion to a host of social, economic and intellectual challenges during the 1930s and 1940s. Robert Balgarnie Young Scott was born in Toronto and graduated in theology from Knox College after earning a Ph.D. in oriental languages from the University of Toronto. He was ordained to the United Church ministry in 1926, and served the Ontario parish of Long Branch for two years before being appointed professor of Old Testament languages and literature at Union College in Vancouver. In 1931, Scott was chosen to be professor of Old Testament literature and exegesis at the United Theological College in Montreal, where he also served as registrar and dean of residence. When McGill University established its faculty of divinity in 1948, he became its first dean as well as professor of Old Testament. In 1955, he accepted the position of Danforth Professor of Religion at Princeton University, where he remained until his retirement in 1968.2 Described by the United Church’s first moderator , George Pidgeon, as a man who was “frank and open in his approach” with others, Scott combined a profound and detailed knowledge of the Old Testament with a passionate commitment to the United Church. For these reasons, Pidgeon urged his brother Leslie to encourage Principal James Smyth of Montreal to hire Scott to fill the vacant Old Testament position at United in 1931.3 W.R. Taylor of the University of Toronto’s Department of Semitics also recommended Scott for this appointment. He wrote that “Scott is probably the most outstanding man of the younger teachers in Britain and Canada in this field, and that therefore he would be the very best choice as successor to the late Professor A.R. Gordon.” Furthermore, Taylor asserted that Scott “combined in a very remarkable way evangelical warmth with Doing Ethics in a Pluralistic World 100 scholarly instincts and ambitions.”4 History shows that this faith in Scott was not misplaced. According to his long-time friend and colleague Wilfred Cantwell Smith, Scott was elected to membership in the Royal Society of Canada because of his “pre-eminence...