Thomas Chalmers

Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847), British theologian and preacher, born in Anstruther, Scotland, and educated at the University of Saint Andrews. In 1803 he was minister of the parish of Kilmany, Fife County, and in 1815 he was called to Tron Church, Glasgow, as pastor. He became one of the most popular preachers in England and Scotland and was noted for his work in social welfare. In 1819 he became minister of Saint John's parish, where he established schools, revived church attendance, and increased public well-being even while he drastically reduced relief expenditures.

Chalmers was professor of moral philosophy at Saint Andrews from 1823 to 1828, when he joined the faculty of the University of Edinburgh as professor of theology. He taught there until 1843, when he led a group of 470 Scottish clerics in a movement of secession from the Scottish church. The new organization, the Free Church of Scotland, took a position of independence from civil authority in spiritual matters; it was highly successful and within four years had no fewer than 654 churches. The Free Church founded a college in Edinburgh, and Chalmers became its first principal, or vice-chancellor. His chief writings are Christian and Civic Economy of Large Towns (1826), Political Economy (1832), On the Adaptation of External Nature to the Moral and Intellectual Constitution of Man (1833), and Institutes of Theology (1843-47).