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Day Five: Visiting Greville Ewing’s Grave, and the University of Glasgow.

Hello Everyone,

I arrived in Glasgow this afternoon after taking the ferry and the train from Belfast.  After arriving in the city, I made two visits, one to the grave of Greville Ewing, a Haldanite preacher in Glasgow that had a major impact on the thought of Alexander Campbell, and the University of Glasgow, where both Thomas and Alexander Campbell attending University. I found the masoleum to be in disrepair, with graffiti on it and trees growing up around it.  In addition, the general cemetery, which is owned by the City of Glasgow, is in general disrepair. Greville Ewing was a Haldanite minister who preached and ran a seminary in Glasgow.  When Alexander Campbell was shipwrecked off the coast of Ireland in 1808 and then crossed the channel into Scotlqand, it was Ewing who helped Campbell get enrolled at the University of Glasgow.  Campbell spent quite a bit of time in Ewing’s home, and visited his church often, experiencing weekly communion.  Additionally, Ewing created an immediate link between the Glasites and Campbell.  Ewing required all of his students to read the works of John Glas and Robert Sandeman, and we know that Campbell read their works and were familiar with their theology. Ewing broke away from the Haldanes, however, over baptism by immersion.  The Haldanes eventually embraced believers baptism by immersion, but Ewing, who had come out of the Presbyterian Church, could not agree to give up infant baptism, and eventually he broke ranks with the Haldanes. Between 1808 and 1809, Alexander Campbell attended the University of Glasgow, like his father.  Alexander was heavily influenced by the Scottish Philosophy that he learned at Glasgow, that included heavy doses of Scottish Common Sense Realism, the school of which was founded by Thomas Reid.  Common Sense Realism heavily influenced how Campbell, and later, his followers in the faith, read the bible. Later, many other conservative, evangelical Christians, were influenced by Common Sense Realism, to the point that Mark Noll has declared a knowledge of Common Sense Realism as a requirement for fully understanding evangelicals.  However, among the rest of the world that is not evangelical, Common Sense Realism has largely been rejected.  The discipline of Anthropology, for instance, has termed Common Sense Realism as “Naive Realism,” and lays the phenomenon of ethnocentrism directly at the feet of Common Sense Realism. Pictures from the mausoleum of Greville Ewing: Mausoleum 18 Mausoleum 17 Mausoleum 16 Mausoleum 15 Mausoleum 14 Mausoleum 13 Mausoleum 12 Mausoleum 11 Mausoleum 10 Mausoleum 9 Mausoleum 8 Mausoleum 7 Mausoleum 6 Wilson Wislon Mausoleum 5 Mausoleum 4 Mausoleum 3 Mausoleum 2 Mausoleum 1 Glasgow City Council Land Services Sign Eastwood Old Cemetery Rule Sign                                         Photos from Glasgow University:   IMG_3804 IMG_3803 IMG_3802 IMG_3800 IMG_3799 IMG_3797 IMG_3796         IMG_3793 IMG_3792 IMG_3791 IMG_3784 IMG_3777

 

 

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