Campbell, John McLeod

CAMPBELL, JOHN McLEOD: Scotch clergyman; b. at Kilninver (on the w. coast of Scotland, 60 m. n.w. of Glasgow), Argyllshire, May 4, 1800; d. at Roseneath, near Helensburgh (20 m. n.w. of Glasgow), Dumbartonshire, Feb. 27, 1872. He studied at Glasgow 1811–20, sad continued his theological course at Edinburgh; became minister of Row (near Helensburgh), Dumbartonshire, 1825. Here he preached "assurance of faith" and an "unlimited atonement." and in consequence was tried for heresy and deposed by the General Assembly in 1831 (cf. the volume of his Sermons and Lectures, Greenock, 1832, and The Whole Proceedings Before the Presbytery of Dumbarton and the Synod of Glasgow and Ayr in the Case of the Rev. John McLeod Campbell, 1831). He retired to Kilninver, preached in the Highlands for a year or two, and in 1833 became pastor of an independent congregation in Glasgow and remained there till compelled to retire by ill health in 1859. His services were given gratuitously and were very successful. He was recognized as one of the intellectual leaders of Scotland and was highly esteemed for his personal qualities. His theory of the atonement, by which he was best known outside of Glasgow, he expressed in this sentence in the book on the Atonement mentioned below: "It was the spiritual essence and nature of the sufferings of Christ, and not that these sufferings were penal, which constituted their value as entering into the atonement made by the Son of God, when he put away sin by a sacrifice of himself." He published Christ the Bread of Life, (Glasgow, 1851), a book on the Eucharist suggested by the Roman Catholic controversy of the time; The Nature of the Atonement and its relation to remission of sin's and eternal life (Cambridge, 1856; 4th ed., 1873); Thoughts on Revelation (1862), called forth by Essays and Reviews.

Bibliography: A volume of Reminiscences and Reflexions, begun in 1871 and left unfinished at his death, appeared in London in 1873, edited by his son, Donald Campbell, who also edited his Memorial, 2 vols., London, 1877; J. Vaughan, in Contemporary Review, June, 1878 (an account of Dr. Campbell's views); DNB, viii. 388–389.