Scotland's Soul

I really enjoyed reading Harry Reid’s The Soul of Scotland: Celebrating Scotland’s Spiritual Richness. It is a fascinating selection of pieces exploring Scotland’s religious heritage in a variety of ways, and I found it far more interesting than I had expected.

Reid recognises the challenges of a secular society, but also the depth of Christian faith that has been part of Scottish history. I love the comment that: “Scottish Christianity is neither dead nor dying; it may just be having a wee nap before it rises and flourishes once more.”

Reid is clear that it has flourished in the past, and contributed a great deal. Different articles talk about people, places and literature. So, for instance, he says of George MacLeod – “I think of George MacLeod as a world-class troublemaker, and a frequently inspirational one. His legacy may be slightly misty (as Iona often is), but I suspect that it may become more important in time,” and of William Barclay, my first New Testament teacher at the University of Glasgow – “one genuinely great, and utterly natural, television communicator had emerged. This was the perhaps unlikely figure of Professor William Barclay of Glasgow University, a brilliant Biblical scholar possessed of a pleasant, if rather hoarse – and very Scottish – voice, a broadcasting manner that somehow managed to combine gruffness and charm, and the supreme gift of interpreting the teachings of Jesus – and in particular his parables – in a way that was lucid, intelligent and couthy all at once. Barclay was an authentic and very clever scholar, but he was never an aloof academic.”

But perhaps I was most fascinated by his writings about Scottish novels, and their contribution – which set me to reading John Buchan’s “Witch Wood.”