Bulletin of COLUMBIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY DECATUR, GEORGIA Vol. XLIX September, 1956 No. 2 RETURN POSTAGE GUARANTEED Entered ;is second-class matter, May 9, 1928, at the post office at Decatur, Ga. under the Act of August 24, 1912. PUBLISHED QUARTERLY AT DECATUR, GEORGIA THE NEW SESSION FACULTY NEWS MINISTERS' WEEK, October 29 - November 3 The New Session The School Year 1956-57 will open at Columbia Theo- logical Seminary on Thursday. September 20. The open- ing exercises will be held in the seminary chapel at 8:00 o'clock that evening. The speaker of the occasion will be Dr. Gordon Rupp of Cambridge University in Eng- land. New students of the seminary are expected to enroll on September 17 and to participate in the orientation program which will be conducted September 18-20. Up- perclassmen and graduate students will register Septem- ber 19-20. The fact that another large entering class has been accepted means that the seminary's facilities will be taxed to capacity this year. It now appears that the total number of students enrolled will be the largest in the history of the institution. Dr. J. G. S. S. Thomson to Serve As Associate Professor The Reverend Doctor J. G. S. S. Thomson of Edin- burgh, Scotland, has been elected by the Board of Di- rectors to serve for two years as Associate Professor in the Department of Old Testament at Columbia Seminary. Dr. Thomson graduated in Arts and Divinity at Edin- burgh with distinction in Semitics and was awarded the Aitken Travelling Fellowship, which enabled him to spend two years at Oxford University. There he did post-graduate work in Hebrew and Arabic and was ap- pointed Casbred Prizeman. He was later elected to the Staff at New College. Edinburgh, where he has taught for six years. In the course of the first three of these years he earned his Ph.D. at Edinburgh, the subject of his thesis being "The Doctrine of Man in the Qur'an'." Dr. Thomson has contributed articles to the Expository Times, to the Scottish Journal of Theology, and to Veins Testamentum, and has been invited to serve as a con- tributing editor of the new publication, Christianity To- day. He is a member of The Society for Old Testament Study in Great Britain and of the Glasgow Oriental Society and has read papers before those societies. Dr. Thomson is an ordained minister of the Church of Scotland. For eight years he and his wife were mis- sionaries in Algeria, French North Africa, where they worked among the Arabic Speaking Muslims. It is expected that Dr. and Mrs. Thomson with their thirteen year old daughter will come to the United States late in October. He will begin his teaching duties at Columbia Seminary with the opening of the Winter Quarter, January 3, 1957. Dr. Whale to Come as Guest Professor The Reverend Doctor John Selden Whale, distinguished British clergyman, educator and author, has accepted an invitation to serve as Guest Professor at Columbia Seminary during the Winter Quarter. Dr. Whale holds the degree of M.A. from Oxford University and was made a Doctor of Divinity by the University of Glasgow. He is a minister of the Congre- gational Church and was at one time pastor of the Bowdon Downs Church at Manchester. He was for some years the McKennal Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Mansfield College, Oxford, and later served as Presi- dent of Cheshunt College, Cambridge University. He is at present retired and makes his home at Widecombe in the Moor. New Abbot. Devon, but finds time for an extensive program of writing and lecturing. Among the numerous works published by Dr. Whale are "The Christian Answer to the Problem of Evil", "What is a Living Church?" "This Christian Faith", "Christian Doctrine", "The Right to Believe", and "The Protestant Tradition." Dr. Whale is to be at Columbia Seminary for a period of six weeks, beginning January 3, 1957. He will offer two elective courses in Theology, the exact titles of which will be announced later. Other News Concerning Faculty Members Dr. Wm. C. Robinson returned to Decatur in mid-July after spending a year of Sabbatic Leave in Europe. Dr. Robinson devoted most of the year to study at Cam- bridge University and at the University of Basel, but also traveled extensively in Britain, Italy and other parts of Europe. He will resume his usual teaching duties in September. Prof. Thomas H. McDill. Jr. has spent the summer in graduate study at the University of Chicago. He has been granted leave of absence during the Fall Quarter in order that he may continue that program of study but will return to teach during the Winter and Spring Quarters. Prof. Hubert Vance Taylor has studied throughout the summer at Northwestern University, but will carry on his courses without interruption during the school year. Prof. Cecil Thompson had been granted Sabbatic Leave for graduate study during the coming year and it has been announced that he would not be here to serve as Director of Field Work. Because suitable assistance in that Department has not yet been found, he has con- sented to postpone his leave of absence and to serve throughout the fall in supervising the field work of students. It is hoped that he will be able to go forward with his projected program of study later in the year. Dr. Manford Geo. Gutzke will be granted leave of absence during the Winter Quarter in order that he may be free to engage in writing a book for future publica- tion. Plans for the Ministers' Institute An unusually full and rewarding program has been ar- ranged for the seminary's annual Ministers' Week which will be held October 29 - November 3. The Smyth Lectures are to be delivered by Dr. Joseph Haroutunian of McCormick Seminary, whose subject will be "The Christian Use of the Mind". Dr. Halford Luccock, formerly of Yale University, will deliver a series of lectures in the field of Homiletics and Dr. John Leith of Auburn, Ala. will lecture on some of the ethical implications of Calvinism. Dr. Louis Evans of Los Angeles, Cal. will preach each morning during the week. The Alumni of the seminary will hold their annual meet- ing at lunch on Tuesday, October 30. Further announcement concerning this program will be made later. In the meanwhile ministers of the area are asked to circle these dates on their calendars and to plan to be present.