# Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Drummond, James

​DRUMMOND, JAMES (1835-1918), Unitarian divine, was born in Dublin 14 May 1835. He was the third and youngest son of the Rev. William Hamilton Drummond, D.D. [q.v.], minister of Strand Street chapel, Dublin, who was known as a scholar and poet. His mother (his father’s second wife) was Catherine, daughter of Robert Blackley, of Dublin. He entered Trinity College, Dublin, in 1851 and graduated in 1855, gaining the first classical gold medal. He had dedicated himself to the ministry under the influence of the biography of the ​American theologian, William Ellery Channing (1780-1842), and in 1856 entered on his theological training at Manchester New College, London, under John James Tayler [q.v.], the principal, and James Martineau [q.v.], then professor of philosophy there. His first and only pastorate was at Cross Street chapel, Manchester, where he became the colleague of the Rev. William Gaskell [q.v.] in 1860. In 1861 he married Frances, the youngest daughter of John Classon, of Dublin. Their family consisted of two sons and six daughters. In 1869 he left Manchester to succeed his old teacher, J. J. Tayler, as lecturer at Manchester New College in biblical and historical theology. He succeeded Martineau as principal in 1885; and when the college was removed to Oxford (1889), he went with it. He retired from the principalship in 1906, but continued to live in Oxford till his death, which took place 13 June 1918.
As theologian and scholar Drummond exhibited great independence. He was a loyal and trusted member of the Unitarian denomination, but it was not the dogmatic negations with which Unitarianism is popularly identified that appealed to him. It was rather its resolute affirmation of the principle of theological freedom and its repudiation of doctrinal tests for its ministers or members. ‘A pledge,’ he said, ‘which binds teacher or learner to any foregone conclusion, even if that conclusion should be true, may yet bias the intellect and strain the conscience, and so impair the faculty by which truth is apprehended.’ He had little use for a priori methods in his critical or historical inquiries. For example, he set aside with decision Hume’s argument that miracles are antecedently incredible, and treated the whole problem as a question of fact. By close examination of the narratives he reached the conclusion that the evidence for the nature miracles in the gospels and for the Resurrection is insufficient. On the other hand he broke away from Tayler and Martineau and the general body of advanced New Testament critics in his acceptance of the Johannine authorship of the fourth gospel. But here again his independence came out, not simply in the way in which he rested his case on the external far more than on the internal evidence, but especially in his contention that though apostolic in origin the gospel is largely unhistorical in its record of the ministry of Jesus. He had a dislike of over-curious theological speculation. He was profoundly conscious of the limitations of human faculties and felt that speculation on high theological mysteries might easily become irreverent. Naturally he did not accept the Christology of the Christian Church; but he regarded Jesus as Lord and Saviour, the religious and moral leader of the race and the supreme revelation from God to man.
As a preacher Drummond displayed great eloquence and passion. Vividly conscious of the divine presence, profoundly assured of the great truths on which his whole ministry rested, he searched the conscience of his hearers, braced their moral energies, kindled their spiritual imagination, and communicated some sense of those unseen realities of which he was himself so intensely aware.
His longer contributions to theological literature were all of them important, and in some instances opened out new paths for British scholarship. They exhibit full acquaintance with the best authorities of the day but they rest even more on close and prolonged study of the original documents. The Jewish Messiah (1877), Philo-Judaeus (1888), Via, Veritas, Vita (the Hibbert lectures for 1894), The Character and Authorship of the Fourth Gospel (1904), and Studies in Christian Doctrine (1908), are his most notable works.
The anima naturaliter Christiana was eminently exemplified in Drummond. His natural virtues had been transfigured by a deep religious experience and his impetuous temper had been disciplined by rigorous self-control. His ardent humanitarian zeal and his sympathy with the oppressed made it natural for him to work for peace, for temperance, for the enfranchisement of women; this made him a liberal and a Home Ruler in politics. His character was one of great elevation and nobility; his high integrity and his loyalty to his principles were balanced and completed by a singular graciousness of disposition.
[Memorial Introduction by Edith Drummond and George Dawes Hicks to Dr. Drummond’s posthumous work, Pauline Meditations, 1919; personal knowledge.]
A. S. P.