A Tribute To John Haddon Leith (1919-2002)

by Charles E. Raynal

Reprinted from The Presbyterian Outlook, Sept. 2-9, 2002

John Haddon Leith, 82, Pemberton Professor of Theology at Union Seminary (now Union/PSCE), 1959-1990, died Aug. 12 in Greenville, S.C.

[Presbyterians] will remember with appreciation the ministry and teaching to which John Leith devoted himself for more than 60 years. They will be grateful for his vocation to the ministry and the high standard he set for his own work and, by example, for others.

He was born in Hodges, S.C., on Sept. 10, 1919, the son of William H. and Lucy Haddon Leith. When he was nine years old, the family moved to Due West, S.C., where he grew up and went to school and college. He married Ann Caroline White of Chester, S.C., in 1943. Their children, Henry White Leith and Caroline Haddon Leith, live in Richmond, Va.

Leith received a bachelor's degree from Erskine College in 1940, a bachelor's of divinity from Columbia Seminary in 1943, a master's degree from Vanderbilt University in 1946 and his Ph.D. from Yale University Graduate School in 1949. His dissertation was published as John Calvin's Doctrine of the Christian Life (WJKP, 1989).

Ordained in April 1943 in South Carolina Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.), he served as a student supply from 1941 to 1943 at the Silver Creek church, Lindale, Ga. He started a new congregation, which became Spring Hill church in 1943, in Mobile Presbytery. He then served as pastor of Second church, Nashville.

His longest pastorate was from 1948 to 1959 at First church, Auburn, Ala. By the testimony of many parishioners and the statistical record of the churches he served, he was a distinguished pastor. About 1,000 new members were received at First church, Auburn, during his pastorate. He was active in the life of Auburn University, teaching and developing facilities and leadership for campus ministry.

Outspoken on public issues before the church, in the late 1940s and early 1950s he preached sermons on race relations and provided community leadership for civil rights. The leadership of the PCUS asked him and Ralph Draughan, president of Auburn University, to host the quadrennial youth conventions in the early 1950s, when no other school would host a racially integrated conference.

In the 1940s and 1950s, in published articles and public addresses, he vigorously advocated freedom of theological enquiry, and he spoke for church union and the ordination of women, which the Presbyterian Church (U.S.) defeated in the 1950s. Active in the organized life of the denomination, he served as moderator of all the presbyteries where his churches were and of the North Carolina Synod in 1978.

He served on four ad interim committees of the Presbyterian General Assembly: to revise the Book of Church Order, 1955-1962; to write "Brief Statement of Belief," 1959-1962; to revise Chapter III of the Confession of Faith, 1959-1961; and to write a Brief Statement of Faith for Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 1984-1991. He served on the boards of Presbyterian School of Christian Education, Erskine College, The Presbyterian Outlook, Presbyterian Survey and the Peter Martyr Library; and as an editorial consultant for Bibliotheca Calviniana (Meeter Center for Calvin Studies, Grand Rapids, Mich.).

Leith received many honors from the church and from secular organizations, but in particular he was grateful for honorary degrees awarded by Erskine College, Davidson College (N.C.) and Presbyterian College (S.C.).

Leith served ably and well in important and controversial issues before the church. His denomination and its institutions recognized his gifts by offering both responsibility and honor to him. More people knew Leith worldwide through his theological scholarship than for his congregational, denominational and ecumenical ministry. He taught theology as a visiting professor at Columbia Seminary, 1955-1957, before coming to Union Seminary in 1959, where he remained for 31 years.

He taught more than 1,000 seminary students during his tenure, and he provided distinguished leadership in international Calvin studies. A bibliography of his works records 13 books and many pamphlets, articles and reviews. More than 400,000 copies of his books are in print. An Introduction to the Reformed Tradition (JKP, 1977) has been printed in Korean, Portuguese and British editions. Across the world of church scholarship, many other scholars recognize and esteem his leadership in the study of Reformed theology and Calvin studies.

Leith had a forceful personality. The source of anyone's personality is a mystery, so it is not wise to claim too much knowledge about the origins of personal qualities. We can, however, safely infer that Leith's personality grew from his birth and growing up in small-town South Carolina, a culture shaped by Scots-Irish Piedmont settlers, and later altered by the effects of Reconstruction and the Great Depression. These influences made an indelible impact on his upbringing.

The Christian faith came to him from his parents. His father died when he was a child, and his mother's strong evangelical piety especially shaped his outlook. He professed his faith in Jesus Christ as a child. In his adult life he was committed in the depth of his person to the ecumenical faith of the Christian church and out of this pervasive conviction grew his calling, his family commitments and his life in service to the church.

Good evidence for this continuity in faith can be found in his recitation of the Westminster Shorter Catechism at age 9, in 1928, and his writing of Assembly at Westminster: Reformed Theology in the Making (JKP) in 1973.

The lifelong influence of his upbringing became an important dimension of his teaching and he embodied it in his conviction that faith is handed on through the life of the Christian community. Once in a theology class Leith said, "One of the first things I would say, meeting someone for the first time, is 'I am a Presbyterian.'" Then he reflected on his own assessment, "I identify with the church. Perhaps I identify too much with the church."

His nearly total personal identification with the theology, organization and people of the church gave him pause, but not too much pause. In a real sense the Presbyterian Church was his identity and life. Part of the force of John's personality was in his intellect and with it he dedicated himself to the preparation of men and women for the ministry of the church. He could be critical of his Calvinistic heritage. His criticism of the doctrine of predestination in his dissertation came out of Karl Barth's revision, and also the influences of his teachers, Roland H. Bainton, Robert Lowry Calhoun and Albert C. Outler. These teachers at Yale University in the late 1940s were themselves critical of Barth's theology of the Word. So Leith, bringing his own Calvinism into critical, historical and theologically liberal scrutiny, developed his willingness to engage in theological controversy.

In teaching about the famous debate between Karl Barth and Emil Brunner on natural theology, Leith said that it occurred in the days when contests in theology were comparable to the competition of college football. (He was surely thinking of Auburn University football.) His strength of person and mind served him well in controversies in the Deep South, particularly with fundamentalism and in the early days of racial desegregation and Civil Rights legislation.

Leith had many friends. At his retirement colloquium April 3-4, 1989, at Union Seminary, more than 450 family members, colleagues and friends gathered to honor him and celebrate his work. The occasion was remarkable for its good spirit and its cordial gathering of many people, some of whom traveled long distances for the celebration. When he and Ann White Leith moved to the Foothills Presbyterian Home in Easley, S.C., many friends and former students visited him.

A memorial service, led by former students, was held in his home church, Greenville church, Donalds, S.C. A remarkable gathering of people on Aug. 15 said "Thanks be to God for his servant, John Haddon Leith" and committed his soul and body to the resurrection hope in Jesus Christ.

Charles E. Raynal is director of advanced studies, Columbia Seminary.