Biography
Born in Toronto, Ontario, the son of John McPherson Scott (a Presbyterian Church in Canada minister), he was a graduate of Knox College, University of Toronto and the University of Toronto where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1922, a Master of Arts degree in 1924, and a Ph.D. in 1928. He was ordained in the United Church of Canada in 1926.
He started teaching at Vancouver's Union College in 1928. In 1931, he moved to Montreal where he was a professor of Old Testament language and literature at the United Theological College of Montréal. From 1948 until 1955, he taught Old Testament at McGill University. In 1947, he became the first Dean of the Faculty of Divinity at McGill University. He was a member of the World Council of Churches from 1949 to 1955.
In 1955, he was appointed the Danforth Professor of Religion in the new Department of Religion at Princeton University. He was chairman of the department from 1963 to 1965. He retired in 1968.
He is noted for his staunch support for the social gospel ethos of the United Church, both at Princeton and at home in Canada and for some ten of his 24 hymns, many written in the cause of the Fellowship for a Christian Social Order, especially the social gospel hymn "O day of God draw nigh" which is found in the hymnals of the United Church of Canada, the Anglican Church of Canada, the Presbyterian Church in Canada, the joint hymnal of the Uniting, Anglican, Roman Catholic, Lutheran and Church of Christ churches of Australia and in hymnals of British and US churches. It was sung at Westminster Abbey at the memorial service for John Smith, the leader of the British Labour Party.
His published writings include Towards the Christian Revolution (1936), Relevance of the Prophets (1953); Treasures from Judaean Caves (1955); The Psalms as Christian Praise (1958); Proverbs and Ecclesiastes (1965) in the Anchor Bible Series; The Way of Wisdom, (1971)
He died on November 1, 1987 in Toronto.
Read more about this topic: Robert Balgarnie Young Scott
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“A biography is like a handshake down the years, that can become an arm-wrestle.”
—Richard Holmes (b. 1945)
“As we approached the log house,... the projecting ends of the logs lapping over each other irregularly several feet at the corners gave it a very rich and picturesque look, far removed from the meanness of weather-boards. It was a very spacious, low building, about eighty feet long, with many large apartments ... a style of architecture not described by Vitruvius, I suspect, though possibly hinted at in the biography of Orpheus.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A great biography should, like the close of a great drama, leave behind it a feeling of serenity. We collect into a small bunch the flowers, the few flowers, which brought sweetness into a life, and present it as an offering to an accomplished destiny. It is the dying refrain of a completed song, the final verse of a finished poem.”
—André Maurois (1885–1967)