The Church in Scotland

Guide to resources for study and research into Christian denominations in Scotland

New College Library & the Church of Scotland

Library resources relating to the Church of Scotland will be found throughout in New College Library and also in the Main Library – check DiscoverEd.

Try  browsing in :

  • BR (Christianity)
  • BT (Doctrinal Theology)
  • BV (Practical Theology)
  • BX (Christian denominations) especially BX 8901-9225 (Presbyterianism)

Books about the Church of Scotland

Search DiscoverEd to find print and electronic books. These include:

The Witness

The Witness

The Witness was a twice-weekly Christian newspaper created by Hugh Miller, an influential writer, geologist and stone mason in 1840. Between 1840-1856, The Witness reported on current events, news and comment from across Scotland, including the Disruption of the Church of Scotland in 1843. This makes The Witness newspaper a fantastic primary source for this significant event in Scotland’s social and religious history,

Thanks to grant support from the Church of Scotland, the University of Edinburgh has been able to digiitise the entire New College Library run of The Witness. In total, we processed over 11,000 images as part of this project which can now all be found on our Image Collections Website.

Reports of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland

Reports and documentation produced by the Church of Scotland General Assembly have had several different series and name changes over time. We have created a single complete sequence of Reports to the General Assembly at Per C, located on the New College Library Hall landing as you come in. Please note that some individual reports or separate sequences of General Assembly reports are also catalogued on DiscoverEd as parts of named Special Collections. Before you make an appointment or request to see General Assembly reports held in Special Collections, we recommend you check the open shelves first as this will enable you greater freedom of browsing access.

Searching the academic literature about the Church of Scotland

Journals about the Church of Scotland

Search DiscoverEd to find print and electronic journals about the Church of Scotland. These include:

New College Library Special Collections about the Church of Scotland

Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion. TR. 1611
 
New College Library holds an outstanding collection of early theological books and archives. The collections cover patristics, hagiography, Reformation writers including Calvin and Knox, eighteenth century Seceders e.g. Ebenezer & Ralph Erskine, the nineteenth century Church in Scotland, Westminster Confessions and Hymnology. The New College Library archives hold the papers of significant figures in the twentieth century Church in Scotland including Rev Tom Allan and J.H. Oldham. To arrange to consult New College Special Collections and archives, please email: HeritageCollections@ed.ac.uk

University of Edinburgh Heritage Collections

Foirm na nurrnuidheadh agas freasdal na sacramuinteadh (Gaelic Liturgy, 1567)

Foirm na nurrnuidheadh agas freasdal na sacramuinteadh (Knox, John. Gaelic Liturgy, 1567) Dd.10.44

The Heritage Collections teams preserve, provide access to and interpret the heritage collections looked after by the University. They are based at Centre for Research Collections (CRC), which supports access to rare books and manuscripts, University of Edinburgh archives, personal and institutional archives, University of Edinburgh PhD theses, art collections, and more. The Heritage Collections represent over four hundred years of collecting in the areas of theology and ethics.

The CRC is located on the 6th floor, Main Library.

Key Reference books about the Church of Scotland

Search DiscoverEd to find print and electronic reference books, or browse the shelves in the New College Library Hall. These include:

Historical Alumni Database

A database of brief information about New College students 1843-1943 is available through the Historical Alumni pages. Thanks to project grant funding from the Church of Scotland, entries have been annotated with some additional information from the Fasti.

New College Library does not hold transcripts of students’ academic records and is unable to provide any contact information for current or former students. For more information about historic student records, contact Heritage Collections :

HeritageCollections@ed.ac.uk