Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Fairbairn, Andrew Martin
FAIRBAIRN, ANDREW MARTIN (1838–1912), Congregational divine, was born at Inverkeithing, Fife, 4 November 1838. He came of sturdy Covenanting stock and his religious training was of the strictest. He was the second son of John Fairbairn, a miller, and a leader in the United Secession Church, by his wife, Helen, daughter of Andrew Martin, of Blainslie, near Lauder. He had very little regular schooling, and began to earn his own living before he was ten. But he was a voracious reader, with a most retentive memory, and in his spare time prepared himself for Edinburgh University, where he afterwards studied, though he took no degree. Meanwhile he had become an adherent of the Evangelical Union founded by Dr. James Morison [q.v.]. Under his influence Fairbairn decided to become a minister, entered in 1857 the theological college of the Union in Edinburgh, and ultimately (1860) settled down to the charge of the Evangelical Union church in Bathgate. While there he visited Germany, where he studied at Berlin under Dorner, Tholuck, and Hengstenberg, and from that time onwards the advocacy of a freer and broader theology than that prevalent in the Scotland of his day became the passion of Fairbairn’s life. He wrote, preached, and lectured with untiring persistence. Controversy was meat and drink to him, and he found a ready hearing among the younger men, both laymen and clergy. From Bathgate he removed in 1872 to St. Paul’s Congregational church, Aberdeen, where he won a great reputation as a preacher and as a lecturer on philosophical and theological subjects. His first book, Studies in the Philosophy of Religion and History (1876), at once called attention to him as a new and original religious teacher. In 1877 Fairbairn was invited to become principal of the Airedale theological college, Bradford, and by accepting the invitation he cast in his lot for the future with English Congregationalism. Here again he soon showed his quality as a religious leader, and while at Airedale became chairman of the Congregational Union of England and Wales (1883). At that time also he set himself to a task which absorbed him for many years, namely, the reform and development of theological education among the Free Churches, When, therefore, it was proposed in 1886 to establish a Congregational theological college in Oxford, Fairbairn was marked out as the best man to lead the enterprise. He was made principal of the new foundation, Mansfield College, and the success which attended it from the first was largely due to his sagacity, industry, and tact. His wide learning and liberal spirit, the rugged eloquence of his style, and his deep insight into human nature made him a most attractive and stimulating teacher; and his students responded with the utmost loyalty and devotion. The substance of his teaching was published in 1893 in the volume entitled Christ in Modern Theology, which its author described as ‘an endeavour, through a Christian doctrine of God, at a sketch of the first lines of a Christian theology’. The book speedily passed through twelve editions. It was followed by The Philosophy of the Christian Religion (1902), and the two together gave a fairly complete presentation of a theological position which proved both stimulating and constructive at a time of stress and uncertainty. The theology is of a mediating type and, since it expresses the reaction of Fairbairn’s own mind to the intellectual conditions of his day, is perhaps more helpful ad hoc than of permanent value. The books, will, however, always be worth reading for their great learning, mature wisdom, and vivid and penetrating analyses of men and movements. Among Fairbairn’s other writings are two volumes of sermons—one, The City of God (1882), a real contribution to apologetics, the other Catholicism, Roman and Anglican (1899), the substance of which had been the occasion of a sharp controversy with Cardinal Newman—and also a volume of Studies in Religion and Theology (1910). He also wrote for the second volume of the Cambridge Modern History (1903) chapters on Calvin and on Tendencies of European Thought in the Age of the Reformation.
All this literary work was done in the intervals of an exceedingly busy life. Before coming to Oxford, Fairbairn had won a definite position as a trusted leader of the Free Churches, and he was in request all over the country as a preacher and lecturer. He paid several visits to America and lectured in many university centres. In 1898 he went as Haskell lecturer to India. He served on a royal commission on education (1894-1895) and took a leading part in framing the regulations for the theological curriculum in the Welsh universities. Educational questions always deeply interested him; and, where they were concerned, he did not shrink from political controversy.
Fairbairn married in 1868 Jane, youngest daughter of John Shields, of Byres, Bathgate, by whom he had two sons and two daughters. He died in London 9 February 1912.
Fairbairn was loved and honoured by a wide circle of friends. He was devoted to his family and never so happy as when in his hospitable home. He was a keen conversationalist, a little dogmatic and assertive in manner, but always with a sense of humour, and a sensitive appreciation of human needs and failings. His wide knowledge of men, books, and affairs made him a most entertaining companion. Above all he was deeply religious. His monument is the college which he founded and the multitude of lives ‘made better by his presence’.
[W. B. Selbie, Life of Andrew Martin Fairbairn, 1914.]